Overview

Mission Mississippi is the largest interracial ecumenical church-based racial reconstruction group in the United States. Peter Slade offers a sustained examination of whether the Mission's model of racial reconciliation (which stresses one-on-one, individual friendships among religious people of different races) can effectively address the issue of social justice. Slade argues that Mission Mississippi's goal of ""changing Mississippi one relationship at a time"" is both a pragmatic strategy and a theological statement of hope for social and economic change in Mississippi. Carefully tracing the organization's strategies of biracial church partnerships and sponsorships of large civic events, and intercessory prayer breakfast groups, he concludes that they do indeed offer hope for not only for racial reconciliation but for enabling the mobilization of white economic and social power to benefit broad-based community development. At the same time, he honestly conveys the considerable obstacles to the success of these strategies. Slade's work comes out of the vibrant Lived Theology movement, which looks at the ways theologies go beyond philosophical writings to an embodiment in the grassroots lives of religious people. Drawing on extensive interviews and observations of Mission Mississippi activities, church sources, and theological texts, this book is important not only for scholars not only of theology and race relations but Southern studies and religious studies as well.

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9780195372625

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[a] perceptive study Robert Elder, Journal of American Studies

<br> The book strikes a delicate balance between constructive criticism and a deep awareness of and sympathy for the perspectives of both white and black. . . [Peter Slade] gets the story remarkably right, with all its nuances. --The Christian Century<br><p><br> In a book that artfully combines theology, history, and sociology, Peter Slade examines the 'lived theology' of Mission Mississippi. . . . this book is a theological analysis awaiting the final verdict of history. And while Mississippi's history gives little reason for hope in this regard, Slade's perceptive study does. --Journal of American Studies<br><p><br> Open Friendship in a Closed Society is a compelling account of how prayer and friendship have enabled Christians in Mississippi to pursue racial reconciliation in the aftermath of the civil rights era. With keen attention to personal narratives and historical background, author Peter Slade leads the reader in an exciting exploration of the global implications of a local e

<br> Open Friendship in a Closed Society is a compelling account of how prayer and friendship have enabled Christians in Mississippi to pursue racial reconciliation in the aftermath of the civil rights era. With keen attention to personal narratives and historical background, author Peter Slade leads the reader in an exciting exploration of the global implications of a local experiment in lived theology. I consider this book to be required reading for anyone who is willing to reconsider how religious practices and ideas can bring about social change. <br>--Cheryl J. Sanders, Author of Saints in Exile and Ministry at the Margins <br> This is an excellent piece of lived theology. The theological concept is the 'open friendship' of Jesus Christ. The situation is the closed churches and closed white society of Mississippi. The agent is Mission Mississippi. The solution is: opening friendship with the excluded, the other, the stranger. The goal can't be personal relationships only

Author Information

Peter Slade is Assistant Professor of Religion at Ashland University

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