As a multi-racial democracy, America is only a teenager. As a multi-faith society, we’re just a toddler. I’m deeply grateful for my Baptist sister Dana, who loves Jesus with all her heart and also loves her Hindu husband. We need stories like this one to help us imagine who we might become. The good news of this book is the hope that Christians can know Jesus better by loving the spiritual stranger next door.Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of Strangers at My Door
J. Dana Trent’s remarkable memoir is a compelling exploration of love at the edge of spirit. This story points toward a revolution in brand-name religion that may be a hallmark of America’s religious landscape in the not-too-distant future. I heartily recommend you read this book.
Rabbi Rami Shapiro, award winning author, poet, essayist, and educator
Dana Trent puts a human, and often humorous, face on the growing reality of interfaith marriage. From her struggles to become a vegetarian to her Hindu husband’s efforts to understand prayer, Trent’s account reveals an east-meets-west partnership that succeeds in mutual respect and love.Jana Riess, author of Flunking Sainthood and The Twible
J. Dana Trent takes an exceptional story and makes it somehow universal. By turns funny, endearing, challenging and illuminating, Saffron Cross describes the interfaith future of our global village.Susan Katz Miller, author of Being Both: Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family.
J. Dana Trent’s Saffron Cross carries on in the spirit of Klaus Klostermeier’s Hindu and Christian in Vrindavan; Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain; Hayagriva Dasa’s Vrindavan Days: Memories of an Indian Holy Town; David Haberman’s Journey Through the Twelve Forests: An Encounter with Krishna; and Radhanath Swami’s The Journey Home. An articulate, seasoned author, her writing style is engaging and her memoir descriptive. On almost every page, one finds deep truths colorfully and effortlessly conveyed through everyday adventures. This makes the book a pleasure to read. It is also significant for its interreligious content: Here is a person who really understands the nonsectarian and pluralistic component of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, not merely on an intellectual level but through real life experience. Trent’s work is a gift that will be cherished for generations.”
Steven J. Rosen (Satyaraja Dasa), author of Christ and Krishna: Where the Jordan Meets the Ganges, and editor, Journal of Vaishnava Studies
The timing of Saffron Cross is important. The cultural diversity in our country is changing rapidly, and so, there are likely to be many couples who are going to risk an interfaith marriage. Saffron Cross will give them courage and also concludes that each partner to the marriage can enrich the devotional life of the other.Dr. Robert Seymour, Author, Activist, and Pastor Emeritus of the Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church
Narrated with passion and charming humor, Saffron Cross provides an honest and inspiring glimpse into the attractions and challenges of interfaith marriage. Trent gives the reader a candid and insightful account of the psychological and religious obstacles encountered in her marriage to a devout adherent of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. She also shows how two different faith traditions can freely move in the shared and sacred space of love and marital commitment, a movement that for Trent facilitated a beautiful deepening of her marital bond and spiritual development as a Christian. Dr. Michael Sudduth, Department of Philosophy, San Francisco State University
Saffron Cross is a heartfelt, beautiful story of an already faithful Christian being pulled closer to Christ through the most unlikely teacher. This book has the capacity to make you yearn for a life in which Jesus really is at the center as you journey through a budding romance, the crowded streets of India, and a nearby temple where you may find yourself bowing to a strange (but faithful) altar, as well.The Rev. Dr. Donna Claycomb Sokol, Blogger and Pastor, Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church
This is a memoir not just for those already involved in interfaith relationships or ministries, but all of us who want to understand how to grow in faith alongside all our neighbors. Because, as Saffron Cross shows us, we are indeed more alike than we are different in our desire for God—we just have to do the work to see it for ourselves.The Rev. Elizabeth Evans Hagan, Minister and creator of Preacher on the Plaza
In Saffron Cross: The Unlikely Story of How a Christian Minister Married a Hindu Monk ordained Baptist minister J Dana Trent engagingly uses her own experience (including both eHarmony and spirituality) to inform and enrich the lives of others. This is a wonderful lesson for living!Lucy Daniels, PhD, psychologist, author, and Guggenheim Fellow
Saffron Cross was a stimulating, and joyous adventure that I could barely put down. I devoured its tasty contents in two sittings and wanted more. It is truly a sincere, painfully honest, account that is sure to charm readers. Considering Dana’s background as a Baptist minister I found her encounter with Gaudiya Vaishnava theology and practice especially courageous, proving that by love, sincerity, and intense prayer, we can understand that which is beyond both material reasoning and religious formularies. Like every good story Dana’s journey with her husband to find spiritual unity in diversity was a struggle, and yet their success together in honoring both faith traditions demonstrates the grace of God, the Pilgrim’s Journey. This book can encourage others who embark on an interfaith marriage, revealing the universality of the One Power and God of all, reminding us that we will notice what we focus on with faith, either disparities or harmony.Karnamrita Das, bhakti practitioner, spiritual teacher, hope broker, and author of Give to Live