Fearless Dialogues

A New Movement for Justice
by Gregory C. Ellison II

Westminster John Knox Press

Christian , Religion & Spirituality

Pub Date 10 Nov 2017

I am reviewing a copy of Fearless Dialogues through Westminster John Knox Press and Netgalley:

This books offers the collective voices of a community, everyone from Doctor’s to drug dealers. The voice of former gang leaders. This book is a mixture of face to face conversations and substantive analysis.

In this book we are reminded of the importance of everything from loving our neighbors to offering friendship and a hand up to the strangers we may meet up.

From abduction to loss, to inadequate education this book deals with a wide array of issues and offers valid opinions on solutions.

This book brings to light the issue many African Americans deal with even to this day, from unfair, inferior treatments, to lack of education for many, causing drastic choices to be made.

But deeper than that this book is a reminder of the resilience, of the generosity of a community. It is a reminder of family ties and a strong faith.

I give Fearless Dialogues five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

<I>Fearless Dialogues</I> offers one practical way in which to bring social activism into the faith arena. While activism is often thought of as direct action, advocating for and effecting policy changes, and protests, this book offers another way: a more mystical path through the challenges of conflict, conflicting perspectives, and diversity of people.

While Gregory Ellison does not dismiss the more visible forms of activism, he notes that limiting activism to those kinds of actions “flattens” the notion. Not everyone is energized by or drawn to the more common forms of activism. Ellison offers that there may be other ways to effect social change that are less visible, yet no less important.

What Ellison suggests and describes in this book is a form of holding community conversations. The most important result from these conversations is learning to see, hear, and understand one another. The conversations intentionally bring together people of utterly different backgrounds, occupations, economic and social status. The goal is to see one another foremost as human beings of value, to understand one another, and to break down barriers. Ellison posits that as these things happen, we can begin to find common ground which will enable us to make progress toward finding solutions to difficult problems.

Ellison writes from personal experience in developing this method of creating social change. He uses stories from his life and his work to bring to life the concepts that he shares. What he offers in this book may be one way of working through the polarized morass that faces many of us today.