Religion and spirituality have been key elements of African-American life since the earliest days of the slave trade

The Preacher King investigates Martin Luther King Jr.'s religious development from a precocious "preacher's kid" in segregated Atlanta to the most influential America preacher and orator of the twentieth century. To give the most accurate and intimate portrait possible, Richard Lischer draws almost exclusively on King's unpublished sermons and speeches, as well as tape recordings, personal interviews, and even police surveillance reports. By returning to the raw sources, Lischer recaptures King's truest preaching voice and, consequently, something of the real King himself. He shows how as the son, grandson, and great-grandson of preachers, King early on absorbed the poetic cadences, traditions, and power of the pulpit, more profoundly influenced by his fellow African-American preachers than by Gandhi and the classical philosophers. Lischer also reveals a later phase of King's development that few of his biographers or critics have addressed: the prophetic rage with which he condemned American religious and political hypocrisy. During the last three years of his life, Lischer shows, King accused his country of genocide, warned of long hot summers in the ghettos, and called for a radical redistribution of wealth. 25 years after its initial publication, The Preacher King remains a critical study that captures the crucial aspect of Martin Luther King Jr.'s identity. Human, complex, and passionate, King was the consummate American preacher who never quit trying to reshape the moral and political character of the nation.

Until now, the public life of James Walker Hood (1831-1918), bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church and a major political and religious leader of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth, has gone largely unexamined. For God and Race recovers the public career of Hood as a representative of the major builders of independent black Christianity during this period who understood faithfulness to God as inseparable from the quest for racial justice, and it explores Hood's role in the AMEZ Church, a denomination known for its singular success in promoting leadership for the abolitionist movement.

In this book Johnny Bernard Hill argues that prophetic rage, or righteous anger, is a necessary response to our present culture of imperialism and nihilism. The most powerful way to resist meaninglessness, he says, is refusing to accept the realities of structural injustice, such as poverty, escalating militarism, genocide, and housing discrimination. Hill s Prophetic Rage is interdisciplinary, integrating art, music, and literature with theology. It is constructive, passionate, and provocative. Hill weaves through a myriad of creative and prophetic voices of protest -- from Jesus to W. E. B. DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and President Barack Obama -- as well as multiple approaches, including liberation theology and black religion, to reflect theologically on the nature of liberation, justice, and hope on contemporary culture.

This issue, which marks the beginning of our fifth year, combines a number of articles about the good times and growing pains of a South reaching national maturity. It seems appropriate for us to answer, at this time, some of our readers' questions about who we re and what Southern Exposure represents. Early observers thought we'd never make it this far with a regional journal so critical of the powers that be and so preoccupied with the lesser known people, with the struggles and heritage of a culture considered bankrupt by sophisticated America. But, like the South, we have attained a new stability, partly from the spin-off of the media search for Jimmy Carter's South (they have yet to find it) and partly from our appeal to the same hunger for connections to a past, a place, a people, that made Roots a meaningful event for so many.

This Handbook received an honorable mention at the 2009 PROSE Awards. The PROSE Awards annually recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing by bringing attention to distinguished books, journals, and electronic content in over 40 categories. "This volume fills the tremendous void that currently exists in providing a much-needed lens for cultural leadership and proficiency. The approach provides a wide divergence of perspectives on African American forms of leadership in a variety of diverse leadership settings." —Len Foster, Washington State University The SAGE Handbook of African American Education is a unique, comprehensive collection of theoretical and empirical scholarship in six important areas: historical perspectives, teaching and learning, PK–12 school leadership, higher education, current issues, and education policy. The purpose of the Handbook is to articulate perspectives on issues affecting the participation and leadership of African Americans in PK–12 and postsecondary education. This volume also addresses historical and current issues affecting the education of African Americans and discusses current and future school reform efforts that directly affect this group. Key Features Promotes inquiry and development of questions, ideas, and dialogue about critical practice, theory, and research on African Americans in the United States educational system Makes significant contributions to the scholarship on African Americans in the broad context of U.S. education and society Addresses the central question—in what ways do African Americans in corporate, private, and public positions influence and shape educational policy that affects African Americans? "The SAGE Handbook of African American Education is a unique, comprehensive collection of theoretical and empirical scholarship in six important areas: historical perspectives, teaching and learning, Pre-K-12 school leadership, higher education, current issues, and education policy." —TEACHERS OF COLOR "A wise scientist once argued that to doubt everything or to believe everything often results in the same solution set; both eliminate the need for reflection. This handbook provides an intellectual space for those interested in true reflection on the human ecology of the African American experience in schools, communities, and society. The /Handbook of African American Education/ is a repository of information developed to advance the human service professional." —William F. Tate IV, Washington University in St. Louis "This handbook represents the most comprehensive collection of research on African Americans in education to date. Its breadth spans the historical, the political, institutional and community forces that have shaped educational opportunities and attainment among African Americans. The review of extant research on a range of topics from the role of culture and identity in learning, teacher preparation, educational leadership, to higher education and educational policy is far-reaching and cutting edge. This volume has historic significance and will become a classic collection on African American education for scholars and practitioners alike." —Carol D. Lee, Professor, Northwestern University Vice-President, Division G, American Educational Research Association "This handbook is needed as a basic reference for professors and graduate students conducting research on the education of Blacks in America." —Frank Brown, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A Legacy of Preaching, Volume Two--Enlightenment to the Present Day explores the history and development of preaching through a biographical and theological examination of its most important preachers. Instead of teaching the history of preaching from the perspective of movements and eras, each contributor tells the story of a particular preacher in history, allowing these preachers from the past to come alive and instruct us through their lives, theologies, and methods of preaching. Each chapter introduces readers to a key figure in the history of preaching, followed by an analysis of the theological views that shaped their preaching, their methodology of sermon preparation and delivery, and an appraisal of the significant contributions they have made to the history of preaching. This diverse collection of familiar and lesser-known individuals provides a detailed and fascinating look at what it has meant to communicate the gospel over the past two thousand years. By looking at how the gospel has been communicated over time and across different cultures, pastors, scholars, and homiletics students can enrich their own understanding and practice of preaching for application today. Volume Two covers the period from the Enlightenment to the present day and profiles thirty-one preachers including: Charles Simeon by Darrell Young Robert Murray M’Cheyne by Jordan Mark Stone Alexander Maclaren by R. Scott Pace Catherine Booth by Roger J. Green Charles Haddon Spurgeon by Thomas J. Nettles Rodney “Gipsy” Smith by Bill Curtis George Liele by Terriel Byrd Charles Finney by Robert W. Caldwell III John Jasper by Alfonza W. Fulwood and Robert Smith Jr. Henry Ward Beecher by Michael Duduit John Albert Broadus by Hershael W. York Phillips Brooks by Charles W. Fuller D. L. Moody by Gregg L. Quiggle B. H. Carroll by Robert Matz and Jerry Sutton Billy Sunday by Kristopher K. Barnett Karl Barth by William H. Willimon Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Keith W. Clements D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones by Carl Trueman John Stott by Greg R. Scharf Harry Emerson Fosdick by Dwayne Milioni R. G. Lee by Charles A. Fowler Aimee Semple McPherson by Aaron Friesen W. A. Criswell by David L. Allen Gardner C. Taylor by Alfonza W. Fulwood and Robert Smith Jr. Billy Graham by John N. Akers Martin Luther King Jr. by Alfonza W. Fulwood, Dennis R. McDonald, and Anil Sook Deo Adrian Rogers by Daniel L. Akin and Bill Curtis E. V. Hill by Dante D. Wright I Jerry Falwell by Edward E. Hindson J. I. Packer by Leland Ryken and Benjamin Hernández Volume One, available separately, covers the period from the apostles to the Puritans and profiles thirty preachers including Paul, Origen of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, George Whitefield, and more.