Annie Dillard, who won a Pulitzer Prize in literature at age 30, has written explicitly about her Christian faith. As a teen, however, she once decided to quit the church because of the hypocrisy of those who came Sunday mornings mainly to show off their clothes. Indignant, she marched into the assistant minister's office.

"He was an experienced, calm man in a three-piece suit," Dillard recalls. "He heard me out and then said, 'You're right, honey, there is a lot of hypocrisy.' " She felt her arguments dissolve. Then the minister loaded her down with books by C.S. Lewis, suggesting she might find them useful for a senior class paper. "This is rather early of you to be quitting the church," he remarked as they shook hands in parting. "I suppose you'll be back soon."

To Dillard's consternation, he was right. After plowing through four of the Lewis volumes, she fell right back in the arms of the church. Her rebellion had lasted one month.