Customer Reviews

Give Me This Mountain: Life History and Selected Sermons

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To begin with some background on Rev. Franklin: he was born in that hotbed of Afro-American culture, the Mississippi Delta; was a prodigy like his daughter Aretha, in that he was called to preach at fifteen; and was one of the ministers who backed Dr. King whenever the civil rights movement needed funds. Rev. Franklin became nationally known in the black community for the beauty, the literacy, the poetry of his song sermons. Besides his church work, he became a recording artist and toured with Aretha. His song sermons are divided into a prose development of his theme, which are studded with home truths about human nature and find deep and original insights in even the most well-worked veins of Biblical interpretation, and then break into the "whooping" of black preachers, which is rendered in the book as poetry. Finally he often turns to outright song. It is hard to exaggerate the important of Rev. Franklin as an artist. His is a God of kindness, power and patience; his is a vision that sees hardship as the teacher of wisdom, and his poetry are parables which lift each piece into a realm of exaltation. Several of the sermons recorded in the mid-1950's are uncanny predictions of the upcoming civil rights movment, when Afro-Americans took matters into their own hands and faced their oppressors by appealing to their better natures.

And if I say this book soars with the music of Mozart, do not say I exaggerate; and if I say this book is as wise as the wisdom of Solomon, do not say I am foolish; and if I say this book touches with the beauty of the Good Samaritian, do not say I chase dreams; for we are better than we think we are.

In this collection of sermons and a narrative of a life, delivered to Jeff Todd Titon by the Reverend Franklin himself, the language and performance ability of a gifted preacher are presented carefully and revealingly. We learn how Franklin interpreted his conversion to the ministry, what it means to give a good sermon, and how Franklin's life history affected his religous work. The sermons themselves are presented with effective ethnopoetics which reveal the rhythms and pacing of Franklin's sermons. Yet, the texts of the sermons fail to reveal how the congregation responded to Franklin's sermons, and that audience response is integral to understanding the way Franklin spoke and paced and performed his sermons. I would also be interested in some analysis of the sermons, though I like that their presentation is in fact privileged, and absent of the editor's voice. Overall, an important and affective work that should be read by anyone who's interested in African American sermonic discourse, music, or religous traditions.

This is a good book and he sermons read well. But while this is not bad on paper, this might be better as an audio book or on CD. Havign heard Rev. Franklin's sermons on the radio as a child (including some of the ones included in this book), I could testify that you would be better off hearing this.

I got this for my husband for his birthday he loves to read about the old preachers who came before him. He loved it!