Ray Waddle, award-winning journalist/columnist and author, writes about faith and culture for various magazines, newspapers and web sites. He is a columnist for three different publications on spiritual trends, the politics of religion and the pull of the Bible in the 21st century. He has been on the adjunct faculty of Vanderbilt Divinity School since 2002, teaching a writing seminar there. He has written two books -- Against the Grain: Unconventional Wisdom from Ecclesiastes (2005), and A Turbulent Peace: The Psalms for Our Time (2003), both published by Upper Room Books. He leads retreats on writing and poetry, judges national religion reporting contests, and has spoken at the annual Earlham College (Indiana) Ministry of Writing Colloquium. He writes book reviews on subjects ranging from Wendell Berry to Richard Wagner to Annie Dillard to Muhammad Ali and the Wishbone T. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Christian Century magazine, USA TODAY op-ed page, Sojourners Magazine, Interpreter Magazine, United Methodist News Service, Episcopal News Service, Vanderbilt Magazine, and Image Journal. He provides the prefaces to two new books, Disciplines 2007 and Journeying Through the Days 2007, both by Upper Room. Ray has a B.A. in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and M.A. in religious studies from Vanderbilt University. He was religion editor for 17 years (1984-2001) at The Tennessean daily newspaper in Nashville, one of the nation's busiest religious hubs, and still writes a weekly guest column there. He now lives in New England.

The plot thickens	Voice	September	2008
Joists for Jesus	Voice	July	2008
Walk-speed vs. mach-speed	Tennessean	January	2008
50 spiritual resolutions	Tennessean	January	2008
God in Music City	Tennessean	February	2008
Chesterton now and then	Tennessean	February	2008
Sex messaging	Tennessean	August	2008
Flipflops, wingtips, worship tips	Tennessean	September	2007
A saint for self-doubt	Tennessean	October	2007
News and pews	The Voice	October	2007
Mailer and his Maker	Tennessean	November	2007
Values? Which values?	Tennessean	November	2007
Mule ride of a lifetime	various	May	2007
mule ride, part 2	various	May	2007
Guys who hate church	Tennessean	May	2007
Forever Falwell	Tennessean	May	2007
Rome or Jerusalem	Interpreter	March	2007
Condi, Condi	Tennessean	March	2007
God: glad or mad?	Tennessean	March	2007
30,000 kids die every day	Tennessean	June	2007
Wanted: A credible Christian witness	The Voice	June	2007
Rubber souls	Tennessean	June	2007
The Divine Name, in vain	Interpreter	June	2007
30,000 kids -- part II	Tennessean	June	2007
2012: Dont hold your breath	Tennessean	July	2007
Harmon Wray, 1947-2007	Tennessean	July	2007
Quiet time: Centering prayer	Tennessean	July	2007
Superstition nation	Interpreter	July	2007
Year of the atheist	Tennessean	January	2007
A statue of stature	Tennessean	January	2007
Truth or dare: Will Campbell	Tennessean	January	2007
Sanctified Super Bowl	Tennessean	February	2007
Low-carbon diet	Tennessean	February	2007
Swear on the Bible	The Voice	February	2007
This they believe	Tennessean	February	2007
Do you believe?	Tennessean	December	2007
Elvis: ... Still dead, still alive	Tennessean	August	2007
A million resurrections now	Voice	August	2007
Local hero	Tennessean	April	2007
Communion rail drama	Interpreter	April	2007
Economy of violence	Tennessean	April	2007
Immigrant song	The Voice	April	2007
Soul, silence, action: Penuel Ridge	The Voice	September	2006
Niebuhr now	Tennessean	September	2006
Hindsight is 50/50	Tennessean	September	2006
News from prison	Vanderbilt Magazine	September	2006
Divine image scrimmage	Interpreter	September	2006
A good day	Interpreter	October	2006
Sex, art, religion, Updike	Tennessean	October	2006
Blessing the animals	Tennessean	October	2006
Clutter: A lament	various	November	2006
Faith-based freak-out	Tennessean	November	2006
Politics of the Gospel of Mark	Interpreter	November	2006
Prison class with RW	Associated Press	May	2006
Pentecost USA	Tennessean	May	2006
Poker: An all-American faith	Tennessean	May	2006
Review: Against the Grain	Christian Century	May	2006
Da Vinci decoded	Tennessean	May	2006
Left-wing Lord	EthicsDaily.com	May	2006
Beyond reason	Tennessean	May	2006
Christianity: the myth that really happened	Interpreter	May	2006
Slow down, wake up: a Lenten book list	Interpreter	March	2006
Faiths and reasons	Tennessean	June	2006
Lasagna and theology	Tennessean	June	2006
Hyphenated rabbi	Tennessean	June	2006
Medjugorje at 25	Tennessean	June	2006
William Coffin: the romance of faith	The Voice	June	2006
Bible mystery 101	Interpreter	July	2006
A theater of beliefs	Tennessean	July	2006
Lotta stigmata	Tennessean	July	2006
Wright stuff	EthicsDaily.com	July	2006
The very last baby boomer ...	Tennessean	January	2006
6,000 years of marketed mysticism	Tennessean	February	2006
Violence has no future	Interpreter	February	2006
Everybody is a selective literalist ...	Tennessean	December	2006
Christmas CD Top 10	various	December	2006
Atheism and Advent	The Voice	December	2006
State killing: everybody guilty	The Voice	December	2006
Web column archive	Interpreter	December	2006
2007: prophet motives	Tennessean	December	2006
Overlooked Man of the Year	Tennessean	December	2006
Armageddon is back	Interpreter	August	2006
The kids are all right	Voice	August	2006
Literally	Interpreter	August	2006
Operation Trinity	Tennessean	August	2006
Easter: something about Mary	The Voice	April	2006
True patriotism	Tennessean	April	2006
Do pets go to heaven?	Tennessean	October	2005
Who gets to be Christian?	Tennessean	October	2005
Protestantism, dead or alive	Tennessean	October	2005
Let your words be few	Nashville City Paper	October	2005
Something new under the sun: book review	Nashville Scene	October	2005
Presbyterian avant-garde	The Voice	October	2005
Ghost boasters	Interpreter	November	2005
Speak-No-Evil Day	Tennessean	May	2005
The Great Economy	Tennessean	May	2005
St. Pats Day: epiphanies at Iona	Tennessean	March	2005
Real, fake, real: the Shroud of Turin	Interpreter	March	2005
T-shirt theology	Tennessean	March	2005
Spiritual or religious? Yes	Interpreter	June	2005
Tex Sample: soul music	The Voice	June	2005
Here comes the image of God	Interpreter	June	2005
Postcards to Dad	Tennessean	June	2005
Three big little words	The Voice	July	2005
Next Great Awakening?	The Voice	February	2005
David Olney: best Christian song	The Voice	December	2005
David Dark	The Voice	August	2005
Ike and us: that old-time religion	The Voice	August	2005
The Nazis, again	Tennessean	August	2005
Southern fevers	EthicsDaily.com	April	2005
Environmental Sabbath	The Voice	April	2005
From Death-of-God to megachurch	Tennessean	April	2005
Godspeed in Scotland	The Voice	September	2004
Best Spiritual Writiing: book review	Tennessean	October	2004
Politics/religion: taboo no more	The Voice	October	2004
Blues for Brokaw	Tennessean	November	2004
Left-turn signals	Vanderbilt Magazine	March	2004
Primetime providence	United Methodist News Service	January	2004
Don Beisswenger: peacemaker	The Voice	December	2004
Which Jesus?: four (per)versions	Tennessean	December	2004
Demons of debt	Interpreter	October	2003
Interfaith inroads	Princeton Theological journal (InSpire)	March	2003
First Friday revolution	Anglican Journal	March	2003
Study guide: Bible and war	UMC web site	June	2003
Camp Dogwood	United Methodist News Service	July	2003
King James Bible, superstar	The Voice	August	2003
God wins in The End	Interpreter	August	2003
Happy Lent	The Voice	April	2003
The Bible, for crying out loud	EthicsDaily.com	June	2002
OU exile	Sooner Magazine	August	2002
Wendell Berry & hope	EthicsDaily.com	April	2002
A visit to Penuel Ridge	The Voice	April	2002
A blow against the bullies	Tennessean	May	2001
Kansas wheat, days of gold	Tennessean	June	2001
Test	test	Jan	2001

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