John Ratte

Struggling for the Soul of Our Country

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“In this book, the octogenerian writer Preston Browning--poet, critic, activist, and author of Affection and Estrangement, A Southern Family Memoir, and Flannery O'Connor--makes the reader his companion for an intensely critical and very personal religious journey, from the constrained and life-denying 'sado-masochistic' southern Protestant culture of his early years, to the realm of a life-affirming faith that embraces the larger Christian vision of Bishop John Shelby Spong, Harvey Cox, Marilynne Robinson, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Berry, and Ernest Becker. The special power of this book comes from the way in which Browning presents his faith journey as intertwined with, and driven by, a passionate critique of American global politics and capitalism, from the Vietnam and central American wars to the current global climate crisis. There are powerful chapters tracing American political and social history as they were shaped by the country's failed imperial adventures. Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Chris Hedges are his companions in painting a grim picture of contemporary America; but he is saved from despair by the examples of the heroism of the Catholic resistance in central America, the activism of the young people of Occupy Wall Street, the testimony of activists and poets like Hedges and Carolyn Forche, ("Through these two fellow citizens, I, at any rate, feel connected to a love that transcends national boundaries and even global boundaries.") as well as his hopes for a better world for his grandchildren. Preston Browning's concluding hopefulness is all the more inspiring for the dark and painful political and religious passages through which it has been won.”