The Audacity of Faith

New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1949. First Edition . Hard Back. Very Good/Fair. 5 1/2" X 7 1/2. 154 Pages. Gift inscription of five inked-lines on the front endpaper. No other marks or defects noted to this otherwise as new book with light green boards. Dust jacket is a little ragged around the edges but is complete with the flap price $1.75. To those to whom the eternal demands of religion seem altogether too lofty for this present world, this new book will be most welcome. Allan Hunter's rare gift for bringing the vague and frowning eminences of faith into the focus of the modern candid camera is as much of today's world as television, yet it holds an eternal dynamic in its compass. Most of us, he shows, move on two levels of existence: the picnic ground, or the psychopathic ward. For many it represents their whole world: one of pleasure or one of cynicism. One more whirl on the merry-go-round! we cry, or There is no escape from this snake pit! forgetting that there is a third level of life. It is this third level of life that the book presents. Here are athletes of the spirit- only a few yet- but enough to show it is possible. Here the boldest researchers of the spirit breathe deeply as they respond to the whole meaning of life. Many have come through a terrific ordeal of faith, have known unreasoning fear; but a fear that has said its prayers. From thence, the book becomes specific: it abounds in examples and suggestions for those who are serious about this new and needed type of research. The chapter titles indicate the necessary steps: The Audacity of Faith, Life As a Delivery Room, Behind the Show Window, Beyond All Names, What Does The Wrath Mean?, The Athletic Way, The Training of Attention, Some Skills to Remind Us, Cells, Faith Is To Private Affair, and Do It First. As the lead pastor of Mount Hollywood Congregational Church, Rev. Hunter became a leading advocate for racial reconciliation and pacifist Christianity at a time when it was not popular.