Desmond Tutu: A Spiritual Biography of South Africa's Confessor

by Michael Battle

The first biography of its kind about Desmond Tutu, this book introduces readers to Tutu's spiritual life and examines how it shaped his commitment to restorative justice and reconciliation. Desmond Tutu was a pivotal leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and remains a beloved and important emblem of peace and justice around the world. Even those who do not know the major events of Tutu’s life―receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, serving as the first black archbishop of Cape Town and primate of Southern Africa from 1986–1996, and chairing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 1995–1998―recognize him as a charismatic political and religious leader who helped facilitate the liberation of oppressed peoples from the ravages of colonialism. But the inner landscape of Tutu’s spirituality, the mystical grounding that spurred his outward accomplishments, often goes unseen. Rather than recount his entire life story, this book explores Tutu’s spiritual life and contemplative practices―particularly Tutu’s understanding of Ubuntu theology, which emphasizes finding one’s identity in community―and traces the powerful role they played in subverting the theological and spiritual underpinnings of apartheid. Michael Battle’s personal relationship with Tutu grants readers an inside view of how Tutu’s spiritual agency cast a vision that both upheld the demands of justice and created space to synthesize the stark differences of a diverse society. Battle also suggests that North Americans have much to learn from Tutu’s leadership model as they confront religious and political polarization in their own context.

396 pages, Hardcover

Published March 6, 2021

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Battle, a theologian in the Anglican Christian tradition, published a spiritual biography of the late South African Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu in 2021. The book was forwarded by the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet (Battle vii-viii). The Dalai Lama was a friend of Desmond Tutu (Battle vii). The book has an afterword by Desmond Tutu himself (Battle 315-318). The book has a timeline. The book has a selected bibliography. The book has an index. The book has illustrations. Battle views Desmond Tutu as a Christian Saint, so part of the book defines a Christian Saint from a theological perspective (Battle xv). Battle chose to organize the life of Tutu around “the three Christian mystical sages of maturing in the life of God-purgation, illumination, and union” (Battle xv). Battle defines these terms in the introduction (Battle 1-14). The first section is about the life of Desmond Tutu up until the end of Apartheid South Africa. The second section is focused on Desmond Tutu’s work in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa. The book's third section is about Desmond Tutu's life since his work on the TRC. Battle sees the late Tutu as a mystic, and a religious figure can be both political and mystic. The book is written for both a lay reader and a theological audience. Each chapter in the book is about a different time in Tutu's life. Battle’s biography of Desmond Tutu is a spiritual view of a religious figure, so the book is essential to understanding the figure of Desmond Tutu.