|
|
Southern History / History
$20.00s, Paperback
214 pages, 6 x 9
978-0-86554-856-5, P242
|
The Stem of Jesse
The Costs of Community at a 1960s Southern School
The story of racial integration at Mercer University
Will D. Campbell
The Stem of Jesse is about the ironies of history, the ambiguities of even the best-intentioned of human actions, the complicity of all human beings in the histories of their respective societies, and the crucial roles of repentance and forgiveness in the health of a people.
On the surface, the book is about the struggle of Mercer University––a historic Baptist university in Macon, Georgia––to deal with the problems of racism, drugs, and protest in the 1960s. On a deeper level, the book is a portrayal of the plight of this nation and, ultimately, of the human condition itself. It is as significant, consequently, for Central Europe and sub-Saharan Africa as it is for Mercer University.
“Since the 1950s Will Campbell has been speaking from the heart about matters of the soul––about the wages of racism and the costs of community. The Stem of Jesse is such a tale: a parable of institutional resistance and personal redemption. From his roots as a white Mississippi Baptist farm boy, Campbell has been calling the South to account as no one else could. He was a spiritual force in the civil rights movement; now, more than ever his words echo the despair and the hope of a nation still struggling to wear its coat of many colors.” ––Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
Will D. Campbell is the award-winning author of Brother to a Dragonfly, The Glad River, Forty Acres and a Goat, Cecelia’s Sin, The Convention, and Providence. He was presented the 1994 Tennessee Governor’s Award for the Arts. Born in Mississippi, he earned his B.D. degree at Yale in 1952. A pastor for a short time, he became a “steeple dropout,” a preacher without a pulpit. From 1963 he was preacher and sometime director of the Committee of Southern Churchmen. As publisher of Katallagete, he once wrote what some consider his one and only sermon: “It is doubtful that the church will ever do anything significant until we proclaim the Gospel.” That’s enough sermon, even from Brother Will Campbell.
Titles of related interest
Cecelia’s Sin
Will D. Campbell
84 pp. Paperback. $12.00s. 0-86554-231-9. P026.
Call us toll free at 800-637-2378, ext. 2880 or 800-342-0841, ext. 2880 (in GA)
For help on orders email us at mupressorders@mercer.edu |
