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Eliza Griswold is the author of six books of poetry and nonfiction. Her book Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. More about this author >
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From the publisher:
“The revolution I wanted to be part of was in the church.”
Americans have been leaving their churches. Some drift away. Some stay home. And some have been searching for—and finding—more authentic ways to find and follow Jesus.
This is the story of one such “radical outpost of Jesus followers” dedicated to service, the Sermon on the Mount, and working toward justice for all in this life, not just salvation for some in the next. Part of a little-known yet influential movement at the edge of American evangelicalism, Philadelphia’s Circle of Hope grew for 40 years, planted four congregations, and then found itself in crisis.
The story that follows is an American allegory full of questions with urgent relevance for so many of us, not just the faithful: How do we commit to one another and our better selves in a fracturing world? Where does power live? Can it be shared? How do we make “the least of these” welcome?
Through generational rifts, an increasingly politicized religious landscape, a pandemic that prevented gathering to worship, and a rise in foundation-shaking activism, Circle of Hope tells a propulsive, layered story of what we do to stay true to our beliefs.
America is in an agony of crisis at all levels and at all scales. In a stunningly original approach to the quandaries of our present democracy, Eliza Griswold looks without flinching at a small religious group doing the hard and heartbreaking work of struggling with the most painful and politicized questions of our day. Circle of Hope brings the question of faith—or cynicism—to life, modeling what it takes to continuously grapple with what it means to love one’s neighbor.
