Preachers and Misfits, Prophets and Thieves: The Minister in Southern Fiction [Paperback]

G. Lee Ramsey Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2008

In this book, Lee Ramsey mines the riches of southern fiction and discovers a colorful assortment of ministers who arise out of the religious South. At once mystical and mischievous, these ministers haunt the margins of southern life while preaching a gospel that startles and compels. Throughout, Ramsey shows how ministers such as Roger Hagan in Will Campbell's The Convention and Hazel Motes in Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood can help show us the stumbling blocks to faithful ministry and steer clergy and congregations forward in today's world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Hallelujah! Just when you think there's nothing new to be said about religion and the South, here it comes, with all the force and conviction of a call. This excellent book is characterized by fine, clear writing, provocative ideas, and always these unforgettable characters, holy and horrible, saints and scalawags, drawn from the fiction of our time.
-- Lee Smith, author of Fair and Tender Ladies, Saving Grace, and On Agate Hill

Lee Ramsey has brought to us under one roof a company unforgettable, recognizable, powerful, weak, happy, and sad human beings. Open this book anywhere and read one page. See? It never slows down straddling a subjective fence with finesse, grace, and guidance, on one side is religion and on the other is literature. With his passionate and original insights and his clear, reasoned writing Lee is preaching an eloquent sermon that just might bring new life to churches and communities all over.
-- Clyde Edgerton, author of Lunch at the Piccadilly and The Bible Salesman

Lee Ramsey neither dismisses fictional Southern preachers as caricatures nor accepts them as factual portrayals of religion in the South. Instead, he listens to them and learns about ministry, for himself and for his readers. Now I have to return to the literature cited and read again. I think I may have laughed and cringed and cried in the wrong places. I do not know Lee's ability at arithmetic, but his reading and writing are well above grade level.
-- Fred B. Craddock, Professor Emeritus of Preaching and New Testament, Candler School of Theology

This is one of those grace-filled books that ought to be required reading for anybody, secular or ordained, who participates actively in the life and leadership of his or her church.
-- Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence

About the Author

G. Lee Ramsey Jr. a native of Georgia, is an ordained United Methodist Minister. He is the Marlon and Sheila Foster Professor of Pastoral Theology and Homiletics at Memphis Theological Seminary.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press (October 31, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664232248
• ISBN-13: 978-0664232245
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #333,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lee Ramsey, a native Georgian, was born in 1956, graduated from high school in Savannah, Ga. and attended Emory and Vanderbilt University where he concentrated in English and Religious Studies. A United Methodist Minister, he currently teaches pastoral care and preaching at Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, TN. An avid fiction reader, Lee frequently combines the use of fiction, particularly southern fiction, in his teaching. His book, Preachers and Misfits, Prophets and Thieves: The Minister in Southern Fiction, was a 2009 "Take and Read" selection of the journal Christian Century.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Y'all Gotta Read This 'Un, February 21, 2009

By 

Donald Mcclung (Savannah, TN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Preachers and Misfits, Prophets and Thieves: The Minister in Southern Fiction (Paperback)

In what may be a unique approach, this book explores how Southern fiction depicts ministers and how such depictions help us real people understand ministry in the South. Rather than over-stretching case studies or sanitizing personal anecdotes to illustrate his points, Ramsey allows characters from Southern fiction to lead him to his points. Some chapters focus on different roles the minister must fill: preacher, evangelist, pastor, priest, prophet, institutional salesman. Other chapters focus on the roles some ministers sadly choose to fill: con man, seducer, thief. Drawing on characters from novels and short stories by such authors as Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, Will Campbell, and Clyde Edgerton, Ramsey offers images of ministers that will not easily be forgotten. The lessons learned from the mistakes and successes of these colorful characters will not be easily forgotten either. Of course, some folks might wonder if made-up stories can offer sufficient guidance for those wanting to know more about ministry. Jesus sure thought so. In my book, that puts Ramsey in good company. In Ramsey's book, readers will find more truth about ministry than in any work which ignores fiction.

An inherent weakness in this type of book, of course, is that it's never as fulfilling to have someone else tell you about a story as it is to read it for yourself. Ramsey works well with this weakness, though, offering concise summaries and imagination-grabbing excerpts. I cannot see anyone reading this book without heading for the local library to read more about the colorful characters met in these pages.

Ramsey himself is a "perfect storm" as the author: a wellspring of Southern cultural knowledge coming from a lifetime in the South, a couple of decades of experience as a minister in Southern churches, and a shrewd critic of Southern literature.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uses Southern Fiction to Teach Ministry, January 11, 2009

By 

John S. McClure (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Preachers and Misfits, Prophets and Thieves: The Minister in Southern Fiction (Paperback)

This book is elegantly conceived and written, using Southern writing and the writer's own wisdom and wit to encourage best practices and critique worst practices of ministry, while also providing a great feel for what ministry is like in the American South. It will go into my top five book list on ministry.

I found myself highlighting lots of helpful sentences and great one-liners. My favorite is "Southern writers...have long cast their lines in ponds well stocked with bottom-feeding ministers." Indeed!

A first rate book, full of wisdom.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, March 4, 2009

By 

Quentin Caswell - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Preachers and Misfits, Prophets and Thieves: The Minister in Southern Fiction (Paperback)

This is an excellent book. The illustrations were very fitting and the lessons taught were helpful to pastors who desire to be at their best in serving their congregations.