Souled Out

What did I find in my mail this afternoon but a slim new volume, Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith & Politics After the Religious Right by the estimable E.J. Dionne. Since I've only had it in my possession for a few hours I can't say a ton about the substance of the argument but from what I've seen it's the right kind of argument -- analytic about what's happened in the past, and then first-order about the future ending on a chapter about "Religion's True Calling" rather than something about how Al Gore should have gone to church more. What's more, Dionne is really the author I'd like to read on "The Agony of Liberal Catholicism" so I'm very much looking forward to that chapter.

But in the interests of finding something else to say about a book I've barely read, let me just note that "Souled Out" is most frequently used a as a title in a context where "soul" means "black people" rather than "religion." See, e.g., Shaun Powell's Souled Out: How Blacks are Winning and Losing in Sports or C.L. Smooth's All Souled Out.