Books

Faith-Based Activism

Christianity fuels social justice in The Beloved Community.

Charles Marsh’s The Beloved Community (now available in paperback) reminds us that the civil rights movement was, at heart, a faith-based phenomenon inspired by a radical understanding of the gospel. Marsh, a professor of religion at the University of Virginia and author of the acclaimed God’s Long Summer, drives this point home in his sweeping survey of the men and women who led the nonviolent charge to usurp the racist social and political order of the Jim Crow era.

Marsh decries the marginalization of faith in our record of the civil rights revolution. He writes: “The worldly body of Christ remains the only real counterculture, precisely because it is the place where obedience, gratitude, and praise create free, complex, and multiracial spaces—the most enduring source of forgiveness and reconciliation in a violent and balkanized world.”

With vigorous scholarship, Marsh fills in the missing pieces by connecting the witness of Martin Luther King Jr. to less-heralded, more explicitly evangelical leaders. Clarence Jordan’s Koinonia Farm in Georgia was ahead of its time in modeling intentional community and racial reconciliation.

And John Perkins’s Voice of Calvary ministry in Mississippi gave rise to a new generation of faith-based activists, in effect recovering—and then expanding—the original spiritual thrust of King’s dream.

Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

The Beloved Community is available from ChristianBook.com, Amazon.com (paperback), and other retailers.

An interview with the author about The Beloved Community is available on our site.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

News

Red-Light Rescue

The Problem with Hating Religion

Don't Mess with Missions

An Upside-Down World

Creation or Evolution? Yes!

Mega-Headache

Family Feud

News

Surprised by Friendship

The Story of America?

Give Parents a Say

<em>Ricardo the Fierce</em>

Dethroned

Simple Process, Vibrant Church

Signs of the Church

Mere Mission

The Beatles' Spiritual Journeys

Editorial

Go Gently into That Good Night

Sex Isn't Work

News

Child Sex Tours

The Scandal of Forgiveness

A Tale of Five Herods

Editorial

Reviewing the Fundamentals

Top Ten Stories of 2006

News

Passages

News

Christianity Today News Briefs

News

Quotation Marks

Fleeing Nineveh

Blue Law Special

News

Go Figure

News

Status Quota

Ghost Growth

The Year Conservatives Saved Christmas

Spoils of Victory

The Pain at New Life

Devastated by an Affair

Salvation Army Wins Battle

View issue

Our Latest

When Deities Promise Answers to Dating and Money Woes

Until the gospel starts explicitly addressing daily needs, most Taiwanese non-Christians will likely remain uninterested.

News

Vets in Ministry Won’t Retreat from the Military’s Suicide Crisis

Christians say the epidemic of former service members taking their own lives is about more than PTSD.

News

Space Force Hymn Lifts Prayer to the Heavens

Southern Baptist chaplain says God prompted him to write song for the newest branch of the US military. 

Beijing, Let My Daughter Come Home

Power Without Integrity Destroys Us

Evangelicals helped elect Trump. Can evangelicals also hold him accountable?

The Bulletin

Sultan of Swing

The Bulletin addresses the election of Donald Trump.

What Another Trump Presidency Means To Evangelicals Around the World

Christian leaders from Nepal to Turkey greet the US election results with joy, grief, and indifference.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube