People Get Ready: Twelve Jesus-Haunted Misfits, Malcontents, and Dreamers in Pursuit of Justice

In this enlightening compendium, history professor Slade (Open Friendship in a Closed Society), essayist Tuttle (Exactly as You Are), and Bussie (The Laughter of the Oppressed), executive director of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, collect profiles of a dozen 20th-century Christians whose faith informed their activism. Essays cover the lives, faith, and impact of such “saints” as environmentalist Rachel Carson, who believed the study of nature could enhance reverence for creation; Mary Paik Lee, best known for her memoir, Quiet Odyssey, who was sustained by her conviction that God would redeem the pain she faced from racism and poverty as a Korean immigrant in the U.S.; and Tom Skinner, a Black evangelical activist who criticized racism in the evangelical community. Contributors don’t shy away from the unflattering qualities of their subjects, as when historian Jemar Tisby reflects on Skinner’s support for modest racial reconciliation over radical structural change, or when Bussie grapples with how to assess Flannery O’Connor’s personal racism in the context of her more liberal fiction. The sharp biographical sketches affirm that Christian faith can fuel progressive action, and illuminate the complexities of Christian progressivism. The stories will inspire and discomfit. (Jan.)