Raphael G. Warnock

On the heels of his historic election to the United States Senate, Raphael Warnock shares his remarkable spiritual and personal journey Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock occupies a singular place in American life. As Senior Pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and now as a Senator from Georgia, he is the rare voice who can at once call out the uncomfortable truths that shape contemporary American life and, at a time of division, summon us all to a higher moral ground. Senator Warnock grew up in the Kayton Homes housing projects in Savannah, the 11th of 12 children. His dad was a World War II veteran, and as a teenager, his mom picked tobacco and cotton in rural Georgia. Both were Pentecostal preachers. After graduating from Morehouse, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s alma mater, Senator Warnock studied for a decade at Union Theological Seminary while serving at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. At just 35, he became the senior pastor at Ebenezer, where Dr. King preached and served. In January, Senator Warnock won a run-off election that flipped control of the Senate at one of the most pivotal moments in recent American history. He is the first Black senator from Georgia, only the 11th Black senator in American history, and just the second from the South since Reconstruction. As he said in his maiden speech from the well of the Senate, Senator Warnock’s improbable journey reflects the ongoing toggle between the pain and promise of the American story. A powerful preacher and a leading voice for voting rights and democracy, Senator Warnock has a once in a generation gift to inspire and lead us forward. A Way Out of No Way tells his remarkable American story for the first time.

A Memoir of Truth, Transformation, and the New American Story

A Way Out of No Way

A revealing look at the identity and mission of the black church What is the true nature and mission of the church? Is its proper Christian purpose to save souls, or to transform the social order? This question is especially fraught when the church is one built by an enslaved people and formed, from its beginning, at the center of an oppressed community’s fight for personhood and freedom. Such is the central tension in the identity and mission of the black church in the United States. For decades the black church and black theology have held each other at arm’s length. Black theology has emphasized the role of Christian faith in addressing racism and other forms of oppression, arguing that Jesus urged his disciples to seek the freedom of all peoples. Meanwhile, the black church, even when focused on social concerns, has often emphasized personal piety rather than social protest. With the rising influence of white evangelicalism, biblical fundamentalism, and the prosperity gospel, the divide has become even more pronounced. In The Divided Mind of the Black Church, Raphael G. Warnock, Senior Pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the spiritual home of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., traces the historical significance of the rise and development of black theology as an important conversation partner for the black church. Calling for honest dialogue between black and womanist theologians and black pastors, this fresh theological treatment demands a new look at the church’s essential mission.

Raphael G. Warnock

About

Books

Join the club