We Carry the Fire

A pastor calls for positive actions to enact social change in this spiritual book. As a minister with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and a seasoned grassroots activist with Bread for the World, Hoehn is convinced that spirituality "begins with actions that help restore families, communities, and the earth." Most iterations of Christianity in America, he suggests, have too often made their religion inwardly focused on personal peace, salvation, or healing, as indicated by a Pew Research study. The study found that over 90% of active churchgoers primarily attend houses of worship to "become closer to God" or to turn into "a better person." Referring to this approach, he asks: "How is it even possible to find serenity in a world" full of war, sexual exploitation, and hunger? A reprioritization of actions that challenge prevailing injustices requires spiritually minded people to engage in a new type of "charitable politics" that tackles head-on issues of racial and economic inequalities. Calling politics "the Oxygen of Community Life," the book advises Christians to first "Admit the Harm We Have Done" and then advocate on the grassroots level for better jail conditions or education for undocumented children. One's public life, from the accumulation of knowledge to lifestyle and politics, should center on actions geared toward improving the conditions of humanity, as "the ongoing spiritual question is, 'What are we doing to make it better?' " Though a Christian, Hoehn intends his book for people of all faiths, and he recognizes that other religious traditions have much to contribute. "Wisdom," he notes, exists "wherever humans do." Even the passages the volume uses from the Bible are atypical. They come from books like Haggai and Ecclesiastes that warn against accumulating wealth or focusing on personal well-being. Intentionally diverse in the perspectives provided, the work includes vignettes about and interviews with community organizers, the perspectives of Black Lives Matter activists, and the views of Black theologians like Howard Thurman. Impressively well versed, the book is also chock-full of original poetry and literary references that range from Vedantic mythology to the works of Cormac McCarthy. A smart, thoughtful, inclusive case for reevaluating spiritual priorities.

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