CRASHING THE IDOLS

If prophets are called to unveil and expose the illegitimacy of those principalities masquerading as the right and purportedly using their powers for the good, then Will D. Campbell is one of the foremost prophets in American religious history. Like Clarence Jordan and Dorothy Day, Campbell incarnates the radical iconoclastic vocation of standing in contraposition to society, naming and smashing the racial, economic, and political idols that seduce and delude. Despite an action-packed life, Campbell is no activist seeking to control events and guarantee historys right outcomes. Rather, Campbell has committed his life to the proposition that Christ has already set things right. Irrespective of who one is, or what one has done, each human being is reconciled to God and one another, now and forever. Historys most scandalous message is, therefore, Be reconciled! because once that imperative is taken seriously, social constructs like race, ethnicity, gender, and nationality are at best irrelevant and at worst idolatrous. Proclaiming that far too many disciples miss the genius of Christianitys good news (the kerygma) of reconciliation, this Ivy League-educated preacher boldly and joyfully affirms societys so-called least one, cultivating community with everyone from civil rights leaders and Ku Klux Klan militants, to the American literati and exiled convicts. Except for maybe the self-righteous, none is excluded from the beloved community. For the first time in nearly fifty years, Campbells provocative Race and Renewal of the Church is here made available. Gayraud Wilmore called Campbells foundational work an unsettling reading experience, but one that articulates an unwavering confidence in the victory which God can bring out of the weakness of the church. Richard Goode is at it again, much like Will Campbell before him. Both of these southern Christian iconoclasts have helped me to appreciate what Goode calls the genius of Radical Christianity. I recommend this bo