That set him on a journey. "The very first question that I pondered as I was on this journey was, is there a God? ... I would ask my friends, 'Hey, do you believe in God?' " Rainn Wilson… takes a profound, humorous, reflective look at faith and spirituality….[He] is fearless and funny in mining the world’s religious and spiritual traditions…for nuggets of truth and wisdom.” But now, the same has happened to me, only this is a “worlds colliding” scenario that I wholeheartedly embrace, rather than confront with fear and trembling.

So yes, my childhood shaped me this way. This strange petri dish of experiences—this recipe for weirdness—set the stage for the question at hand: Why is the guy who played Dwight writing a book on religious and spiritual ideas? You wrote that no one else was really talking about these topics. Obviously there's books on spirituality and death and God, what did you see missing from the bookshelves? If you approach your reading of "Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution" expecting to experience the quirky hilarity of Rainn Wilson's iconic Dwight Schrute character from "The Office," then you're likely to find "Soul Boom" a bit of a disappointment. The God of SoulBoom is distant and elusive—a “Big Guy/Gal/Force/God/Creator thingy,” in Wilson’s words—that mostly just has “our best interests in mind.” Although Wilson’s theism moves beyond a vapid “spirituality” and includes a public, rather than simply private, dimension of faith, it does not do enough to differentiate itself from what sociologist Christian Smith has termed “moralistic therapeutic deism.” In contrast, the God of the Bible is engaged and relational, constantly drawing close to his creation and expressing love, concern, anger, and sacrifice toward humans, who reflect God’s own image.

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast:Through life experiences and his Baháʼí faith, which embraces anessential unity of allreligionsand the unity of humanity,Rainn Wilson takes readers on a 10-chapter journey that touches on how spirituality can be found in everything from official religious texts to quotes from Captain James T. Kirk, the “Star Trek” character. BUSINESS Restaurant sales, closures, and confusion in Fairhaven Longtime businesses open, closed, and for sale I have undergone long periods of time when I was clinically depressed. There were times I reached emotional lows from which I felt I would never escape. I even seriously contemplated suicide. Thankfully, I always got therapeutic help when I needed it and love from some amazing friends and family members, and I had a profound partner in my wife, Holiday Reinhorn, who supported me with great empathy and strength. In an interview for Morning Edition, Wilson tells NPR's Rachel Martin about a spiritual odyssey that began as a child, growing up in the Baha'i faith of his family. Later, he began rejecting "everything to do with religion and faith and spirituality." I will try my darndest not be a cynic and refrain from using the word "optimistic" in reference to how Wilson envisions humanity's future. Soul Boom was hopeful and JOYFUL!

Emmy-nominated actor Rainn Wilson says he knows that's the question people ask when hearing about his new book Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. Why does a guy famous for playing a weird, officious nerd on one of America’s most beloved TV comedies (and many other offbeat characters) want to write about the soul, religion, the afterlife, sacredness, and the need for society to undergo a spiritual reimagining? Why is the beet-farming, paper-selling, tangentially Amish man-baby with the giant forehead and short-sleeved mustard shirts writing about the meaning of life? At the same time, Wilson treats Christianity like Star Trek does religion. Star Trek is often as condescending to religion as any of the Hollywood shows Wilson critiques, a lesson I learned while becoming a Trekkie as a missionary kid in the ’90s. In describing one species’ development, for example, Captain Picard remarks, “Millennia ago, they abandoned their belief in the supernatural … the dark ages of superstition and ignorance and fear.” The new book is called Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. Mr. Rainn Wilson, thank you so much for the time today.As an agnostic, I found myself agreeing with Wilson's premises, yet wishing that they were envisioned humanistically, instead of continually chasing a religious structure. That's not Wilson's vision, though. As warm and as inviting as he is to atheists and atheism, he is a person of faith, and that friction will be felt by atheist and agnostic readers. What's going through your mind, especially when you read that headline and maybe dive a little more into that story? On the positive side, his argument for the necessity of creating a new religion (and accompanying thought exercise in which he does so) so made me look at the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in a new light. I expected Rainn to lose me somewhere in the weeds of the spirituality woo-woo stuff, but he actually lost me when he outed himself as a David Brooks fanboy, yikes.