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The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, From the Civil Rights Movement to Today
Speaking to his supporters at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956, Martin Luther King, Jr.- then a young minister only two years out of divinity school - declared that their common goal was not simply the end of segregation as an institution. Rather, “the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption, the end is the creation of the beloved community.” King’s words reflect the strong religious impetus behind the civil rights movement in the South in its early days. Consciously emphasizing the Judeo-Christian roots of their convictions, civil rights leaders at the time saw their ultimate purpose as building a “beloved community” on earth. In their quest for social justice, the radical idea of Christian love, specifically through the practice of nonviolence, would transform the social and political realities of twentieth-century America. By the end of the 1960s, that exuberant vision of the beloved community had come apart, lost to disillusionment and secular radicalism. But as noted theologian Charles Marsh shows, the same spiritual vision that animated the civil rights movement remains a vital-and growing-source of moral energy today. In moving prose, Marsh traces the history of this vision over the past four decades, from the racial reconciliation movement in American cities to the intentional communities that church groups have founded. His portraits of faith-based social justice initiatives-including Eugene Rivers’ Azusa Christian Community in Boston and Koinonia Farm in Georgia-offer a stark contrast to the usual media portrayal of Christian activism. Despite the odds against it, the pursuit of the beloved community continues to foster racial unity and civic responsibility in a divided American culture. With The Beloved Community, Marsh lays out a exuberant new vision for Christian progressivism, and simultaneously reclaims the centrality of faith in the quest for social justice.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published December 28, 2004
49 people are currently reading
689 people want to read
About the author
Charles Marsh
22 books23 followersMarsh is professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia and director of the research community "Project on Lived Theology." He is the author of eight books, including "God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights," which won the 1998 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Librarian Note:
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Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
October 25, 2012
Amazing book! Great history of the Civil Rights movements and subsequent attempts at 'beloved community'. I also appreciated that it was so intentional about its approach to the subject from a theological perspective. Secularists and Christians alike forget the deep theological roots of MLK and the movement.
June 12, 2020
Such a breathtaking journey from civil rights movement through today documenting the importance of beloved communities in social justice and social justice in beloved communities. Worth your time!
December 26, 2016
A few of the chapters lacked narrative pull but overall an important and encouraging read (especially the first two chapters!).
March 15, 2023
In his book, "The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice from the Civil Rights Movement to Today," Charles Marsh explores the intersection of faith and social justice movements, tracing the evolution of the concept of the "beloved community" from its origins in the teachings of Jesus to its role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and beyond.
One of the strengths of this book is Marsh's ability to connect the dots between seemingly disparate movements and individuals. He weaves together the stories of figures such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr., and Dorothy Day to show how their faith inspired their activism, and how their activism in turn inspired others to work towards a more just and equitable society. Marsh's extensive research is evident throughout the book, and his writing is both accessible and engaging, making it an enjoyable read for anyone interested in social justice issues.
Another strength of The Beloved Community is its relevance to contemporary social justice movements. Marsh argues that the concept of the beloved community has the potential to unite people across different faiths and backgrounds in the pursuit of social justice. He examines the role that faith communities have played in recent movements such as Black Lives Matter and the fight for immigrant rights, and argues that these movements can benefit from a more explicitly theological framework. Marsh writes, "In a time of deep division and conflict, the beloved community offers a vision of unity and reconciliation that transcends the boundaries of race, class, and religion."
One of the most compelling parts of the book is Marsh's analysis of the role of white Christian churches in perpetuating racism and inequality in the United States. Marsh does not shy away from critiquing his own faith tradition, and he calls on white Christians to confront the ways in which their theology and practices have been complicit in systems of oppression. This is a powerful message, and one that is all the more necessary in a time when many white Christians are resistant to acknowledging the ways in which they benefit from systemic racism.
Overall, I highly recommend "The Beloved Community." It is a well-written and well-researched book that sheds light on the ways in which faith can inspire and sustain social justice movements. Marsh's analysis of the concept of the beloved community is both nuanced and hopeful, and his call for unity and reconciliation is sorely needed in our current political climate. Whether you are a person of faith or not, this book is a valuable contribution to the ongoing conversation about how we can work towards a more just and equitable society.
One of the strengths of this book is Marsh's ability to connect the dots between seemingly disparate movements and individuals. He weaves together the stories of figures such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr., and Dorothy Day to show how their faith inspired their activism, and how their activism in turn inspired others to work towards a more just and equitable society. Marsh's extensive research is evident throughout the book, and his writing is both accessible and engaging, making it an enjoyable read for anyone interested in social justice issues.
Another strength of The Beloved Community is its relevance to contemporary social justice movements. Marsh argues that the concept of the beloved community has the potential to unite people across different faiths and backgrounds in the pursuit of social justice. He examines the role that faith communities have played in recent movements such as Black Lives Matter and the fight for immigrant rights, and argues that these movements can benefit from a more explicitly theological framework. Marsh writes, "In a time of deep division and conflict, the beloved community offers a vision of unity and reconciliation that transcends the boundaries of race, class, and religion."
One of the most compelling parts of the book is Marsh's analysis of the role of white Christian churches in perpetuating racism and inequality in the United States. Marsh does not shy away from critiquing his own faith tradition, and he calls on white Christians to confront the ways in which their theology and practices have been complicit in systems of oppression. This is a powerful message, and one that is all the more necessary in a time when many white Christians are resistant to acknowledging the ways in which they benefit from systemic racism.
Overall, I highly recommend "The Beloved Community." It is a well-written and well-researched book that sheds light on the ways in which faith can inspire and sustain social justice movements. Marsh's analysis of the concept of the beloved community is both nuanced and hopeful, and his call for unity and reconciliation is sorely needed in our current political climate. Whether you are a person of faith or not, this book is a valuable contribution to the ongoing conversation about how we can work towards a more just and equitable society.
February 7, 2018
Charles Marsh (professor of religion, University of Virginia) does a masterful job of analyzing the religious underpinnings of the civil rights movement. From Martin Luther King to the SNCC, Os Guinness to John Perkins, Sandtown to Harlem, Marsh examines the theological basis for social activism.
A must read for pastors, socially engaged Christians, and activists of all stripes. Well worth your time.
(Description from the publisher below)
Speaking to his supporters at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956, Martin Luther King, Jr.- then a young minister only two years out of divinity school - declared that their common goal was not simply the end of segregation as an institution. Rather, “the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption, the end is the creation of the beloved community.” King’s words reflect the strong religious impetus behind the civil rights movement in the South in its early days. Consciously emphasizing the Judeo-Christian roots of their convictions, civil rights leaders at the time saw their ultimate purpose as building a “beloved community” on earth. In their quest for social justice, the radical idea of Christian love, specifically through the practice of nonviolence, would transform the social and political realities of twentieth-century America. By the end of the 1960s, that exuberant vision of the beloved community had come apart, lost to disillusionment and secular radicalism. But as noted theologian Charles Marsh shows, the same spiritual vision that animated the civil rights movement remains a vital-and growing-source of moral energy today. In moving prose, Marsh traces the history of this vision over the past four decades, from the racial reconciliation movement in American cities to the intentional communities that church groups have founded. His portraits of faith-based social justice initiatives-including Eugene Rivers’ Azusa Christian Community in Boston and Koinonia Farm in Georgia-offer a stark contrast to the usual media portrayal of Christian activism. Despite the odds against it, the pursuit of the beloved community continues to foster racial unity and civic responsibility in a divided American culture. With The Beloved Community, Marsh lays out a exuberant new vision for Christian progressivism, and simultaneously reclaims the centrality of faith in the quest for social justice.
A must read for pastors, socially engaged Christians, and activists of all stripes. Well worth your time.
(Description from the publisher below)
Speaking to his supporters at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956, Martin Luther King, Jr.- then a young minister only two years out of divinity school - declared that their common goal was not simply the end of segregation as an institution. Rather, “the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption, the end is the creation of the beloved community.” King’s words reflect the strong religious impetus behind the civil rights movement in the South in its early days. Consciously emphasizing the Judeo-Christian roots of their convictions, civil rights leaders at the time saw their ultimate purpose as building a “beloved community” on earth. In their quest for social justice, the radical idea of Christian love, specifically through the practice of nonviolence, would transform the social and political realities of twentieth-century America. By the end of the 1960s, that exuberant vision of the beloved community had come apart, lost to disillusionment and secular radicalism. But as noted theologian Charles Marsh shows, the same spiritual vision that animated the civil rights movement remains a vital-and growing-source of moral energy today. In moving prose, Marsh traces the history of this vision over the past four decades, from the racial reconciliation movement in American cities to the intentional communities that church groups have founded. His portraits of faith-based social justice initiatives-including Eugene Rivers’ Azusa Christian Community in Boston and Koinonia Farm in Georgia-offer a stark contrast to the usual media portrayal of Christian activism. Despite the odds against it, the pursuit of the beloved community continues to foster racial unity and civic responsibility in a divided American culture. With The Beloved Community, Marsh lays out a exuberant new vision for Christian progressivism, and simultaneously reclaims the centrality of faith in the quest for social justice.
December 29, 2020
I've long been aware of this book, and I've read and assigned the first chapter before in classes I've taught on Christianity and Social Justice. But I'd never read the whole thing until now, and I'm so glad I did. The first three chapters, the ones I was familiar with, are the most important in terms of imparting information, as they lay out, in persuasive theological and historical detail, just how central the Christian vision of "the beloved community" was to how, at different moments during the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and the little-known Koinonia Farm, shaped, sustained, and propelled forward that movement. The middle and later chapters, though, are fascinating as Marsh uses the collapse of explicitly Christian motivations in that movement as an opening to start exploring a notion of beloved community in an even deeper way that the writings of King and other civil rights leaders allowed. By the end of the book, after Marsh has detailed more than a dozen examples of inspired Christians building anti-racist and anti-poverty associations and communities movements in cities and villages across the country, I couldn't help but see Marsh's beloved community as commenting upon the mysterious character of God's interventions in the world itself; that is, it becomes not just a book of history or theology, but a pastoral work. Some of his comments in the conclusion--such as when, drawing upon the writings of Thomas Merton and Clarence Jordan, the founder of Koinonia Farm, he counsels that "as Christians build beloved communities in, through, and outside the church, they [we!] must remain humbled by the camaraderie of unbelievers and non-Christians, grateful for their passion, and inspired (if not intrigued) by their pilgrimages in service, even as Christians continue to proclaim exuberantly the story of Jesus as the source of their own compassion and mercy"--are simply wonderful. As a Mormon who cannot help but think, given my own socialist dispositions, about what it means to seek for Zion and the Kingdom of God and the relationship between those two, Marsh's reflections upon a Christian tradition and an engagement with civil rights nothing like my own history, but it strikes me powerfully nonetheless. This is a great book.
September 30, 2024
A wonderful historical and theological study of the quest for "the beloved community," including Martin Luther King, Jr., Clarence Jordan, SNCC, John Perkins, and more. The book is not merely a survey of other sources, but also includes the author's own interviews. In particular, the section of the book devoted to John Perkins contains a substantial amount of original material derived from interviews with Perkins himself, as well as his family and ministry associates.
This is a book that gets at the very heart of things -- the beloved community. What is the point of all the struggle for liberation and justice? By exploring those who worked in the past, either explicitly aiming for the beloved community, or those more "secularized" movements which did not, one catches fleeting glimpses of this thing, this identity, this community that many of us long for but which often proves elusive.
I found so many examples that I wanted to dig deeper into. Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia Farm is one. Near the end of the book Marsh also surveys briefly a number of more contemporary (in 2005) efforts of those pursuing the beloved community, many in urban settings.
For those on the way following the call of an announcement of "good news to the poor, liberation to the captives," this book will introduce you to some fellow travelers in that great cloud of witnesses.
This is a book that gets at the very heart of things -- the beloved community. What is the point of all the struggle for liberation and justice? By exploring those who worked in the past, either explicitly aiming for the beloved community, or those more "secularized" movements which did not, one catches fleeting glimpses of this thing, this identity, this community that many of us long for but which often proves elusive.
I found so many examples that I wanted to dig deeper into. Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia Farm is one. Near the end of the book Marsh also surveys briefly a number of more contemporary (in 2005) efforts of those pursuing the beloved community, many in urban settings.
For those on the way following the call of an announcement of "good news to the poor, liberation to the captives," this book will introduce you to some fellow travelers in that great cloud of witnesses.
August 14, 2010
I read the Beloved Community a few years back with my father-in-law and find that it has really stuck with me as a provocative and inspiring historical account of the ways in which Christian theology provided an inspiration for elements of the American civil rights movement. Marsh's book isn't just intended to be historical, though he does great and careful work as a historian. The second half of the title, "to today" should give away the fact that he intends it to be a historical narrative which blends into reflection on the present day state of things, or at least the state of things in 2005 when this book was published.
Here's a sample of Marsh's reflection on contemporary state of things in terms of racial and social justice: For some time now, religious leaders and Christians have been quick to abdicate government responsibility for providing basic social services (by basic, I'd include making housing, food, health care, and education available and affordable), choosing to support tax-cuts in hopes that they will encourage Christian organizations to fill the vaccum and also provide for accountability of those programs by making their funding seem to be in constant jeopardy. There is some signs that the culture surrounding American privitization of social services is changing, as folks recognise that it is disingenuous at best to reflect on "government" as something extrinsic to Christian communities (and individuals). Rather, Christian activists are reconsidering whether they are also called to be involved in the process of government (lobbying doesn't count here!) and that the church can be a part of the process of supplementing basic social infrastructure and encouraging accountability. To this end, Charles Marsh points out in his book, “The Beloved Community”:
“Participation in community-building partnerships more often than not promotes an appreciation for greater government involvement, even as it raises awareness of the scale of povertyand exclusion in America. In his seminal speech before the National Association of Evangelicals in Dallas on March 7, 2001… the former director of the Federal Office of Faith-Based initiatives, John DiIulio explained: “Even if all 355,000 religious comgregations in America doubled their annual budgets and devoted them entirely to the cause of social services, and even if the cost of government social welfare programs was magically cut by one-fifth the congregations would barely cover a year’s worth of Washington’s spending on [social:] programs and never even come close to covering the program costs” Religious and provate institutions do not have the resources to carry the burden of social compassion alone; to place that burden on religious institutionns is to “abdicate the legitimate responsibility of government”. For this reason, a new appreciation for the scope of the social problem has led many volunteers to redefine the purpose of their mission…” (Marsh, 203).
But, setting his reflections on public policy aside, Marsh also provides an insightful retelling of the history of nonviolent civil rights activism, reflecting on Martin Luther's ascription, "The Beloved Community" as one of its aspirational goals. Marsh suggests, “the beloved community is the new social space of reconciliation introduced into history by the Church, empowered by the ‘triumph and beat of the drums of Easter’... The beloved community remains broken and scattered, an eschatological hope, yet precisely a hope that intensifies rather than absolves us from responsibilities in the here and now” (50).
He provides in-depth analysis of Martin Luther King's idea of nonviolence, include Ghandi's influence:
"King described the great epic of the cross as 'the event' that Interprets the non-violent direct action. The practice of nonviolence exemplifies the event of the cross in lived experience; in other words, 'the method of non-violent resistance' embodies the meaning of the cross in the human struggle for justice. But there is more. The cross is also the event that enables resistance, the power of the 'non-violent resister [to:] suffer and not retaliate'; and further; the cross activates the mission of the church, its comprehensive retelling of the human story, its pursuit of the peaceable kingdom. No longer is the church solely in the business of saving individual souls from damnation, but it embodies the 'great event' of the cross by making free space for redemptive community." (Marsh 45).
He also traces the decline of the Christian civil rights movement in a divergence of two different movements, which have occupied my imagination ever since reading this suggestion:
“in the end, the civil rights movement and the God movement illuminate two trajectories of building beloved community, which diverge and sometimes turn against the other: the church as the agent of social empowerment and the Christian community as a distinctive social reality that repudiates secular power. These two visions are not mutually exclusive; they overlap at times and coexist in complex ways relative to the social situation. Yet as these trajectories form an arch from Montgomery through Sumter County into subsequent decades of congregational activism, they forge differing visions and hopes of beloved community” (84).
But amidst all this helpful macro-political reflection, one little reflection has stuck with me the most firmly. Amidst some of my youthful zeal to participate in political change, he resurrected an important insight from the longer-winded and more mature civil rights movement: “This is an important but often overlooked point. It is easy to forget that so much of a civil rights life involved sitting around freedom houses, community centers, and front porches with no immediate plan of action” (93).
Ever since reading this book, I've been occupied by the historical question of American Christian approaches to Beloved Community, the troubled contemporary state of racial reconciliation and penitence, and the humility required of anyone desiring to be a part of social change.
Here's a sample of Marsh's reflection on contemporary state of things in terms of racial and social justice: For some time now, religious leaders and Christians have been quick to abdicate government responsibility for providing basic social services (by basic, I'd include making housing, food, health care, and education available and affordable), choosing to support tax-cuts in hopes that they will encourage Christian organizations to fill the vaccum and also provide for accountability of those programs by making their funding seem to be in constant jeopardy. There is some signs that the culture surrounding American privitization of social services is changing, as folks recognise that it is disingenuous at best to reflect on "government" as something extrinsic to Christian communities (and individuals). Rather, Christian activists are reconsidering whether they are also called to be involved in the process of government (lobbying doesn't count here!) and that the church can be a part of the process of supplementing basic social infrastructure and encouraging accountability. To this end, Charles Marsh points out in his book, “The Beloved Community”:
“Participation in community-building partnerships more often than not promotes an appreciation for greater government involvement, even as it raises awareness of the scale of povertyand exclusion in America. In his seminal speech before the National Association of Evangelicals in Dallas on March 7, 2001… the former director of the Federal Office of Faith-Based initiatives, John DiIulio explained: “Even if all 355,000 religious comgregations in America doubled their annual budgets and devoted them entirely to the cause of social services, and even if the cost of government social welfare programs was magically cut by one-fifth the congregations would barely cover a year’s worth of Washington’s spending on [social:] programs and never even come close to covering the program costs” Religious and provate institutions do not have the resources to carry the burden of social compassion alone; to place that burden on religious institutionns is to “abdicate the legitimate responsibility of government”. For this reason, a new appreciation for the scope of the social problem has led many volunteers to redefine the purpose of their mission…” (Marsh, 203).
But, setting his reflections on public policy aside, Marsh also provides an insightful retelling of the history of nonviolent civil rights activism, reflecting on Martin Luther's ascription, "The Beloved Community" as one of its aspirational goals. Marsh suggests, “the beloved community is the new social space of reconciliation introduced into history by the Church, empowered by the ‘triumph and beat of the drums of Easter’... The beloved community remains broken and scattered, an eschatological hope, yet precisely a hope that intensifies rather than absolves us from responsibilities in the here and now” (50).
He provides in-depth analysis of Martin Luther King's idea of nonviolence, include Ghandi's influence:
"King described the great epic of the cross as 'the event' that Interprets the non-violent direct action. The practice of nonviolence exemplifies the event of the cross in lived experience; in other words, 'the method of non-violent resistance' embodies the meaning of the cross in the human struggle for justice. But there is more. The cross is also the event that enables resistance, the power of the 'non-violent resister [to:] suffer and not retaliate'; and further; the cross activates the mission of the church, its comprehensive retelling of the human story, its pursuit of the peaceable kingdom. No longer is the church solely in the business of saving individual souls from damnation, but it embodies the 'great event' of the cross by making free space for redemptive community." (Marsh 45).
He also traces the decline of the Christian civil rights movement in a divergence of two different movements, which have occupied my imagination ever since reading this suggestion:
“in the end, the civil rights movement and the God movement illuminate two trajectories of building beloved community, which diverge and sometimes turn against the other: the church as the agent of social empowerment and the Christian community as a distinctive social reality that repudiates secular power. These two visions are not mutually exclusive; they overlap at times and coexist in complex ways relative to the social situation. Yet as these trajectories form an arch from Montgomery through Sumter County into subsequent decades of congregational activism, they forge differing visions and hopes of beloved community” (84).
But amidst all this helpful macro-political reflection, one little reflection has stuck with me the most firmly. Amidst some of my youthful zeal to participate in political change, he resurrected an important insight from the longer-winded and more mature civil rights movement: “This is an important but often overlooked point. It is easy to forget that so much of a civil rights life involved sitting around freedom houses, community centers, and front porches with no immediate plan of action” (93).
Ever since reading this book, I've been occupied by the historical question of American Christian approaches to Beloved Community, the troubled contemporary state of racial reconciliation and penitence, and the humility required of anyone desiring to be a part of social change.
December 11, 2020
I love this kind of book. A deep, well researched dive in history by a competent theologian which both inspires and turns us to lament. This book is both intellectually challenging and spiritually stirring. I learned much about the history of the civil rights, MLK, SNCC, John Perkins, and the many diverse attempts to create the beloved community.
As per Alan Jacob's review of Live Not by Lies I read both of these books concurrently, which allowed for two different visions of Christian faithfulness to be on display. The books are very different both in style and in content, but both are committed to showing what faithful discipleship has looked like in the past, and both books want for us to learn from the past and those who have suffered greatly for the causes of truth, goodness, and Christianity. The world is big enough for both of those visions of faithfulness to coexist, and I think we need both of those visions (along with many more).
As per Alan Jacob's review of Live Not by Lies I read both of these books concurrently, which allowed for two different visions of Christian faithfulness to be on display. The books are very different both in style and in content, but both are committed to showing what faithful discipleship has looked like in the past, and both books want for us to learn from the past and those who have suffered greatly for the causes of truth, goodness, and Christianity. The world is big enough for both of those visions of faithfulness to coexist, and I think we need both of those visions (along with many more).
April 26, 2018
I had to read portions of this book for class. The book is well written and engaging. I found myself quickly pulled into the lives of the various individuals in the book. It is also challenging in that it presents a Biblical view that seems to equate welfare and redistribution with caring for the widows and the orphans. However, it is also clear that the goal of the redistribution is not so everyone can be equal in outcome, but instead to create a "beloved community," one in which the Good News of Jesus Christ is clearly seen as well as heard. This book challenged my thinking in some ways, and I'll have to come back to it when I have time.
July 17, 2017
Brilliant stories from the Civil Rights Movement, from the 1950s to more recent times. Marsh's theological musings sometimes overcomplicate the narrative and slow things down, but the history is fantastic.
October 15, 2020
This is a fantastic portrait of various leaders and organizations of the Civil Rights Movement. Additionally, Marsh argues that the faith-based nature of the movement must not be forgotten or ignored.
Want to read
January 2, 2025BELOVED COMMUNITY: "A Community in which everyone is cared for, absent of poverty, hunger, and hate." "The end is reconciliation, the end is redemption," he said, "the end is the creation of the beloved community." - King, The Papers, vol. 3, p. 136.
March 31, 2022
The chapters on Perkins are worth the read. Unfortunately, Marsh’s conclusions (and occasionally biases) contradict the heart of Perkins’s ministry that he so admires.
February 6, 2023
A really powerful and sweeping history of the civil rights movement up until the early 2000s. It is unflinching and sobering its assessment. Definitely worth the read!
August 22, 2017
The thread that The Beloved Community follows is so broad that the work suffers from lack of precision. The subtitle "How Faith Shapes Social Justice" should give an indication: although the book does follow a particularly Christian faith, it could have stood to narrow even further. It's verbose. Chapters are too long for the content. The vignettes that Charles Marsh covers are interesting, especially those over the first few chapters--but there's just not enough thematically that ties the work together into one coherent narrative.
Marsh may not be at all concerned about the coherency of a narrative. He could -- and does seem to -- desire simply to add the appropriate color of faith to the history, pre-history, and post-history of the Civil Rights Era. That's well and good, but it doesn't make for an engaging read. As a reference work for particular figures in the CRE, this works. The SNCC, Koinonia Farm, John Lewis -- all are given due exposure.
There's something lost in Marsh's account when he fails to treat the "faith" of the activists in any kind of substantively theological manner. It becomes a romanticized hope. Thanks to my own studies on King, I know that there was a robustly theological component to especially the SNCC but also to the Civil Rights movement and her children.
Marsh may not be at all concerned about the coherency of a narrative. He could -- and does seem to -- desire simply to add the appropriate color of faith to the history, pre-history, and post-history of the Civil Rights Era. That's well and good, but it doesn't make for an engaging read. As a reference work for particular figures in the CRE, this works. The SNCC, Koinonia Farm, John Lewis -- all are given due exposure.
There's something lost in Marsh's account when he fails to treat the "faith" of the activists in any kind of substantively theological manner. It becomes a romanticized hope. Thanks to my own studies on King, I know that there was a robustly theological component to especially the SNCC but also to the Civil Rights movement and her children.
October 21, 2007
The Beloved Community is one of my favorites among the books I've read in the past year. Marsh looks at the history of the civil rights and Christian community development movements, from King's start in Alabama to John Perkins and other modern leaders, as a movement of theology being lived out. He writes wonderfully, and the history inspires both thought and action. I aspire to writing someday about how theology interacts with social action, and The Beloved Community is the best example I've yet seen of the kind of work I'd like to do.
January 19, 2015
Author Charles Marsh came to speak at our school in February, and a group of campus ministry people had the opportunity to have dinner with him beforehand. I liked him. And he autographed my book.
As for the The Beloved Community itself: it is a must-read for Christians, especially Christians in the American South, and anyone who cares about the history of civil rights--its achievements and failures--in the United States.
(A friend remarked: "I grew up a Christian in the South. Why didn't I know any of this happened?")
As for the The Beloved Community itself: it is a must-read for Christians, especially Christians in the American South, and anyone who cares about the history of civil rights--its achievements and failures--in the United States.
(A friend remarked: "I grew up a Christian in the South. Why didn't I know any of this happened?")
September 30, 2012
It took some time to wade through the book since the content is dense, but Marsh does provide an interesting hypothesis as he elaborates on the major shifts Civil Rights and their success or failure through a lens of how dedicated the activists or organizations stayed true to an idea of redemptive/restorative community. In the final chapters, I was disappointed to see how watered down Marsh's definition of faith community is, making his hypothesis about community somewhat difficult to enact in my mind.
July 18, 2009
A good way to become convinced that MLK was amazing. Inspiring and simultaneously depressing in its vision of reconciliation and detailing of different attempts at that during the time period. After reading this, it's hard to believe that some people still think that racism in this country is dead, when the events that took place in MLK's lifetime are still lived memories in the minds of our parents and grandparents (for people in my age bracket, anyway). Thanks for the free book, Messiah!
February 14, 2013
I felt like this book was well written and provided good objective insight into the different angles in which the Civil Rights Movement was being addressed. Marsh presents the different efforts that were being taken during the Civil Rights Movement but I really appreciated that he did not leave the reader with an idea that the work was done. He closes the book by highlighting some of the continued work being done around the country towards "Beloved Community".
May 24, 2021
This book summarized:
The Civil Rights Movement revealed the power of Christian love, through non-violence and passion for social justice, to transform America. Through triumphs and tragedies, people like Martin Luther King, Clarence Jordan, and John Perkins continue the work of creating “Beloved Community.” The men and women of the Civil Rights Movement are examples for the next generation that seeks to continue pushing America to be a better, more just society.
The Civil Rights Movement revealed the power of Christian love, through non-violence and passion for social justice, to transform America. Through triumphs and tragedies, people like Martin Luther King, Clarence Jordan, and John Perkins continue the work of creating “Beloved Community.” The men and women of the Civil Rights Movement are examples for the next generation that seeks to continue pushing America to be a better, more just society.
August 3, 2013
In this exploration of the Christian call to create Beloved Community, Marsh tells the stories of people who have taken the call seriously. Essentially, the book is an invitation to Christians to take Jesus' way of life seriously as a model for their own with lots of examples of those who have done just that. Compelling.
October 10, 2007
Marsh nicely weaves a refreshing history of MLKing and the Civil Rights movement's roots in radical Christian community and the gospel's call for reconciliation with contemporary glimpses of hope from around the country and world. I love this book.
September 3, 2008
I had only read the first half of this book before now. I'm not in disagreement with his thesis so much as curious what he would do with the origins of the Black Panther Party and their programs in Oakland during the Civil Rights Movement. It was as a gaping hole during my reading.
January 5, 2015
Super book. It demonstrates how a genuine faith can make a real difference in terms of making a change in the world. It also highlights how Christian convictions can lose their power when watered down by a secular agenda.
January 22, 2008
Well written accounts of civil rights leaders, told from more than just a historical perspective. Makes me want to take a Civil Rights roadtrip.
January 30, 2008
takes a look at the civil rights through the lens of faith and spirituality.
March 16, 2010
One of my books for Social Justice.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews