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Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement Toward Beloved Community, Charles Marsh and John Perkins (IVP)
Through his prolific pen, Marsh, professor and director of the Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia, has sketched historical accounts, a memoir and a couple of theological treatises. Marsh regularly probes the civil rights movement for stories of both tragedy and hope. In this volume, co-authored with his friend and legendary civil rights activist John Perkins, Marsh and Perkins situate the civil rights within the broader scope of God’s movement to reconcile all of creation. Probing the past and pointing to the future, Welcoming Justice offers a cogent guide for following God’s redemptive movement.
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Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir, Stanley Hauerwas (Eerdmans)
Always provocative, always thoughtful, usually outrageous — Stanley Hauerwas, renowned theologian and ethicist, was prodded and provoked until he scribbled down his life’s story. Right from the beginning, Hauerwas lets the wind out of any misguided notion that his life’s work has been one of conquest. “[T]heology is a discipline,” says Hauerwas, “whose subject should always put in doubt the very idea that those who practice it know what they are doing.” Weaving hilarious tales of his Texas childhood, sorrowful tales of his troubled marriage and intriguing tales of his many theological and academic scuffles, Hauerwas delivers an glimpse into the life of a man who, I suspect, will prove to be one of the most influential theological voices of the past couple decades.
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Gillian Welch, The Harrow & The Harvest (Acony Records)
Though wide acclaim arrived with her work on the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, singer-songwriter Gillian Welch has long been at the fore of folk music. Heralded by critics from both coasts (L.A. Times, Boston Globe, New Yorker, to name a few) Welch, along with her musical partner guitarist David Rawlings, have contributed to the ongoing renaissance of Appalachian, bluegrass and Americana music. Her latest release offers her earthy voice folding around the kind of story-laden lyrics that represent the best of American folk.
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Winn Collier is pastor of All Souls, a Baptist congregation in Charlottesville, Va., the author of three books and a columnist. (www.winncollier.com)