Robert L. Short has been writing and lecturing on Charles Schulz's Peanuts cartoon strips and the gospel for more than forty years. He is the author of the huge bestsellers The Gospel According to Peanuts and The Parables of Peanuts . An ordained minister and a widely traveled speaker in theology and the arts, Short was a close friend of Charles Schulz and holds graduate degrees in theology and literature from S.M.U., North Texas University, and the University of Chicago Divinity School.