Preface by Jack Komaroff

What might surprise most readers of this collection of poems is that I am not Christian nor does anyone in my family practice Christianity. Religion and religious philosophy have always fascinated me since my eye-opening experience during 8th grade World History at Horace Mann School Middle Division. Christianity was one of the main religions that we studied, and I gained a deeper understanding of this culture that had always been unfamiliar to me. For this anthology, I wanted to start with a statistics based approach: out of the 7.91 billion people alive today, 31.1% of them (2.382 billion people) are Christians. This percentage makes Christianity the largest religion in the world. The Bible is by far the most sold piece of text of all time. With over 5 billion copies purchased thus far, no other text comes close. Clearly, the influence of Christianity on world history and current society is immense. With a global presence that spans thousands of years and tens of thousands of miles, Christianity means different things to people in different cultures. Through an analysis of poems from authors around the world, we gain a deeper understanding into the distinct ways in which the most popular religion is both interpreted and practiced. Due to the limitless supply of Christian poems, I imposed an analytical shape onto this anthology to allow for a focused conclusion. I selected poems that were written by authors from different continents that revealed where their interpretations of Christianity placed them along a spectrum of religious beliefs. Does the author believe in a more loving and supportive God? Or do they believe in a powerful being who enacts vengeance onto sinners? Or possibly something in between these extremes? With sufficient textual evidence to unpack, we can begin to map how regions in the world correspond to this spectrum of Christian interpretations. During this anthology, I urge readers to think about the Christian tenets that appear to be consistent across most of these poems, as well as the concepts that are found

4 in only a few. By focusing on these details, we can understand that Christianity has remained so vibrant over thousands of years because of its ability to adapt to (or be adapted by) regional cultures.

AMERICA

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.

- Psalm 28:7

In America, 73.7% of the population identifies as Christian. Nearly 50% of people in the country practice some form of Protestantism, and the other 23% of Americans identify as Catholics. With the world’s largest Christian population, America’s culture is deeply rooted in Christianity.