Services

Top Topics

Connections

Please join us on these social networks:

Day1 Store

Books, CDs, Videos & more

Visit The Store

Connected

A compelling devotional by Day1 host Peter Wallace, designed to help people of all ages connect meaningfully with God as revealed in the Psalms.

Buy Now

Greg Garrett

Greg Garrett is a novelist, a professor of English at Baylor University, writer-in-residence at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, and a licensed lay preacher in the Episcopal Church. He is the author most recently of The Other Jesus (WJK).

Member of:

The Episcopal Church

Representative of:

Baylor University, Waco, TX
Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, TX

Greg Garrett

The Episcopal Church

Baylor University, Waco, TX

Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, TX

Greg Garrett is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels Free Bird (chosen by Publishers' Weekly and the Rocky Mountain News as one of the most promising fiction debuts of 2002), Cycling, and Shame, the memoirs Crossing Myself and No Idea, and nonfiction books including The Gospel according to Hollywood, Holy Superheroes, Stories from the Edge: A Theology of Grief, We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel according to U2, and One Fine Potion: The Literary Magic of Harry Potter. A past winner of regional and national prizes for fiction and nonfiction, Greg is also a major writer for "The Voice," a contemporary language Bible for the emerging church, and a major contributor to Feasting on the Word, a lectionary commentary, in the areas of theology and homiletics. He writes a regular column on religion and politics for Patheos, and is a frequent contributor to The Thoughtful Christian.

Greg has taught (creative writing, literature, film, and theology) at Baylor University for over twenty years; he is Professor of English there, and has twice won university-wide teaching awards. His students have gone on to success as writers, teachers, scholars, and leaders in the Church. His own vocational service to the Church is as Writer in Residence for the priests and pastors in training at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest (where he earned his M.Div.), and as a licensed lay preacher based at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas. Greg is also a frequent teacher, speaker, and workshop and retreat leader across the United States and overseas.

When he is not traveling, Greg lives in Austin with his sons Jake and Chandler. He loves movies, fiction, comics, music, the outdoors, and Jesus. The other Jesus, that is.

You may contact Greg about readings, lectures and teaching at Greg_Garrett at baylor.edu

You may buy Greg's books at Amazon.com.

 


Latest Content by Greg Garrett

Greg Garrett

Greg Garrett: An Open Letter to Joel Osteen

Greg Garrett (TEC)

Editor's Note: Don't miss Faithful CitizenshipGreg Garrett's new ebook on politics and Christianity, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble for $4.99.

Chris Lehmann reported in Salon last week about "America's Night of Hope," Joel Osteen's latest failure to discern the difference between American values and Christian teaching. Lehmann noted the inexorably positive theology Mr. Osteen champions:

Read full article...
Greg Garrett

Greg Garrett: A Conversation with Tim Beach-Verhey on H. Richard Neibuhr

Greg Garrett (TEC)

Taken with author's permission from Patheos.com

Timothy A. Beach-Verhey is co-pastor, with his wife, Kathy, of Faison Presbyterian Church, in Faison, NC. He also teaches at Mount Olive College and is the author of Robust Liberalism: H. Richard Niebuhr and the Ethics of American Political Life from Baylor University Press. Here, he discusses H. Richard Niebuhr, one of the 20th century's most significant theologians, Richard's even more-famous brother Reinhold, and how the Niebuhrs shaped consideration of religion and politics in their day and might shape it in our own.

Read full article...

Other Recent Content by Greg Garrett

Greg Garrett Article

April 21, 2012

Greg Garrett: Faithful Citizenship: A Book Excerpt

Greg Garrett (TEC)

What does it mean to be a faithful citizen in the 21st century? Read Chapter One from Faithful Citizenship, the new e-book by the popular author Greg Garrett.
Greg Garrett Article

April 12, 2012

Greg Garrett: Lock and Load: A Christian Response to Gun Ownership

Greg Garrett (TEC)

In an insanely violent culture that has led to a million American murders since 1968, what is a faithful Christian response toward those who would own and use guns?
Greg Garrett Article

March 30, 2012

Greg Garrett: The Hunger Games and Us

Greg Garrett (TEC)

Last week in an interview, writer Steven Zeitchik asked me a question about the topicality of the decade's top tween/teen cultural phenomena. Do Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games really have anything to say to us?
Greg Garrett Article

March 19, 2012

Greg Garrett: Appreciating Rowan Williams' Leadership

Greg Garrett (TEC)

Here is the dilemma for Rowan Williams, and for whatever Archbishop of Canterbury may follow: He has no authority to compel, only power to influence, and even as erudite and persuasive an Archbishop as Rowan Williams can only convince those who are willing to listen.
Greg Garrett Article

January 21, 2012

Greg Garrett: Ancient Future Disciples: A Q&A with Becky Garrison

Greg Garrett (TEC)

"How many of us are really prepared to follow the way of this radical rule breaker?" Author Becky Garrison considers the future of Christianity with Greg Garrett.
Greg Garrett Article

December 17, 2011

Greg Garrett: Reading Christian: "25 Books Every Christian Should Read"

Greg Garrett (TEC)

"25 Books" is, to paraphrase Henry David Thoreau, an attempt not to elevate the new, but to explore those things that never grow old.
Greg Garrett Article

November 18, 2011

Greg Garrett: Famine and Feast: An interview with ONE's Adam Phillips

Greg Garrett (TEC)

Each of us has a role to play in this fight for the world's poorest people. It's not whether we can make a difference in this famine, but how can we make a difference if we work together.
Greg Garrett Transcript

November 20, 2011

If Christ Is King, What Does That Mean?

Greg Garrett (TEC)

In his sermon on the Reign of Christ, Greg Garrett explores Jesus' teaching on separating the sheep and the goats, and helps us wrestle with the questions, "What does Jesus want me to do and to be? How will my life be different if Christ is King?"
Greg Garrett Article

November 05, 2011

Greg Garrett: Famine and Feast: Bono, ONE, and the Kingdom of God

Greg Garrett (TEC)

In this month of Thanksgiving, we'll explore the problem of hunger and look to U2's Bono -- and his understanding of Jesus and the Kingdom -- as a guide for action.
Greg Garrett Article

October 28, 2011

Greg Garrett: America Is Scared of Itself

Greg Garrett (TEC)

A new book reveals how the monsters of the American imagination are also the monsters of its history.
Greg Garrett Article

October 14, 2011

Greg Garrett: God Commands Compassion, Not Evangelism

Greg Garrett (TEC)

Christianity is not about praying in a certain way, or believing a certain thing, or making converts, or building a nice cabin at church camp.
Greg Garrett Article

September 30, 2011

Greg Garrett: Drive, Ryan Gosling, and the Violent Jesus

Greg Garrett (TEC)

The new movie "Drive" illuminates America in the here and now in ways that are alternately horrifying and hopeful.
Greg Garrett Article

September 25, 2011

Greg Garrett: Becoming American? A Review

Greg Garrett (TEC)

A new book shows that American Muslims embrace America and want to be embraced in return as American citizens.
Greg Garrett Article

September 19, 2011

Greg Garrett: Who Is My Enemy?

Greg Garrett (TEC)

"We are right to be incensed at terrorist acts -- but wrong to ignore our own violation of Just War mandates even in the preservation of our nation." A review of a new book by Lee Camp.
Greg Garrett Article

September 03, 2011

Greg Garrett: Post 9/11 Literature: Darkness and Light

Greg Garrett (TEC)

How popular culture -- especially literature -- has helped us have the post-9/11 conversations our national leaders have been trying hard to avoid.
Greg Garrett Article

August 26, 2011

Greg Garrett: Fighting Islamophobia with Information

Greg Garrett (TEC)

Muslim Americans love America, and are here not to spread their faith, but for the reasons people have always come to America: to live with dignity, to worship freely, to pursue their dreams.
Greg Garrett Article

August 21, 2011

Greg Garrett: Reading the Bible after 9/11

Greg Garrett (TEC)

I want to propose (or remind you of) some ways you might read the Bible that break it and us open to see it in a new light, and to read for what is on the page instead of just seeing our favorite bears everywhere.
Greg Garrett Article

August 08, 2011

Greg Garrett: Information, Misinformation, and Missed Information: A Decade after 9/11

Greg Garrett (TEC)

As we approach the tenth anniversary of 9/11, so many issues are still in play—our relationship with Islam, our understandings of geopolitics, even our readings of our own Constitution!—that clearly it's worth having a talk about how to find out what's true and what's false, and to judge our news sources so that we can use them responsibly to be thoughtful and informed citizens.
Greg Garrett Article

July 30, 2011

Greg Garrett: Norway, Terror and Forgiveness

Greg Garrett (TEC)

Greg Garrett writes for Patheos.com: If I could give one piece of advice to those grieving in Norway, it would be to take on the monumental task of forgiveness.
Greg Garrett Article

July 17, 2011

Greg Garrett: The End of Harry Potter

Greg Garrett (TEC)

So many people are writing about the Harry Potter finale, mourning it personally, and I, for one, am wondering why a mere entertainment has become such a giant part of people’s lives.
Greg Garrett Article

July 15, 2011

Greg Garrett: Media, Morality and Rupert Murdoch

Greg Garrett (TEC)

On of the most powerful men in the world, international media baron and naturalized American citizen Rupert Murdoch, has come to England this week to try and defuse a huge political and media scandal that has blown up into the biggest news in Britain just now—bigger even than Harry Potter!
Greg Garrett Article

May 24, 2011

Greg Garrett: An Open Letter to Joel Osteen

Greg Garrett (TEC)

Dear Joel Osteen: For some years now I’ve stood back and looked the other way as you preached your message of optimism and faith rewarded to tens of thousands of worshipers and to the millions of people who have bought your best-selling books, as you’ve become perhaps America’s best-known preacher or inspirational speaker...
Greg Garrett Article

May 17, 2011

Greg Garrett: Leaning into Easter

Greg Garrett (TEC)

although we celebrate Easter Sunday in all sorts of Christian traditions, I fear we don’t always really celebrate—or believe in—Resurrection.
Greg Garrett Article

April 07, 2011

Greg Garrett: Out of the Darkness

Greg Garrett (TEC)

In the darkest times of my own life, I came to believe that Jesus was working some sort of miracle in my life, bringing me to sight and new life, and I had no words for it other than the words of the man born blind: This is what I know: I was blind, and now I see.
Greg Garrett Article

March 22, 2011

Greg Garrett: Y U Cant Twt the Gspl

Greg Garrett (TEC)

I feel a little sorry for John 3:16, featured on billboards, on signs at athletic events, a t-shirt and bumper-sticker verse like Romans 3:23 and John 14:6 forced into service as a Twitter encapsulation of Christian faith, and somehow expected to do the heavy lifting of conversion for the people who encounter it.
Greg Garrett Article

March 19, 2011

Greg Garrett: Naked Spirituality by Brian McLaren--A Review

Greg Garrett (TEC)

Sometimes in the course of your life you hear a voice that has the ring of truth to it.... Brian McLaren has always been such a voice to me.
Greg Garrett Article

March 15, 2011

Greg Garrett: What I'm Doing for Lent

Greg Garrett (TEC)

This year, I’m not naming a specific thing I’m giving or taking up for Lent. Instead, I’m standing up and saying “no” to as many things of the world as I can. And “yes” to as many things of the Spirit as I can.
Greg Garrett Article

March 08, 2011

Greg Garrett: The Problem of Contemporary Christianity, Part 2

Greg Garrett (TEC)

In the second excerpt from his new book "The Other Jesus" (WJK), Greg Garrett continues to explore why it's important to reconsider our understanding of Jesus in the church today.
Greg Garrett Article

March 01, 2011

Greg Garrett: The Problem of Contemporary Christianity, Part 1

Greg Garrett (TEC)

In this first excerpt from his new book, "The Other Jesus" (WJK), Greg Garrett explores what's wrong with American Christianity, and how to get back on track.