ALMIGHTY GOD FOR DUMMIES - already written!

That's right, it's already been written ... it's called the Bible.

Why would publishers risk offending deeply pious or intellectually prickly Americans with book titles such as The Koran for Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jesus? [emphasis DMN]

According to Sam Hodges at The Dallas Morning News, it's the money!

Religion books are big business, and time has shown there's a market for mildly irreverent, user-friendly guides to the major faiths, sacred texts, crucial figures such as Jesus and the Buddha, and related topics such as fasting, prayer and meditation. Most readers don't seem to mind that a Dummies book on a holy book comes in the same format as those for operating Windows XP, building a deck or improving one's sexual technique.

I'm not sure about Hodges claim that "time has shown there's a market for mildly irreverent, user-friendly guides to the major faiths, sacred texts, crucial figures."

I guess I'm in yet another minority, because I do mind the flippant irreverent format ... imagine me proposing a book like "Race Relations for Dummies" or "The Homo Lifestyle for Dummies"?

John Trigilio hears about once a month from older Catholics upset that he and fellow priest Kenneth Brighenti wrote Catholicism for Dummies . Far more often, he hears back positively from readers in and outside the faith.

I'd like to see some of those letters ... they may exist but I doubt they're in the numbers "implied" here.

But their book is selling though not at a Best Seller pace ...

"Last word we got was that over 100,000 copies have been sold," Father Trigilio said of the book, which has been out just two years.

50,000 books a year is not a lot of books.

Some religion titles don't sell nearly as well, and there have been controversies, including one over the different perspectives offered by Catholicism for Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Catholicism. ...

But representatives for Alpha, the division of Penguin Group that publishes the Idiot's books, and Wiley Publishing, publisher of the Dummies series, say religion has become a mainstay of their product lines.

That's fine, if they are, but I wonder what adjustments they will wish they had made on Judgment Day?

And I love this news, only in France ...

Dummies books have been translated into 39 languages, including French – where they're known as pour les nuls or "for the zeroes." [...]

The first religion title came in 1997 – The Complete Idiot's Guide to the World Religions. The Idiot's series has been more aggressive in this area, with 32 "religion and spirituality" titles currently offered.

There may well be a place for this genre somewhere, but I'm having a hard time imagining it.

I can't speak for other religious but I can address portions of Christianity; few bible versions are written above the secondary level, and the junk that passes for Christian literature is seldom above the middle school level.

There's really no excuse for needing Dummy or Idiot books to supplement. Besides this is a function of our fast food, rush-rush life-style, more than anything else.

Bible; Christian books; Christianity; Faith; Religion