On Books

Review: Racial Justice for the Long Haul

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "Racial Justice for the Long Haul" by Christine Jeske

Racial Justice for the Long Haul

Racial Justice for the Long Haul, Christine Jeske. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514011034) 2026.

Summary: Qualitative ethnographic research analyzing why some white advocates for racial justice persevere.

Pursuing racial justice is hard and long work. While many White Christians are convicted of the important work they can exercise as allies and advocates, enduring in that work for the long haul is another matter. Anthropologist Christine Jeske undertook to study why some have persevered in the work when many fell by the wayside. She began by working with racial justice advocates of color, asking them to recommend Whites who were examples of enduring advocacy. One of the first findings of her research was how many could not think of a single White person they could recommend. However, she eventually identified seventy people across four sites to interview. This book translates her findings into an engaging summary for a wider audience than her research colleagues. Across the stories of the seventy, she found three elements that sustained an engagement in justice advocacy.

The first of these elements is collision. This is the experience of confronting racial realities that strips away the “white imagination.” It might be an immersion in a Black neighborhood. Or it could be an honest conversation about what it is like for persons of color to deal with White people. For others, it could be a collision with either the ranking or invisibility of persons of color. Perhaps it is an experience where the tables are turned and they are the invisible ones. Others confront their own complicity with racial injustice. All of these engage the heart and are the moments where people began to care.

But this is only a beginning. Those who persevere also ask a lot of why. This is a process that engages the mind in understanding the history and structures of racism. One learns about the interlocking influences of education, incarceration, housing, hiring, and law perpetuate inequalities across racial groups. This leads to coming to terms with the scope of the challenge and a more realistic understanding of possible solutions. It is here, though, that challenges to perseverance rise. How do we embody what we know? Then how do we deal with the complexity of problems that defy simple solutions? Also, there are the real fears and guilt over the mistakes we inevitably will make, no matter how well intentioned.

And this leads to the third element that distinguished Jeske’s findings from most anti-racist training. It is the experience of responding to grace. It is the experience that turns despair into hope, when one experiences what one doesn’t deserve, not only from God, but from people of color. Yet this can be controversial. White’s transgress, often grievously. And people of color forgive. it becomes a stereotypic expectation. Jeske distinguishes the characteristics of true from false grace. Real prior indebtedness exists. Then grace is given freely rather than demanded. True grace is not mere psychology but traces back to God. Finally, it anticipates a response beginning with sincere apology, thanksgiving, reparation and restoration.

Jeske concludes with discussing the fruit of grace, hope. Again she distinguishes true from illusory hopes. True hope laments, mends, and risks–all hard work. But true hope also leans into joy, the celebrating of reconciled life together.

What marks this book is the combination of academic rigor and honest realism about long haul justice advocacy for whites. There is real struggle and failure and despair. Often change happens slowly and mostly in local, communal settings. The grace and hope she writes of come on the other side of these hard realities and are not cheaply won. This is supported by the stories of those who have persevered and by Jeske’s own story, included as an appendix. Jeske leaves readers under no illusion that it will be easy. But she also offers the hope of grace, that we neither achieve nor deserve but can only receive and respond to.

_____________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Wounded Generation

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "The Wounded Generation" by David Nasaw

The Wounded Generation

The Wounded Generation, David Nasaw. Penguin Press (ISBN: 9780593298695) 2025.

Summary: The experience of veterans returning from World War II, their invisible wounds and their impact, and the G.I. Bill.

We know them as “The Greatest Generation.” They were the veterans of World War II who fought a two-front war against fascist Italy and Germany and against Japan. My father was among them. Over 16 million Americans served in the military. For many of the men and women who fought on the front lines, they returned as different people than when they departed. Some bore obvious physical wounds. But others bore invisible wounds, traumas we would not begin to understand until the Vietnam era.

Those traumas took their toll on the veterans and their families. While these traumas were poorly understood at the time, our government did understand its need to reintegrate these large numbers of people into American9 society. The G.I. Bill may have represented one of the greatest social programs up to that time, targeting the welfare of a particular population, although Black benefits did not share many of those benefits. David Nasaw, whose father was also one of those veterans, offers in this book, an analysis of the experience of Americans returning home from the war.

Nasaw begins by describing how news reporting and the film reels shown in theatres told a heroic version of the war. Meanwhile, the details of the horrors of the war were carefully censored. This also included many of the bad habits troops acquired while in service. Nasaw describes the free distribution of cigarettes which addicted a generation, the alcoholism, and the sexual ventures of the troops. Then there were those left behind, particularly wives and girlfriends. They did not always wait faithfully.

When the war ended, the government faced the challenge of demobilization. European veterans faced possible reassignment in the Eastern theatre until Japan’s surrender. Nasaw analyzes the tension between gradual demobilization cushioning the impact of returnees with the pressures of waiting families. No one quite anticipated what both the veterans and their families would face.

There was the challenge of marital readjustments and the resultant rise in divorce rates. Then there were the psychological problems. On one hand, no one wanted to be labeled a “psych,” Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of the book describes the experience of those sent to hospitals enduring electroshock treatments or even partial lobotoimies. Most dealt with the nightmares and psychic pain by drinking, with resultant climbs in the incidence of alcoholism. and they tried to ignore the problems by throwing themselves into civilian life

But physical challenges also confronted the veterans, from getting jobs to finding housing to purchasing scarce consumer goods. Nasaw also describes each of these challenges and steps the government took to address them. The biggest of these was the G.I. Bill. Veterans benefits included a weekly benefit while they sought employment, mortgage assistance, and most prominently, educational benefits.

But not all veterans equally enjoyed those benefits. Nasaw chronicles the systematic discrimination against Blacks, both during the war and in access to benefits, often controlled by the states. Particularly, the Jim Crow South did not want Blacks to advance. And even in the North, Black veterans were often shut out of certain housing markets. Women and homosexuals also faced forms of discrimination.

However these programs did have a huge impact on the American landscape. Millions used G.I. benefits to go to college. Housing developers like William Levitt found ways to streamline home construction, building the American suburbs achieving record levels of home ownership, especially among Whites. The social programs extended to veterans fed the advocacy of the Civil Rights movement.

Nasaw also reminds us of the darker toll of the war reflected in the rising incidence of lung cancer and early deaths from alcoholism. Only after Vietnam did doctors identify and develop treatment for PTSD. For World War II veterans, it was often the death of a spouse or retirement that finally led them to talk to someone. Others had traumatic brain injuries, undiagnosed for decades.

None of what Nasaw describes in this book takes away from the accomplishments of “The Greatest Generation.” Rather, he brings to light the quiet heroism of those who went on to fight other battles. Some struggled with inner wounds while others faced discrimination. He also calls attention to the effectiveness of the social programs linked with the G.I. Bill, even with its shortcomings.

As I read this book, I wondered about my own father and how the war changed him. He was proud of his service in a mobile field hospital in Germany but he said little about his service apart from a visit of a general to award medals to troops. While he was close to but not on the front lines, he saw the effects of war. Like many veterans, he threw himself into work on returning home, providing for his family. He neither smoked nor drank. But I wonder what he carried from those years. Whatever is the case, he was certainly a part of “The Greatest Generation” in my eyes.

Review: Paul’s Gospel in Romans

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "Paul's Gospel in Romans" by Jarvis J. Williams

Paul’s Gospel in Romans

Paul’s Gospel in Romans, Jarvis J. Williams. Baker Academic (ISBN: 9781540963291) 2026.

Summary: Argues that Paul in Romans articulates a gospel with vertical, horizontal and cosmic dimensions.

Volumes have been written about Paul’s gospel in Romans. Some emphasize the vertical dimension of justification by faith, forgiveness of sins, reception of the Spirit and deliverance from God’s wrath. Others emphasize the horizontal dimension, including living righteously through the Spirit, in unity with other believers including between Jews and Gentiles. Yet others focus on the cosmic dimensions of the gospel, the deliverance of all creation from death, the resurrection of our bodies, and the new creation.

If Jarvis J. Williams were asked to choose which most faithfully describes the gospel in Roman, he would answer “yes.” In this book, he proposes that the best way to understand the gospel in Romans is that it is vertical, horizontal, and cosmic. All three are present. And by exegesis of selected texts, he shows how Paul elaborates each of these.

However, Williams begins by contending that we must first consider the “matters of first importance” that Paul elaborates in 1 Corinthians 15. These are Christ’s death for sins, bodily resurrection, ascension, and return. Then, before discussing the three dimensions in Romans, He shows how these “matters of first importance,” particularly the resurrection and death of Jesus in that order are present in Romans.

In introducing the three dimensions, he says they are interdependent but that the vertical good news is foundational. Williams then devotes one chapter each to the three dimensions. In each, he offers an extensive exegetical treatment of relevant texts.

For the vertical dimension, he shows the sinfulness of all humanity. Then he discusses justification, forgiveness, deliverance from wrath, and reconciliation. All are aspects of the gospel. Under the horizontal dimension, he shows how the Spirit transforms us to live lives of sacrificial love. He also renews our minds. Lastly, he restores relationships across all boundaries. Paul’s cosmic gospel is one of liberation for all creation that is subject to futility because of sin. As co-heirs with Christ, we await resurrection and the final defeat of death.

Williams offers a brief applicatory conclusion. He contends that we ought focus first on the matters of first importance rather than repentance in our proclamation. While we may not emphasize all the dimensions at any one time and must prioritize the vertical as the basis for the others, we have a great and expansive gospel to share. That was my takeaway from this book. We have a great gospel that touches every dimension of life and all of time and space. Furthermore, Williams show how all these dimensions cohere as one great gospel of the crucified, risen, ascended, and returning Lord. And he does all this in a clear and concise 144 pages.

_____________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Oh What A Day

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of Oh What A Day" by John B. Hatch, with Phil Keaggy

Oh What A Day

Oh What A Day, John B. Hatch with foreword and commentary by Phil Keaggy. Palmetto Publishing (ISBN: 9798318835919), 2026.

Summary: The background, composition, recording, and impact of Phil Keaggy’s debut solo album, a milestone in Christian music.

I come at this review from a unique perspective. Phil Keaggy and I both grew up in the Youngstown area. In 1970, he came to faith about the same time as I started following Christ. While I had heard of Glass Harp, the rock group of which he was lead guitarist, our paths first crossed at a Jesus rally on the front lawn of my church that might have been the launch of the local manifestation of the Jesus Movement in our area. On that Sunday afternoon, I spoke publicly about my faith in Christ for the first time. And Phil sang a song titled “The Answer” about how Christ is indeed the answer to all our searching.

Subsequently, he rented half of a duplex owned by an elderly woman from my church who lived at the other end of our street. I cut her grass and shoveled her drive and walks, which gave me a chance to make Phil’s acquaintance. This was about the time that he was leaving Glass Harp to go on his own. In the foreword to this book, Phil mentions recording the songs that would become “What a Day” on his Sony recorder. He played some of those recordings for me. I was in awe of both his guitar artistry and the beauty of the music. When the album came out, I snapped it up immediately. I still have it 52 years later and am listening to it as I write.

John B. Hatch, a retired communications professor and church mission also loved this album. This book is part of a larger project, a case study of Phil Keaggy’s career as an analysis of using music to “communicate spiritually and theologically.” But his study of “What a Day” was lengthy enough that he turned it into a book of its own.

As alluded to above, “What a Day” was Phil Keaggy’s first solo album, recorded in 1973. The ten tracks on the album were recorded at a cost of $1800, paid by a generous donor. Phil Keaggy plays all the instruments on this album. An interesting side note was that Gary Hedden, the recording engineer for the album came to faith in the process. After being rejected by several Christian labels, it was released in 1974 under New Song, a label launched by Christian disc jockey and leader of the Love Inn ministry in upstate New York.

John B. Hatch has researched the background of this album and the musical influences evident in the recording. Furthermore, he devotes a full chapter to each of the ten tracks on the album. Each chapter consists of three parts. First, Hatch gives us an initial description of the track and the musical elements and lyrics and how they work together. Then he offers a “Musical Deep Dive” walking through the track, looking in detail at key changes, providing transcriptions of interesting details, and other elements of Phil’s compositions and how they were recorded. Hatch also includes a helpful glossary of musical terms that he uses throughout the book. Finally, Phil offers his own reflections on the inspiration of the song, how he wrote it, recorded it, and its impact in performances. Hatch recommends listening to each track before and after reading each chapter, which I found helpful.

I’ve listened to this music for over fifty years. Yet Hatch helped me appreciate details of Keaggy’s musical genius I had missed. For example, in the opening track, he notes the acoustic and electric guitar octave descents that open “That is What the Lord Will Do for You” and how octave descents and ascents convey the joy of new life in Christ in the same way as the octave descent in “Joy to the World.” He writes:

“The timbre of acoustic guitars creates an intimate feel, while the regally marching low notes and briskly dancing high notes evoke majesty and celebration together, foreshadowing the sublime yet accessible music to follow. What a perfect introduction for a song (and album) about God who graciously ‘gives life to all mankind.’ “

The “deep dives” identify influences as diverse as Bach and The Beatles, including classical guitarist Julian Bream, whose records Phil played for me.

Hatch also helped me see two things about the album as a whole. While not conceived as a concept album, there is a seamlessness of flow from one track to the next, yet the tracks were only sequenced after the recording process was complete. He says the album “functions less as a collection of songs than a deeply immersive experience, a cohesive journey through the Spirit-saturated world of a young artist….” He also notes how the two sides on a vinyl recording focus on witness (side A) and worship (side B).

Hatch also addresses something I notice as I listen fifty years later. The lyrics are actually quite simple. However, what Keaggy manages to convey through the sheer musicality of the album transcends what the lyrics look like on paper. For example, “Hallelujah” consists of just that word, and yet leads the listener into exultant praise.

From my own background, I felt John B. Hatch characterized both Phil Keaggy and “What a Day” as I remembered them. But he also deepened and renewed my appreciation for music I hadn’t listened to for some time. There are both YouTube and a special 50th Anniversary recording available if you missed out on buying the album. If you love Phil Keaggy’s music, it will only enhance your appreciation. It certainly did for me.

_____________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Guards! Guards!

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "Guards! Guards!" by Terry Pratchett

Guards! Guards! (Discworld 8)

Guards! Guards! (Discworld, 8), Terry Pratchett. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780063373761) 2024, first published in 1989.

Summary: When a secret society summons a dragon to get rid of Ankh-Morpork’s Patrician, the Night Watch gains a new sense of purpose.

Carrot Ironfoundersson is an orphan raised by dwarfish parents. But he’s human, even though he has tried to fit into the society of the dwarves. So they send him off to become a guard in the Night Watch. He’s a strapping young man with high ideals who has learned the laws of Ankh-Morpork. But his idealism is quickly put to the test. The Night Watch consists of just two officers and Captain Vimes. They have reduced the job to announcing all is well and avoiding trouble, as well as copious drinking.

Meanwhile. a secret criminal society has plotted to replace the Patrician, who runs Ankh-Morpork with a figurehead they can control. To do so, they have stolen a book from the library of the Unseen University, incensing its orangutan Librarian, who goes to the Night Watch. The book is about summoning dragons. The first hint of the secret society’s success comes when some criminals go up in smoke, leaving a pile of ashes. Captain Vimes connects these events to the theft of the book, concluding a dragon is on the loose. So he consults Ankh-Morpork’s resident expert on dragons, Lady Ramkin. She raises swam dragons, a miniature form. She even bestows the runt of the litter, Errol on the Captain. Errol proceeds to eat everything in sight.

But the big dragon is wreaking extreme havoc on the city and the Patrician asks his neglected Guards for help. But help comes in the form of a young champion, who gestures to do battle with the dragon and, poof, it is gone. They lock up the Patrician while they prepare to crown the champion as king. But Captain Vimes is suspicious. Dragons don’t just go poof. As it turns out, the conspirators are poor wizards and leave a way for the dragon to return. And it does with a vengeance. It makes itself king and demands a hoard.

The Night Watch, once lackluster, now has a renewed purpose. And Carrot’s idealism gradually infects the others. But how does one defeat a dragon when the odds are a million to one against them? It turns out those are the right odds. And Errol, the odd little swamp dragon plays a starring roll.

And the moral of the story: don’t summon dragons unless you are very sure of what you are doing and read all the instructions!

Review: The Black Agenda

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "The Black Agenda" edited by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman

The Black Agenda

The Black Agenda, Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, ed. Foreword by Tressie McMillan Cottom. St. Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250276872) 2022.

Summary: Black thinkers in various fields make recommendations to combat racism and promote needed societal change.

The year of 2020 brought COVID, which had a disproportionate impact on Black communities, and the demonstrations following the death of George Floyd, asphyxiated by a Minnesota police officer. Despite the election of a Black president, it was clear that the structures of a racialized society endured. In the wake of that, this book was written, an effort of Black scholars and leaders in a wide array of fields. These included climate, healthcare and wellness, education, technology, criminal justice, the economy, and public policy. In all, thirty scholars contributed essays framing in brief proposals to address the impacts of racism in their area of work. The contributors did not aim for exhaustive nor bandage solutions. Rather, the book represents the thought of Black experts to offer ways forward from within the Black community that honor Black identity.

The essays on climate focus on the special vulnerabilities of Black communities to extreme weather as well as integrating climate concerns with other pressing issues. Also, the special vulnerabilities of Black communities argue against an #alllivesmattering approach to the environment. Finally, a representative of the Black Queer community advocates for greater visibility for the sustainability efforts that have characterized that community.

Under healthcare, essays focus on public health efforts that reflect racial awareness as well as recruitment of more Blacks to work in the health system. On a different note, the concluding essay advocates for the formal recognition and support of careworkers, many unpaid. The essays on wellness focused on interventions that promoted preventive wellcare. This includes prenatal and infant care, disability initiatives, and mental health services. Finally, the cofounder of Health in Her HUE writes about technology focusing on the health needs of Black women.

The essays under the education section were among the most wide-ranging. Specifically, topics included COVID educational environments, expectations for Black girls, and the representation of Blacks in children’s books. Advanced education included consideration of the effects of automation on students at HBCUs and student debt on wealth building.

Under technology, one of the essays discusses bias against Blacks in facial recognition and other technologies. In addition, there is the matter of algorithmic discrimination. Finally, there are ways artificial intelligence is defined and implemented that harm marginalized groups.

The opening essay under the criminal justice section argues for increasing diversity of police departments and other measures to diminish the contentious relationship police have with Black Americans. One essay argues for alternatives to our system of incarceration, the largest such enterprise in the world. Then, the following essay considers the impact of incarcerating Black men on women and families. The final essay focuses on the particular relationship between queer Blacks and the police.

The section on economics begins with an essay on the monetary policies of the Federal Reserve and how they impact Black workers. The next essay recommends the use of stratification economics to best understand Black economic realities. Finally, two women advocate a framework that pursues economic recovery through uplifting Black women.

The public policy section opens with advocacy for voter mobilization. This is complemented in the next essay by advocating the role of policy wonks alongside activists and organizers. The next essay argues we can ino longer neglect the Black rural South in the pursuit of justice-centered policies. The final essay argues for an Economic Bill of Rights.

The political climate in 2026 is very different from 2022. But this, to me underscores the importance of the book. By and large, these people are not often at the table. Often, the “table” doesn’t even recognize there are Blacks with expertise to contribute. My hope is that a more enlightened day will come, when decisions are not made for Blacks but with them, listening to what they would contribute. This book represents an example of the scholarship, expertise, and insight that this community brings.