This Far By Faith: Stories From the African American Religious Experience (2003) by Juan Williams and Quinton Dixie

Description

In times past, religion played a pivotal but largely unheralded role in shaping the African-American experience Religion has also shaped many of the ideals that are central to our notions of democracy and justice in America in this day and age.

Slaves who were confronted with the Christianity of their captors did not merely adopt the religion; they used its principles and practices to forge a path to freedom and deliverance, changing the very moral fabric of our country in the process. This book tells the story of how religious faith inspired the greatest social movement in American history — the Civil Rights Movement.

Hailed upon publication as a beautiful, seminal book on the role of the church in the African American community as well as on the social history of America, This Far by Faith reveals the deep religious conviction that empowered a people viewed as powerless to blaze a path to freedom and deliverance, to stand and be counted in this “one nation under God.”

Here are the stories of politics, tent revivals, and the importance of black churches as touchstones for every step of the faith journey that became the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Using archival and contemporary photography, historical research, and modern-day interviews, This Far by Faith features messages from some of today’s foremost religious leaders.

About the Authors

Juan Williams is a contributor to National Public Radio and appears regularly on Fox News. A former reporter for the Washington Post, he is the author of Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary and Eyes on the Prize, the companion volume to the award-winning PBS series.

Quinton Dixie is a professor of Religious Studies and an adjunct professor of African American Studies at Indiana University. He studied at Michigan University and the Union Theological Seminary in New York.