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* Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies; Director, Project on Lived Theology
* Charles Marsh - Faculty. University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

"Charles Marsh," - Mississippi Writers and Musicians.

Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors (2015). "Charles Marsh." Gale. Online at link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000145665/BIC?u=va0036_011&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=b878dc7c. Accessed 16 Oct. 2022.

ABOUT THIS PERSON Born: February 09, 1958 in Mobile, Alabama, United States Nationality: American Occupation: Theologian Other Names: Marsh, Charles R. Updated:June 5, 2015 PERSONAL INFORMATION Born 1958, in Mobile, AL; son of Robert (a minister); married Karen Wright Marsh, August 7, 1982; children: Henry, William, Nan. Education: Gordon College, B.A., 1980; Harvard Divinity School, M.A.; University of Virginia, M.A. (philosophical theology), Ph.D.; postdoctoral studies at the Free University of Amsterdam and the University of Iowa. Addresses: Office: The Project on Lived Theology, 033 Gibson Hall, 1540 Jefferson Park Ave., Charlottesville, VA 22903. E-mail: crm3p@virginia.edu. CAREER Writer, theologian, educator. Loyola College, Baltimore, MD, professor of theology and ethics, 1990-99, director of the Project on Theology and Community; University of Virginia, Charlottesville, former associate professor of religious studies, currently Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies and director of the Project on Lived Theology. Fellow at the University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, the Baptist Theological Seminary, Ruschlikon, Switzerland, 1986-87, Free University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1989, and the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, 1992. AWARDS Lilly Endowment grant, 1996, for the creation and direction of Loyola College's Project on Theology and Community; Grawemeyer Award, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville, 1998, for God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights; Lilly Endowment grant, 2008, for the operation of the University of Virginia's Project on Lived Theology; John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in the Creative Arts, 2009; Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow, American Academy in Berlin, 2010. WORKS WRITINGS: • (Editor, with Wayne Whitson Floyd, Jr.) Theology and the Practice of Responsibility: Essays on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Trinity Press International (Valley Forge, PA), 1994. • Reclaiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Promise of His Theology, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1994. • God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1997. • The Last Days: A Son's Story of Segregation at the Dawn of the New South, Basic Books (New York, NY), 2001. • The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today, Basic Books (New York, NY), 2005. • Wayward Christian Soldiers: Against the Political Captivity of the Cross, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2007. • Welcoming Justice: God's Movement toward Beloved Community, IVP Books (Downers Grove, IL), 2009. • (With Peter Slade and Peter Goodwin Heltzel) Mobilizing for the Common Good: The Lived Theology of John M. Perkins, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 2013. • Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Alfred A. Knopf (New York, NY), 2014. SIDELIGHTS Theologian Charles Marsh is the editor, with Wayne Whitson Floyd, Jr., of Theology and the Practice of Responsibility: Essays on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Paul Stroble wrote in the Christian Century that "Bonhoeffer's ideas haunt us: cheap grace, religionless Christianity, the coming of age of the world, the secret discipline, Christ existing as community, the call to live in the world as if God did not exist. His epistolary reflections from Tegel Prison are the source of many of these ideas." Contributors include scholars from the United States, Canada, Europe, and South Africa, representing Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox traditions, and "aim less at exploring biography and historical contexts than at enriching our appropriation of Bonhoeffer's theology," noted Stroble. Mark S. Brocker stated in the Journal of Religion that in Reclaiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Promise of His Theology, "Marsh's effort to reclaim Bonhoeffer for contemporary theological inquiry entails three primary tasks. The first is to examine the complex theological relationship between Barth and Bonhoeffer." The second task, commented Brocker, "is to examine how Bonhoeffer utilizes the philosophical tradition of transcendental subjectivity from Kant through Hegel and Heidegger," and the third "is to show how his critical use of Barth's theology and of the German philosophical tradition of transcendental subjectivity leads to a 'new social ontology of Christ's presence in the world.'" Choice reviewer R.L. Perkins found the chapters on Heidegger and Hegel to be the most interesting, and stated that "they reinforce the impression one has of the ongoing importance of idealism for the early decades of this century in spite of the efforts of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche." With God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights, Marsh offers a reflection on "Freedom Summer," when activists traveled to Marsh's home state of Mississippi to register black voters. Marsh explores the role of religion in civil rights reform, and in doing so focuses on five devout Christians, each with a unique interpretation of Scripture. The first is Fannie Lou Hamer, a woman in her forties who left the cotton fields to "work for Jesus" in the civil rights movement. Sam Holloway Bowers, Jr., was Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi, a "Christian militant" who led the Klan from 1964 to 1968, when he was convicted of the murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman. Marsh interviewed Bowers over four nights in attempting to determine whether he used religion to cover his terrorism, but he concluded: "One of the things that struck me was that he had a very highly developed idea. He turned to nineteenth-century racist literature, Nazi literature, Southern racist propaganda, and Scripture." Marsh also profiles two white ministers, Edwin King, who favored integration, and Douglas Hudgins, who did not. D'Lena M. Ambrose wrote in the Chronicle of Higher Education that the final profile, of Cleveland Sellers, a black member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, "illustrates the transformation experienced by some black people in the civil rights movement who abandoned nonviolence in frustration and joined separatist movements." Sellers reversed his position of nonviolence after the shooting of James Meredith, who integrated the University of Mississippi. Christian Century contributor Gary Dorsey wrote: "Often relying on the subjects' own words and other primary sources, Marsh describes the faulty logic and errant principles of most of the actors, though he does so with compassion and remarkable restraint." "Marsh's theological interpretations," said Dorsey, "are so light and deft that the intellectual scaffolding rarely shows through the narratives. He shows how religious beliefs, which undergirded the activity of five vastly different Christians, either held firm or collapsed. He presents a fresh and inspiring story of faith in action and, perhaps, a view of God's hand in human history." Lewis V. Baldwin wrote in the Journal of Church and State that "Marsh has produced a good work on the connection between faith and activism in the modern civil rights movement. Although much of what he shares is already widely known in scholarly circles, one is impressed with the ways in which Marsh brings his insights as a theologian to bear on his analysis of some of the most complex figures in the struggle to shape the image of the South and indeed the nation around issues of race." The Last Days: A Son's Story of Segregation at the Dawn of the New South, which was called an "intimate and well-written memoir" by a Publishers Weekly contributor, revolves around Marsh's father. Robert Marsh moved his family to Laurel, Mississippi, to become pastor of the First Baptist Church in 1967. The Civil Rights Act had been passed in 1964, and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, but Klan opposition to the federal legislation continued, and Laurel was the headquarters for Imperial Wizard Sam Holloway Bowers. "The narrative derives its considerable power from the father's confrontation with his own cowardice," wrote Carol Polsgrove in the American Prospect. "Suspicious of the civil rights movement and the northern ministers who supported it, the Reverend Robert Marsh had believed in equality and justice but not in racial mixing--until a searing event shook his understanding of the world in which he lived," added Polsgrove. In 1968, Reverend Robert Marsh agreed to present the Jaycee Man of the Year Award to Clifford Wilson, a local manufacturer who was active in civic affairs. Immediately following the banquet, Wilson and other Klan members were arrested and charged with the murder of Vernon Dahmer, a prosperous black man who had arranged for African Americans to pay their poll taxes at his store. The Klan burned Dahmer's house and fired into the inferno, killing him. Reverend Robert Marsh was sickened by these events and considered leaving Laurel and accepting one of the teaching positions he had been offered. He visited Marcus Cooley, a black Baptist preacher, and told him that he was now free "to do what's right." Cooley replied: "A man isn't free when he takes a stand because he has nothing to lose. Surely you understand this. Surely you understand that until you are willing to lose everything, you will never know what it means to be free." Christian Century contributor Lovett H. Weems, Jr., felt that "Marsh's story reminds us of the heroic witness of African American clergy. The Allen Johnsons and Marcus Cooleys of his town had counterparts in every community in Mississippi. They endured limited opportunities, abuse and violence. Yet they remained prophets of reconciliation, sought a better life for all children, and lived to get a small glimpse of the promised land they preached." Marsh carried his shame and stayed on as pastor of the Laurel church. His sermons included references to racial justice, but at levels that would not threaten his position. Weems noted that "though fair-minded white clergy and laity did make a faithful witness, their efforts took place within such a constricted social context that the results tended to be marginal at best, even when those involved paid a high price for their courage." The minister participated in the integration of Laurel schools when they were desegregated in 1970, and his son attended an integrated public school. Mary Carroll wrote in Booklist that in this memoir, Marsh "seeks to come to accept his beloved father's inability to make certain social changes in the 1960s as well as appreciate those he did make." Marsh revisits the civil rights movement in his 2005 title, The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today. In this work he offers "a fresh interpretation of the American search for authentic community in the decades since the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and includes a narrative of the rise and fall of the evangelical counter-culture," according to a writer for the Project on Lived Theology Web site. Reviewing the work, a Publishers Weekly critic called it an "ambitious, wide-ranging book." David Stricklin, writing in the Journal of Southern History, felt that "Marsh's work is perhaps most valuable in confounding stereotypes, some deeply cherished." Thus, he shows, for instance, that not all evangelicals or fundamentalist Christians are necessarily politically conservative. Chris Rice had similar praise for The Beloved Community in Christian Century, noting that "ultimately Marsh's is a profound theological argument about the nature of responsibility and social transformation in America's new racial time." In his 2014 release, Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Marsh attempts to describe the contradictions at the heart of the renowned German theologian's theology and to locate the sources for these contradictions in his biography. Bonhoeffer has been mythologized since his death in 1945, and this process had rendered him remote and unknowable; Bonhoeffer the pacifist theologian and martyr seems detached utterly from a human biography. Strange Glory aims to correct this. Born to a wealthy family in Breslau, Germany, Bonhoeffer was a pampered aristocrat with few religious convictions who transformed himself into a fiery theologian who insisted that faith should not reside in abstract religious precepts but should be a tangible, omnipresent force in every church parishioner's life. Bonhoeffer may have come to his faith relatively late, but he approached it with an uncommon zeal. In 1930, he traveled to the United States, where he spent time with an array of social reformers, Harlem churchmen, and religious thinkers. He discovered that faith could be an animating political force with the capacity to galvanize action in the real world and combat human suffering. Marsh connects this experience with Bonhoeffer's well-known and courageous opposition to the Nazi regime. Though Bonhoeffer was ultimately executed by a government he denounced and strove to combat, he achieved a final transformation in his death: he became a Christian martyr. In Strange Glory, Marsh shows how a believer encountered and confronted absolute evil, in the guise of the Nazi murder engine. He also depicts a man who was flawed, sometimes intellectually incoherent, and beset by all manner of inner sufferings--in other words, a complicated and fascinating human being. A Kirkus Reviews contributor declared, after weighing the merits of Marsh's biography: "There is no doubt Marsh's portrayal will infuse new controversy into discussions about Bonhoeffer for years to come." Randall Balmer argued that Marsh's biography is an uncommonly successful one and stated: "Marsh guides his narrative with a steady hand." Christian Wiman thought that Marsh owes his success to his decision to make religiosity central to his understanding of Bonhoeffer. Wiman noted in his Wall Street Journal review that "Strange Glory is a splendid book. It counters the neutered humanism extracted from Bonhoeffer by secularists who do not want to admit that his bravery and his belief might have been inextricable." FURTHER READINGS FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: BOOKS Marsh, Charles, God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1997. Marsh, Charles, The Last Days: A Son's Story of Segregation at the Dawn of the New South, Basic Books (New York, NY), 2001. PERIODICALS American Prospect, April 23, 2001, Carol Polsgrove, review of The Last Days, p. 44. Booklist, March 1, 2001, Mary Carroll, review of The Last Days, p. 1212. Choice, January, 1995, R.L. Perkins, review of Reclaiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Promise of His Theology, p. 806. Christian Century, December 7, 1994, Paul Stroble, review of Theology and the Practice of Responsibility: Essays on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 1167; April 22, 1998, Gary Dorsey, review of God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights, p. 453; May 23, 2001, Lovett H. Weems, Jr., review of The Last Days, p. 19; August 9, 2005, Chris Rice, review of The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today, p. 34; September 1, 2014, Brent Laytham, review of Welcoming Justice: God's Movement toward Beloved Community. Christianity Today, February 9, 1998, Randy Frame, review of God's Long Summer, p. 70. Chronicle of Higher Education, December 12, 1997, D'Lena M. Ambrose, review of God's Long Summer, p. A10. Church History, December, 1998, Merrill Hawkins, Jr., review of God's Long Summer, p. 824. Cresset, August, 1997, review of Reclaiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 36. First Things, September 1, 2014, review of Wayward Christian Soldiers: Against the Political Captivity of the Cross. Journal of Church and State, winter, 1999, Lewis V. Baldwin, review of God's Long Summer, p. 151. Journal of Religion, October, 1997, Mark S. Brocker, review of Reclaiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 635; April, 2000, Lillian Ashcraft-Eason, review of God's Long Summer, p. 335. Journal of Southern History, August, 2006, David Stricklin, review of The Beloved Community, p. 719. Journal of Theological Studies, April, 1996, David Fergusson, review of Reclaiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 376. Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2014, review of Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Library Journal, March 1, 1998, Jack Forman, review of God's Long Summer, p. 104; June 15, 2014, Michelle Martinez, review of Strange Glory, p. 101. Modern Theology, January, 1996, George Hunsinger, review of Reclaiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 121; October, 1999, Michael G. Cartwright, review of God's Long Summer, p. 502. New York Times Book Review, August 8, 2014, Randall Balmer, review of Strange Glory. Publishers Weekly, September 15, 1997, review of God's Long Summer, p. 69; March 5, 2001, review of The Last Days, p. 76; December 13, 2004, review of The Beloved Community, p. 63, Kerry Ose, review of God's Long Summer, p. 64. Social Forces, December, 1999, Pamela Oliver, review of God's Long Summer, p. 836. Times Higher Education Supplement, June 5, 1998, John White, review of God's Long Summer, p. 26. Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2014, Christian Wiman, review of Strange Glory. ONLINE Project on Lived Theology Web site, http://livedtheology.org/ (September 29, 2006), author profile. Religion & Politics, http://religionandpolitics.org/ (July 30, 2014), Tiffany Stanley, author interview. University of Virginia, Religious Studies Department Web site, http://religiousstudies.virginia.edu/ (September 29, 2014), author profile. University of Virginia Web site, http://www.virginia.edu/ (September 29, 2006), author profile.* Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2022 [ Marsh, Charles R. Updated:June 5, 2015 PERSONAL INFORMATION Born 1958, in Mobile, AL; son of Robert (a minister); married Karen Wright Marsh, August 7, 1982; children: Henry, William, Nan. Education: Gordon College, B.A., 1980; Harvard Divinity School, M.A.; University of Virginia, M.A. (philosophical theology), Ph.D.

Charles Marsh (Religious Studies) Charles R. Marsh (b. 1958) is Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies and the director of the Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia.Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors (2015). "Charles Marsh." Gale. Besides other works, he is most recently the is the author of Evangelical Anxiety: A Memoir,Marshall, Charles (2022). Evangelical Anxiety: A Memoir. Description and book review. HarperCollins. and Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.Marshall, Charles (2014). Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Description. Knopf.Charles Marsh - Faculty. University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Early life and education

Charles Marsh was born 1958 in Mobile, AL.GaleLit His family moved to Laurel, Mississippi in 1967, where his father was a minister at First Baptist Church of Laurel. Several prominent members of the KKK attended his father’s church in the 1960’s. The family moved to Atlanta in 1978."Charles Marsh," Mississippi Writers and Musicians.

He attended Gordon College in Massachusetts, receiving a degree in English literature and philosophy in 1980.mswritersandmusicians.

Marsh has authored nine books, and many journal articles and book chapters.

He also translated such works as

Charles Marsh - Mississippi Writers and Musicians Major Works 9 books Evangelical Anxiety: A Memoir (2022). Description and book review. HarperCollins.

Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2014) Welcoming Justice (2009) with John M. Perkins and Philip Yancey Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity (2008) God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights (2008) The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice from the Civil Rights Movement to Today (2006) The Last Days: A Son’s Story of Sin and Segregation at the Dawn of a New South (2002) Reclaiming Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Promise of His Theology (1996) Biography of Charles Marsh Charles Marsh grew up in Laurel, Mississippi (1967 to 1973). His father was a minister at First Baptist

Church of Laurel. Several prominent members of the KKK attended his father’s church in the 1960’s. The family moved to Atlanta in 1978.

Marsh graduated from Gordon College in Massachusetts with a degree in English literature and philosophy. He went on to study religion at Harvard Divinity School and philosophy at the University of Virginia.

He served on the faculty of the Theology Department at Loyola College in Maryland as well as theologian-in-residence at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore. His book, God’s Long Summer, won the 1998 Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

Marsh currently teaches religion at the University of Virginia. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Related Websites

Charles R. Marsh (b. February 09, 1958)Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors (2015). "Charles Marsh." Gale. Online at [link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000145665/BIC?u=va0036_011&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=b878dc7c Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors.] (2015). "Charles Marsh."] Gale. Accessed 16 Oct. 2022. is the Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies and director of the Project on Lived TheologyCharles Marsh - Faculty. University of Virginia, Charlottesville.Commonwealth Professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia,. [https://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/mississippi-writers/charles-marsh "