In the summer of 1997, two Pentecostal Christian ministers opened a locked gate on a remote dirt road in the San Gabriel mountains, drove through the gate, and locked it behind them. They looked at one another, and nervously joked about being invited to be the sacrifice for the Pagan celebration. Half a mile down the dirt road, there was an adventure waiting, but this was not the kind of adventure from an Indiana Jones movie with crazed Pagans pulling out hearts, and sacrificing virgins. It was an adventure into a world of learning about neighbors, and soon to be, close friends. By 1999, they...

Burning Religion is a multi-genre book covering elements of philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, autobiography, poetry, and Carnivalesque tall tales in a thesis suggesting that making peace between disparate worldviews is not possible in any permanent manner through typical moderate or third-way approaches. So-called "radical" approaches are not radical enough. Finding lasting peace requires something wild. Burning Religion is the first of a series suggesting that the wildness of the Carnival just might hold a key to peacemaking. Phil Wyman a...