Customer Reviews

Soul among Lions: Musings of a Bootleg Preacher

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With a gentle poetic nudge, Campbell reminds us that we are all in the same family, that we humans need each other as much as we need to get on with the business of forgiving.This book of short essays that Campbell calls "musings" (and that can be read in less than an hour) asks questions about human frailties and pretenses with love and acceptance and wit. A Southerner of courage and conscience and keen intelligence, Campbell wonders why the Fannye Browns who quietly go about doing good for others are forgotten while the Trent Lotts and Jerry Falwells seem to go loudly about doing good for self. Campbell muses that the national angst about homelessness can be assuaged if each church congregation takes just one homeless person into its care. He wonders about the motives of the Christian Coalition and simply asks that we look beneath the surface to find our common humanity. "Soul Among Lions" will give moral courage to the reflective reader.This thought-provoking book is the sort to purchase by the dozen to send as gifts to friends and one's elected officials.

Will D. Campbell, "bootleg preacher" to the unwashed and unlovable,has penned another book of wonder. Brother to a Dragonfly is viewed a modern classic[as it is}.Soul among Lions is a worthy cousin. Brother Will has stayed busy, stirring up a hornets nest wherever he can, placing a well intentioned burr in the saddle of the powerful. The short, wonderful essays are a goldmine for the comitted christian{though, of course, that statement covers an awful lot of ground}.Read Brother will, then look at yourself. If you are not challenged,read it again. To comfort the powerless and make the powered uncomfortable, and to do it with wit, and poetry.Quite a book, quite a human being.

Soul Among Lions is a a wonderful tidbit to introduce the wit, wisdom, prophecy, profanity, and other gems attached to the genius of Will Campbell. The readings are indeed short and crisp--and powerful. My suggestion is to read slowly and chew the cud carefully--you can bet Mr. campbell never utters a word he hasn't savored first.

There are longer and thicker books among the author's impresive canon, and each is worth the journey, but Soul Among Lions sheds a little light on why such a diverse cast of characters, from Thomas Merton to Waylon Jennings and various points in between, have sought out this particular "Bootleg Preacher," sat and watched him whittle down a cedar stick, and perhaps muse a little here and there.

And it is just a taste, but if it stirs your appetite--and it most likely will--then there are other Campbell books waiting to be devoured.

These are very short meditations focusing on scripture in relation to present day situations. They are meant to tantilize you and begin discussion or thought. This is an easy book to just pick up and read a few pages or sit down and read the complete work in very little time. For me it was a breath of fresh air.

Each musing (chapter) gets only a few pages. It reduces some of his ideas to no more than: wouldn't this be nice? with no suggestions to make it happen. I was hoping the book would be more like Jim Wallis' Faith Works.