Rita Brock is a leading theologian and co-author of Saving Paradise, one of Publishers Weekly’s top books on religion in 2008.

Dr. Brock is also an international lecturer, professor of religion, former director of the fellowship program at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and has served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Religion.

Saving Paradise investigates early Christian ideas of paradise, the development of theologies of holy war and holy violence in Western Europe during the Crusades, the resulting invention of racism and genocide and the contemporary need for a new understanding of paradise.