Living Faith: How Faith Inspires Social Justice

by Curtiss Paul DeYoung

What impels a Mohandas Gandhi or a Martin Luther King, Jr.? How does religious experience animate a lifetime of dedication and drive for social justice? In this instructive and inspiring account, Christian ethicist Curtiss DeYoung profiles three of the most dynamic and influential religious activists of the twentieth Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Malcolm X, and Aung San Suu Kyi - each from a different generation, a different faith community, and a different continent. His portraits show how their mystic faith drove them to justice commitments and beyond customary boundaries between people from other traditions, countries, and ways of life. Living Faith is more than a set of inspiring portraits. It also powerfully analyzes how these figures - along with such other luminaries as Rigoberta Menchú, Nelson Mandela, Winona LaDuke, Fannie Lou Hamer, Elie Wiesel, Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Dalai Lama - shared a fiery core experience and common characteristics that empowered their lives and work.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Justice, Social Justice

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

Rev. Dr. Curtiss Paul DeYoung is a racial justice academic, author, and activist. He served as the Co-CEO of the Minnesota Council of Churches (MCC)—an ecumenical council of 27-member denominational communions from Historic Black, Mainline Protestant, Pentecostal, Peace, and Greek Orthodox churches. MCC has programs in racial justice, refugee services, and interfaith relations. DeYoung previously served as the Executive Director of the historic faith-based racial justice organization Community Renewal Society in Chicago, IL with its unique programmatic combination of church-based community organizing, policy advocacy, and investigative journalism.

Dr. DeYoung was the inaugural Professor of Reconciliation Studies and Co-chair of the Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and Reconciliation Studies at Bethel University in St. Paul, MN. He served as an adjunct professor at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL.

Rev. DeYoung served on staff at congregations in Minneapolis, New York City, and Washington, DC. He is an ordained minister in the Church of God (Anderson, IN). He consults and speaks nationally and internationally with extensive relationships among activists and peacemakers across the United States and in South Africa and the Holy Land.

Reviews

[Don Dupay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book details stories of important people and how they led their lives to change the world. A very inspirational read. Highly recommended.

[Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Assigned book, it makes you want to go out and change your world! If you are already an advocate for living out your faith and for Social Justice issues then this will further compel you. If not, this will inspire you to be when you've learned about our forefathers fight and those who are presently fighting for Social Justice.

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started off reading this book for a Religion and Culture class, but after I got started I finished the book weeks in advance. It reads nothing like the normal textbook. It inspires, yet is an easy read. It informs, yet also entertains.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

still reading