No event in recent history has sparked media hype or captured public attention the way the turn-of-the-Millennium did. In addition to the countless hours of television and radio programming devoted to the subject, all of the newspaper and magazine articles, and the mass uncertainty sparked by the dreaded Y2K "computer bug," publishers unleashed what Publishers Weekly described as a "tsunami" (a Japanese term for a tidal wave) of books with religious themes. Many of these books deal with the end of the world, a scenario forecast by some Christian fundamentalists who interpret the Scriptures literally. Several of these doomsday books became best sellers, none more so than the "Left Behind" novels, which have deftly turned Biblical prophecies about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ into mass market literary entertainment. Despite the fact they include none of the sexual content, nudity, or blasphemy that is a staple of...