Steve Prince

Beauty Is a Basic Service

Arts & Literature

“It is believed that the greatest gift one can offer is one's life. I see Maria Fee's book, Beauty Is a Basic Service, as one of those rare gifts that cannot be contained on a shelf or placed on a table in the living room. Beauty Is a Basic Service is a feast of good news. Fee compels us to look at our Christian walk more soberly by interrogating our "theology of hospitality" through the life work of social practice artist Theaster Gates. Her book takes us on a spiritual journey, and along the way she challenges Protestant belief structures and Christian dogma, and deconstructs these towers of faith systems that blind our vision of the full body of the kingdom. In the end she brings us to a place where we can see the "other" without fear drenched in stereotypic constructions, but through a lens of love, compassion, and understanding. This book beckons us to honestly see ourselves in a mirror, acknowledging the beauty within, and to offer thanks to the Peerless One who created us.”

Hip-Hop Theology

Arts & Literature

“Hip-Hop Theology is an unflinching look at the challenging, sometimes controversial, complex, nuanced, brilliant, poetically layered, and eschatological power of hip-hop music and its indelible impact upon culture, the built environment, faith, and our individual walk toward salvation. This text beckons us to look, listen, and witness the historical significance of hip-hop music and its birthing from the rich roux of the streets with echoes of field songs and spirituals from people who have made a way out of no way.”