Mobilizing for the Common Good: The Lived Theology of John M. Perkins

by Peter Slade, Peter Goodwin Heltzel, Charles Marsh (Editor)

Born into a sharecropping family in New Hebron, Mississippi, in 1930, and only receiving a third-grade education, John M. Perkins has been a pioneering prophetic African American voice for reconciliation and social justice to America's white evangelical churches. Often an unwelcome voice and always a passionate, provocative clarion, Perkins persisted for forty years in bringing about the formation of the Christian Community Development Association--a large network of evangelical churches and community organizations working in America's poorest communities--and inspired the emerging generation of young evangelicals concerned with releasing the Church from its cultural captivity and oppressive materialism. John M. Perkins has received surprisingly little attention from historians of modern American religious history and theologians. Mobilizing for the Common Good is an exploration of the theological significance of John M. Perkins. With contributions from theologians, historians, and activists, this book contends that Perkins ushered in a paradigm shift in twentieth-century evangelical theology that continues to influence Christian community development projects and social justice activists today.

244 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Timothy Hoiland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book way more than I actually did. Dull and repetitive at times, what we have here is a disjointed collection of personal stories and soapboxes – some of which I've previously read elsewhere – with occasional considerations of Perkins and his lived theology (the point of the book!) scattered throughout. As far as collections of talks-turned-essays go, I guess it's okay. Here's my take: don't bother to pick this one up; get your hands on Perkins's own work instead.