Portraits of twelve churches retrace Christianity's evolution through close studies of specific sites. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem exemplifies paradoxes—life and death, peace and violence, prosperity and poverty. The Hagia Sophia reveals Christianity's complex relationship with secular power. The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church links notions of time and justice. A concluding chapter examines contemporary expressions—megachurches in Nigeria, hidden congregations in China, and virtual services—and emphasizes hope, especially as framed by the Book of Revelation. A pithy, poignant childhood portrait immortalizes a mid-century Jewish community through vivid vignettes, lively characters, and a blend of loss and madcap spirit.
Christianity's evolution. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem illustrates the paradoxical nature of a religion that twins life and death, peace and violence, prosperity and poverty; the Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, illuminates Christianity's "complicated dance with secular power"; the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, in Birmingham, Alabama, affords a glimpse of how "time and justice are inherently linked" in Christian thought.
This pithy, poignant memoir by an award-winning American poet immortalizes a bygone world in a colorful mosaic of vignettes, jokes, and reflections. The Jewish community of Hirsch's mid-century youth is vividly evoked in characters including his father, a would-be gangster with a penchant for enigmatic mottoes like "Blood ain't pee"; his tough, "Old Testament" mother; and a boisterous host of wily, wisecracking grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, neighbors, and friends.
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