A Pilgrimage of Faith

Henlee Barnette's life has spanned most of the twentieth century. His life in the rural South eventually led to his becoming a Christian. He graduated from Wake Forest College in 1940, and then attended seminary, taking the Ph.D. in 1948. For the next 50 years he taught Christian ethics, but not just in the classroom. In this remarkable memoir, he stresses Christianity as a pilgrimage, a way of life undergirded by faith in God. Such faith is active in love and calls for justice in personal and social relations. One's journey in the world needs a spiritual compass: the Christian's personal responsibility to do faith active in love, that is, agape love. Such love includes justice. Love without justice is subjective and sentimental. Love that Jesus taught provides concreteness and structure. Agape love makes justice just. Christian faith that is purely personal is suspect. In his own pilgrimage he became aware of the demonic forces that dehumanize us. Among these was the denial of basic human rights to minority groups. Love and justice motivated him to join the Civil Rights Movement as a means of achieving more just interpersonal relations. His relationships with blacks and whites during the Civil Rights Movement fill the pages of this wonderful narrative. But Barnette also fought against unjust wars, ecological abuse, poverty, violence, and a multitude of other issues which confront and challenge both Christian and church.