Robert M. Randolph

The Greatest Work in the World

History & Biography

“There are few occasions when a book comes along that completely catches you by surprise. Such is the case with The Greatest Work in the World, edited by Elizabeth C. Parsons. . . . What prompted a religious tradition like the contemporary churches of Christ, known for its sectarianism, its sectionalism, and its bias against the labors of the intellect, to engage in a frenzy of educational effort in the first decades of the 20th century? These efforts left remnants of genuine but short-lived schools across the midwest and southwest. These schools valued holiness and liberal education and were known for their counter-cultural embrace of the kingdom of God as lived out in hard scrabble outposts such as Cordell, Oklahoma. What they stood for will surprise you.”