THE FAITH OF BARACK OBAMA by Stephen Mansfield does not answer all of the questions but it does answer many.
Mansfield reviews the childhood religious influences in President-Elect Obama's life and explains how he came to embrace Christianity. He also offers an explanation of Jeremiah Wright's black liberation theology and provides more depth to Trinity United Church of Christ than was available on You Tube.
But Mansfield did not explore Obama's faith in a vacuum. He compared and contrasted his beliefs with that of the other players in this recent election: Hillary Clinton, John McCain and George W. Bush. In the process, he reminds us that we would be better served as Americans if we focused more on what we have in common than where we differ.
While no one can truly know the heart of another man, THE FAITH OF BARACK OBAMA provides the groundwork for understanding his position with the Religious Left and an appreciation for a detail in his life that I had not previously considered.
Barack Obama is different from most African Americans we know, because unlike most of the others, he does not have a heritage of slavery. That nuance in his family history has a major impact on his world view.
Stephen Mansfield is also the author of THE FAITH OF GEORGE W. BUSH