Shane Claiborne grew up in east Tennessee. A graduate of Eastern University, where he studied sociology and youth ministry, he did his final work for Eastern at Wheaton College in Illinois. While there he did an internship at Willow Creek Community Church, and has done graduate work at Princeton seminary. He is featured in the documentary The Ordinary Radicals.

Shane's outlook on ministry to the poor is often compared to that of Mother Teresa, whom he worked alongside during a 10-week term in Calcutta. He also spent 3 weeks in Baghdad with the Iraq peace team during the war in that country.

"I think that's what our world is desperately in need of - lovers, people who are building deep, genuine relationships with fellow strugglers along the way, and who actually know the faces of the people behind the issues they are concerned about."

"Mother Teresa always said, "Calcuttas are everywhere if only we have eyes to see. Find your Calcutta."

"We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy, too. But I guess that's why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest."

"The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination."