Ever-adaptable American capitalism is pioneering new products to bring religion to those in a big hurry, writes Duke Helfandin Los Angeles
SO YOU'RE racing through another jam-packed day, late picking up the children from football practice because you got stuck at the office. Then you pay the bills, walk the dog and perhaps grab some cold pizza before collapsing into bed.
When do you ever find time for God? One US publisher has the answer: The One-Minute Bible, Day by Day, whose brief readings promise to inspire your "daily walk with the Lord".
Or check out 5-Minute Theologian: Maximum Truth in Minimum Time.
Because man does not live by bread alone - and might be tempted to eat on the run - there's Aunt Susie's 10-Minute Bible Dinners: Bringing God into Your Life One Dish at a Time.
The American style of worship, like everything else in our overloaded lives, is speeding up. Call it God on the go.
This hurried search for the Almighty partly explains the rise of a niche industry of books, DVDs, podcasts, text messages and e-mail blasts that distil the essentials of faith.
The materials offer bite-size spiritual morsels that can be digested in minutes, or even seconds, on the daily commute, aboard airplanes or at the dinner table. As 7 Minutes With God promises, "Learn how to plan a daily quiet time that takes just 7 minutes".
And what about your over-programmed 10-year-old? Again, religious publishers have an answer: The Kid Who Would Be King: One Minute Bible Stories About Kids. "The audience is definitely anyone who's interested in a ready-made, quick little devotion they can do every day," says Tim Jordan, an executive editor at BH Publishing Group in Nashville, Tennessee, which produces the The One-Minute Bible. "It's not meant to replace the Bible," Jordan adds. "It's meant to whet your appetite."
Publishers aren't the only ones adjusting to the time pressures on modern religious life. Rabbis and ministers, aware that worship is just another weekend option for many parishioners, are shortening their sermons and taking other steps to entice worshippers.
"What's the scarcest commodity in American life?" asks the Most Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.
"How do we invite people to connect their life of faith with their life at the soccer practice or in the coffee shop or at the pub or waiting in line for something? I think that's the biggest challenge the church is beginning to recognise."
Traditionalists say that quick-hit spirituality can be useful but that it's no substitute for true learning or involvement in a religious community. Even some of the diehard faithful, however, see the prophetic writing on the wall.
The Rev Leith Anderson leads a 2,900-member church in suburban Minneapolis and is president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He also produces a daily radio segment - "FaithMinute" - that is heard throughout the Midwest.
"It's preaching to people who have never been in the choir," Anderson says.
"My father used to say, 'Going to church over the radio or television is like kissing your girlfriend over the telephone'," Anderson says. "It's a good thing to kiss your girlfriend over the telephone. But it's a whole lot more fun in person."
Even as traditional worship attendance languishes, an appetite for spirituality has created new opportunities for alternative forms of religious communication, publishers say.
"If you know how to reach readers of religious materials, you are onto something, because they are devoted," says Marcia Z Nelson, an editor with Publishers Weekly. "Devotionals and prayer books are perennial sellers."
Only about a quarter of Americans attend weekly religious services, a figure that has remained relatively steady over most of the past century, according to sociologists. Yet many Americans feel a need to connect regularly with a supreme being.
A recent national survey by the Pew Forum on Religion Public Life found that 71 per cent of people were absolutely certain about their belief in God and that 58 per cent said they prayed daily outside of religious services.
Faith leaders are working to capitalise on that spiritual hunger, not just with convenience but with high production values - adding JumboTron screens, live music and other novelties to services.
"Religion is gradually being remade in the image of mass-consumer capitalism," said Christian Smith, a sociologist of American religion at the University of Notre Dame.
And Jews and Christians aren't the only ones with their eyes on the clock. The busy Buddhist can take heart in 10-Minute Zen: Easy Tips to Lead You Down the Path of Enlightenment. As the book's jacket declares: "You don't have to sit under a bodhi tree and meditate as the Buddha did to become enlightened. With this easy, engaging guide ... you'll find that mastering esoteric Zen practices is as easy as a walk in the woods." - LA Times/Washington Post service