Claude Atcho - Reading Black Books: How African American Literature Can Make Our Faith More Whole and Just

I met Claude and his family when they moved to Boston to plant a church here a few years ago. When Claude guest preached, I told my husband I thought wed just heard the next Tim Keller. Claude is a gifted communicator with a particular flair for speaking to people of different backgrounds and educational levels and carrying a broad audience with him. Im thrilled that he has applied his skill to this fascinating and timely project. This is his first book, but Im confident it will not be his last. I see Claude as a rising star, and I look forward to watching God use him in the coming years, both in print and in the pulpit.

Rebecca McLaughlin , author of Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the Worlds Largest Religion

Claude Atcho has artfully crafted a masterpiece of literary and theological reflections. Reading Black Books dares us to better see and understand the Black experience and, in doing so, to better see and understand ourselves. Claude is our guide to embracing and embodying a more whole and just faith through the study of Black books.

Michelle Ami Reyes , vice president, Asian American Christian Collaborative; author of Becoming All Things: How Small Changes Lead to Lasting Connections across Cultures

No one knows better or shows better than Atcho how twentieth-century African American literature is equipment for a better, truer orthodoxy. Reading Black Books offers brilliant and accessible theological readings of this literature that functionand feellike the pastoral care we desperately need. Faithful to the works on their own terms, Atcho recognizes both the unflinchingly critical theological challenges and unfailingly constructive theological contributions of these matchless, essential works. His readings bear life-giving theological fruit that nourishes readers toward life together, daring to do so because the literature dares and the gospel declares! For generations, these books have been bread in the wilderness, a table prepared in the presence of enemies. Atchos work helps readers in these desolate, polarized days to find anew in African American literature the welcome table. This is the bookand its hope the hope in Christthat I have been hungry for as a reader and as a teacher.

Tiffany Eberle Kriner , Wheaton College

Atcho opens his book with the acknowledgment, Right now, Black voices are in. Thank God for that! But his claim also implies the embarrassing ii history where Black voices were silenced. For the God who created all people, what a sorrow that churches have been divided and some voices amplified over others. Atchos book participates in redemption by handing the mic to Ellison, Wright, Hurston, Morrison, and others. Even more than extracting truth from their work or increasing our empathy with their characters, Atcho highlights how this literature discloses eternal verities. We dig into Countee Cullens portrayal of Christ, Wrights depictions of sin and justice. By attending to Black books, we renew our faith in the God who did not leave us to carve our own path but who revealed himself through his creatures and the stories they tell as they reach for him.

Jessica Hooten Wilson , author of The Scandal of Holiness

This book is a superb achievement that combines keen theological insight and in-depth literary analysis in a highly accessible format. Under Atchos masterful guidance, classic works of African American literature become an invitation to Black experience and, thereby, to a deepened Christian imagination. With its focus on the beauty of great stories, Reading Black Books has the potential to transcend ideological barriers and to open up new paths of discipleship for all Christians at this cultural moment.

Rev. Matthew Wilcoxen , rector, St. Johns Anglican Church, Sydney, Australia; author of Divine Humility: Gods Morally Perfect Being

With literary nuance and careful theological reflection, Claude takes the reader on a potentially transformative journey. The world needs more theologically reflective books on substantive literature, like this one. It deserves wide reading.

Jonathan Dodson , pastor, City Life Church; author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship and Our Good Crisis

This book breathes the Black experience with overtones of strength and hope and Jesus. Reading Black Books pays homage to brilliant Black scholarship while demanding we pay attention to the Christ it points to. Well-written and unique.

Jason Cook , senior pastor, Fellowship Bible ChurchRoswell