Unshakable Faith

There is a rule that you can only ever have two sides of any triangle. I know, I know. You are wondering what on earth I am talking about. Well, let's look at a couple examples. How about motherhood. The three sides of the triangle are: happy kids, clean house, and your sanity. You can have happy kids and a clean house only by going insane keeping it all together. Or you can have happy kids and your sanity, but your house will be messy all the time. Or you can have your sanity and a clean house, but your kids will be miserable. Another example is hotel hunting. You've got price, location, and quality. You can have a good hotel at a great price, but the location will be horrible. Or you can have a good hotel at a great location... by paying an arm and a leg for it. You get the idea.

This book is an exception to this rule. In Unshakable Faith, Colin Littlemore tries to pull off three things simultaneously. You have a collection of biographical sketches. There is a chronological history of the African American struggle for equality. And each chapter works well as a devotional. After reading the back of the book, I was expecting the first two. Considering that this book is produced by Our Daily Bread Publishing, the third also comes as no surprise. What did come as a surprise was how well Latimore was able to pull together all three sides of the triangle.

Latimore begins the first chapter with the Revolutionary War era and highlighting Cyrus Bustill (one of the founders of the AME church) and the poet Phyllis Wheatley. The next chapter looks at the early 1800's and focuses on Nat Turner (slave rebellion) and Paul Cuffee (back to Africa movement). Each following chapter moves forward about a half century. Sometimes it is highlighting famous people we all would have heard of (Harriet Tubman, Booker T Washington, Duke Ellington) other times, the biographical sketches were of people I was less familiar with (Lott Carey, Fannie Lou Hamer). Each individual selected did seem to fit seamlessly into the narrative being shared. As would be expected from the title, these sketches were also filled with hope and highlighted individuals were successful because of their faith and in spite of the horrible racism and injustice they all so often faced. This leads to a book that deserves to be read by all of us, regardless of our own personal past and skin color.

A special highlight does need to go out to two chapters that focused on musicians. The first one highlighted Ellington, Thomas "Georgia Tom" Dorsey, and Ethel Waters. Each of these had a childhood faith they walked away from, but then returned to later in life. They are each brilliant examples of modern prodigals coming home. The final chapter threw the spotlight on modern rappers Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, and Kanye West. While at first skeptical of Kanye's well known and well publicized recent conversion, I just don't see the same from the other two. Much of what Latimore was writing here felt more like wishful thinking than fact. This was by far the weakest chapter in the book and a disappointing way to wrap it up.

Even still, this book was a great read. Martin Luther famously said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. Without ever mentioning the quote, Latimore beautifully illustrated it. Even though we still have a long road towards true equality and unity, we have come a long, long way. This is a timely reminder of hope in a world where so much of the narrative on racial justice is full of vitriol. We need a whole lot more books just like this one.

The author is uniquely gifted for the task of this book given his dual vocation as a historian with a particular focus on African American history and an ordained minister in an African American congregation. Readers will be deeply informed by the book, but even more so they will inspired and challenged in their own faith journey. Looks to be one of the key books in 2022 bringing the riches of African American faith to people of all backgrounds.

As a history nerd and a lover of Christ. This book was a gem to read and one i will definitely be purchasing for further reading. I loved learning and getting encouraged about the people spotlighted in this book.
Would definitely recommend this book to my fellow history lovers and Christians

Geared for history buffs, this book has a mix of African American history and religion. There were several stories that were very interesting. Although I knew several parts of it, the one about Thomas Dorsey was my favorite of the stories. Interesting read.

I received a copy of the book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review