by G. McLeod Bryan

The are autobiographical reflections of one who, living through much of the 20th century, providentially found his own life influenced by interaction with the five persons profiled. In a century which began optimistically as "the Christian century" but ended in the judgement of Bishop Spong's book title, "Christianity Must Change or Die", these five persons bore witness to a different kind of Christianity, one that reached beyond the limitations of the institutional church and reclaimed a more authentic following of Christ.

This work pays tribute to the moral capacity of mankind. In a century obsessed with man's inhumanity to man, these five person were unanimous in their appeal to freedom of conscience and their total risk of personal benefit in order to shape the course of history for the betterment of all.

Bryan gives firsthand accounts of his interactions with five of the most important prophetic voices of the twentieth century:

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), Baptist preacher and American civil rights leader; C. F. Beyers Naude (1915- ), Afrikaner pastor involved in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa; Clarence Jordan (1912-1969), Southern Baptist preacher and New Testament scholar who founded the interracial Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia; Jaroslav Stolar (1922-1988), biblical scholar and Christian leader during the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia; Huston Smith (1919- ), pioneering Christian scholar of world religions who early in this century argued for the validity of different faiths.

Professor Emeritus G. McLeod Bryan has served as professor of religious studies, philosophy, and Christian Ethics at Mars Hill College, Mercer University, Washington University, Trinity Seminary in Nigeria, Baptist Seminary in Ruschlikon, and Wake Forest University.

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Religious Studies

ISBN 978-0-86554-639-4

MUP/P188