Festival Favorite
April's featured book is God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights by Charles Marsh.
Book Summary
Theology professor Charles Marsh argues that both the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and its Southern adversaries derived their power from religious ideas. Recounting the stories of five active participants—ranging from cotton fieldworker and political activist Fannie Lou Hamer to the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi, Sam Bowers—he relates their ideological commitments to their religious beliefs. Marsh focuses on the events and religious convictions that led each person into the political upheaval of 1964. He presents an unforgettable American social landscape, one that is by turns shameful and inspiring. In conclusion, Marsh suggests that it may be possible to sift among these narratives and lay the groundwork for a new thinking about racial reconciliation and the beloved community. He maintains that the person who embraces faith's life-affirming energies will leave behind a most powerful legacy of social activism and compassion.
Excerpt
Read an excerpt on the publisher’s website.
Links of Interest
The Roundtable interviews Marsh.
Read an article by Marsh about American evangelicals.
God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights wins the Grawemeyer Award for Religion.
Reviews
Christian Ethics Today
Alabama Review
Purchase This Book (and Support the Festival!)
The Calvin College Campus Store is the official retailer for Festival 2008. You can buy God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights for a great price either through their website or in the store. When you buy through the Campus Store, a portion of all sales go to support the Festival of Faith and Writing.