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

by Peter Slade (Editor), Shea Tuttle (Editor), Jacqueline A. Bussie (Editor), Charles Marsh (Foreword by)

Overview

Meet twelve activists whose faith transformed twentieth-century America. 
 
In a political climate where Christianity is increasingly seen as reactionary, People Get Ready offers a revolutionary alternative. Narrated by some of the most galvanizing voices of the current moment, this collection of succinct and evocative biographies tells the stories of twelve modern apostles who lived the gospel mission and unsettles what we think we know about Christianity’s role in American politics.  
 
As the spiritual successor to Can I Get a Witness?, People Get Ready presents a diverse cast of twentieth-century “saints” who bore witness to their faith with unapologetic advocacy for the marginalized. From novelists to musicians to scientists, these courageous men and women rose to the challenges of their times. Just so, readers will reflect on their legacies in light of the challenges of today.  

Contributors: Jacqueline A. Bussie, Carolyn Renée Dupont, Mark R. Gornik, Jane Hong, Ann Hostetler, M. Therese Lysaught, Charles Marsh, Mallory McDuff, Ansley L. Quiros, Daniel P. Rhodes, Peter Slade, Jemar Tisby, Shea Tuttle, and Lauren F. Winner.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802879042
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	01/10/2023
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	298,356
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Peter Slade is professor of the history of Christianity and Christian thought at Ashland University. Slade's first book, Open Friendship in a Closed Society: Mission Mississippi and a Theology of Friendship (Oxford University Press, 2009), is an interdisciplinary study of an ecumenical racial reconciliation initiative in Mississippi. He has been a coeditor of and contributor to two volumes with the Project on Lived Theology: Lived Theology: New Perspectives on Method, Style, and Pedagogy (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Mobilizing for the Common Good: The Lived Theology of John M. Perkins (University Press of Mississippi, 2013).



Shea Tuttle is the author of Exactly as You Are: The Life and Faith of Mister Rogers (Eerdmans, 2019), coauthor with Michael G. Long of Phyllis Frye and the Fight for Transgender Rights (Texas A&M University Press, 2022), and coeditor of Can I Get a Witness? Thirteen Peacemakers, Community Builders, and Agitators for Faith and Justice (Eerdmans, 2019).



Jacqueline A. Bussie is the executive director of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research. She previously taught religion, theology, and interfaith studies at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Her books include The Laughter of the Oppressed (T&T Clark, 2007), which won the national Trinity Prize; Outlaw Christian: Finding Authentic Faith by Breaking the Rules (Thomas Nelson, 2016), which won the 2017 Gold Medal Illumination Award for Christian Living; and Love Without Limits: Jesus' Radical Vision for a Love with No Exceptions (Fortress, 2018).

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Foreword by Charles Marsh
Acknowledgments 
Ansley L. Quiros on Florence Jordan  
Carolyn Renée Dupont on Bruce Klunder   
Jemar Tisby on Tom Skinner   
Mallory McDuff on Rachel Carson  
Mark R. Gornik on Allan M. Tibbels  
Jane Hong on Mary Paik Lee  
Jacqueline A. Bussie on Flannery O’Connor   
Peter Slade on Pete Seeger   
Ann Hostetler on Toni Morrison   
Daniel P. Rhodes on Jack Egan  
Lauren F. Winner on Sarah Patton Boyle   
M. Therese Lysaught on Ramon Dagoberto Quiñones  
Notes
List of Contributors
Further Reading
Index

Editorial Reviews

11/07/2022

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.)

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly
“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.”

Booklist
“The 12 people profiled in this fascinating collection of biographical essays were indeed, as the title suggests, ready to pursue justice, often against great odds. . . . All. . . are well served by the authors of their profiles[,] . . . who do not hesitate to point out flaws while nevertheless celebrating their subjects’ many contributions.”

Check out the resources from The Project on Lived Theology: https://www.livedtheology.org/writing/people-get-ready/

 

From the Publisher