Meet Dana
Has your faith been shaken by a recent death in your family? Are you consumed by grief and the fear of your own death? Do you experience profound exhaustion due to the demands of daily life? Are you perplexed and concerned about your place in a multireligious world?
As a former chaplain who personally witnessed over 200 deaths (including her mother’s); as a practitioner of Sabbath and meditation; and as the Baptist in a multifaith marriage to a Hindu, Dana regularly grapples with faith and crisis. Through her books, speaking, and personal presence, Dana warmly and humorously invites her audience to practice and rethink ways to draw nearer to God in the midst of personal crisis.
J. Dana Trent is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and professor of World Religions and Critical Thinking at Wake Tech Community College. An ordained Baptist minister and former hospital chaplain, her work has appeared on Time.com, and in Religion News Service, Sojourners, Religion Dispatches, and The Christian Century. Publishers Weekly calls her fourth book, Dessert First: Preparing for Death While Savoring Life “poignant,” “hilarious,” “practical.” She is also the award-winning author of One Breath At a Time: A Skeptic’s Guide to Christian Meditation, For Sabbath’s Sake: Embracing Your Need for Rest, Worship, and Community, and Saffron Cross: The Unlikely Story of How a Christian Minister Married a Hindu Monk. Dana winds down from writing and teaching with episodes of “The Young and the Restless” as well as leading group fitness training classes for the YMCA.
Meet Fred
Fred Eaker is a devout Hindu who formerly lived as a monk in rural North Carolina and Northern California. He is a practitioner of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism under the guidance of Swāmī B.V. Tripurāri.
Fred holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree with a concentration in Gandhian Ethics and Social Justice, along with an undergraduate degree in Information Systems and Operations Management from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is currently a project manager for the State of North Carolina.
Fred loves to cook, garden, travel, and help keep Dana from procrastinating.
