"A philosophical and poetic text that speaks to the core of our grim moment." --CORNEL WEST"Fluker won't calm down and he won't be contained." --BARBARA BROWN TAYLOR"A phenomenal, readable, and relatable text for the activist, academic, layperson, and student." --OTIS MOSS III"Demands our attention in these maddening days." --EDDIE S. GLAUDEA meditation and manifesto on democracy, fa...

In the 1970s, James Earl Massey wrote a book about his beloved mentor, the noted theologian and preacher Howard Thurman. The completed manuscript was never published. Howard Thurman: Reflections on a Luminous Life finally brings this book to the public.This book presents the latest, 1977 version of James Earl Massey's manuscript, lightly edited for clarity. Edited by Dr. Curtiss Paul DeYoung, it includes editorial commentary, a history of the relationship between James Ear...

"An exuberant, thought-provoking assessment of the dilemmas facing black churches" examining their historic role in today's cultural landscape ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).In The Ground Has Shifted, Walter Earl Fluker discusses the historical and current role of the Black church and argues that the older race-based language and metaphors of religious discourse have outlived their utility. He offers instead a larger, global vision for the Bl...

A new collection of philosophical biographies of key figures in Black Southern American social and political thoughtFrederick Douglass, Booker Washington and Ida Wells. Thurgood Marshall and Martin King are focused upon, together with Howard Thurman, Richard Wright, Fred Gray and Barbara Jordan. All are important in various ways to the movements this book seeks out. From the perspective of liberation, the two high points in the African-American Odyssey are marked by Emancipation in...

The burgeoning terrain of Martin Luther King Jr. studies is leading to a new appreciation of his thought and its meaningfulness for the emergence and shaping of the twenty-first-century world. This volume brings together an impressive array of scholars from various backgrounds and disciplines to explore the global significance of King—then, now, and in the future.Employing King’s metaphor of “the great world house,” the major focus is on King’s appraisal of the global-human struggl...

The contributors to this book address the theme of educating ethical leaders for the twenty-first century. They represent a wide range of fields, including philosophy, theology, law, science, and medicine. They all share the belief, however, that ethical leadership education is necessary in order to provide the next generation of leaders with the tools that they will need to successfully navigate the challenges of today and of the coming decades. These essays identify significant issues an...

Joy Unspeakable focuses on the aspects of the black church that point beyond particular congregational gatherings toward a mystical and communal spirituality not within the exclusive domain of any denomination. This mystical aspect of the black church is deeply implicated in the well-being of African American people but is not the focus of their intentional reflection. Moreover, its traditions are deeply ensconced within the historical memory of the wider society and can be found ...

A comprehensive study of the award-winning Midwestern author of fiction and nonfictionAlex Engebretson offers the first comprehensive study of Marilynne Robinson's fiction and essays to date, providing an overview of the author's life, themes, and literary and religious influences. Understanding Marilynne Robinson examines this author of three highly acclaimed novels and recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, the Pulitzer Prize fo...

Although countless books have been devoted to the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., few, if any, have focused on King's appropriation of, and contribution to, the intellectual tradition of personalism. Emerging as a philosophical movement in the early 1900s, personalism is a type of philosophical idealism that has a number of affinities with Christianity, such as a focus on a personal God and the sanctity of persons. Burrow points to similarities and dissimilarities between persona...

Lewis R. Gordon's Fear of Black Consciousness is a groundbreaking account of Black consciousness by a leading philosopherIn this original and penetrating work, Lewis R. Gordon, one of the leading scholars of Black existentialism and anti-Blackness, takes the reader on a journey through the historical development of racialized Blackness, the problems this kind of consciousness produces, and the many creative responses from Black and non-Black communities in ...

How have millions of American Christians come to measure spiritual progress in terms of their financial status and physical well-being? How has the movement variously called Word of Faith, Health and Wealth, Name It and Claim It, or simply prosperity gospel come to dominate much of our contemporary religious landscape? Kate Bowler's Blessed is the first book to fully explore the origins, unifying themes, and major figures of a burgeoning movement that now claims millions of followers in Am...

On forming people who form communionTheological education has always been about formation: first of people, then of communities, then of the world. If we continue to promote whiteness and its related ideas of masculinity and individualism in our educational work, it will remain diseased and thwart our efforts to heal the church and the world. But if theological education aims to form people who can gather others together through border-crossing pluralism and God-drenched c...