By Barbara Falconer Newhall
Yes. That’s me with the Pope.
OK, he’s cardboard.
But I’m real.
The cardboard Pope and I were at Moscone Center West in San Francisco on Saturday afternoon for the combined conference of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature.
He was at the Ignatius Press booth touting the second volume of his Jesus of Nazareth series to the scholars and grad students attending the conference.
And I was all over the place that day and the next pitching my books to the very helpful editors who were there to display their books.
Lots of books. It was a book lover’s feast.
The Pope, btw, is a lucid, compelling writer — but to read him you’ll need a taste for good, old-fashioned, conservative Christian theology.
His books sell pretty well. Of course, as the head of a biggish, global church, Pope Benedict has a heck of a platform. No worries there.
Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week — From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, Pope Benedict XVI, Ignatius Press, $24.95 hardcover