A sobering, expertly told history of the struggle for equality as waged from pulpit and pew.
Searching history of the Charleston church brought into the headlines by mass murder.
In 2015, 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof took advantage of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church’s open-door policy—“meant to affirm the place of the church as a refuge…not just from the universal stresses of life but from the particular ones born of four hundred years of enslavement, repression, and state-sanctioned discrimination”—and shot down nine parishioners and clergy. Former New York Times reporter Sack uses that horrific event as an entry point into the larger history of the Black church in America, from that open-door policy to involvement in the Civil Rights Movement over many decades and in local and national politics. In the last regard, one founding member of Emanuel, the oldest AME congregation in the South, “helped organize the 1865 statewide convention of Black South Carolinians that was called to set a postwar political agenda,” an agenda thwarted by the failure of Reconstruction and the imposition of Jim Crow. Indeed, by Sack’s illuminating account, politics defined much of the Black church in relation to white society, though it was not always progressive; as he notes, the AME church in particular, though boasting a membership of 1 million in 1950, “rarely seemed in the vanguard, its voice often fainter than it might have been for a body its size and potential strength.” In South Carolina, an epicenter of white supremacy, Emanuel tended toward gradualism in the interest of survival—as Sack notes, Emanuel has always struggled financially, with a declining membership and diminished post-pandemic attendance. Roof was not the only or final challenge or threat: Many other supremacists, Sack writes, are on the horizon, so Emanuel now has a squad of congregants who carry concealed weapons—and, tellingly, “the doors of the church are no longer always open.”
A sobering, expertly told history of the struggle for equality as waged from pulpit and pew.Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781524761301
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
