Book Review
By Darold Morgan
Living Faith
by Jimmy Carter
1996
Time Books, New York
$23.00
If ever a book was aptly titled, this is it. American`s most admired former president has written his best volume yet. It is intensely personal, profoundly theological, wonderfully readable. At the same time it is not maudlin. It captures a balance between the harsh facts of his experiences and the discernible emotions of an exciting pilgrimage of authentic Christian faith.
In many ways it is Jimmy Carter`s autobiography. It gives us important insights about his life and values. Emerging is a truly beautiful picture of a quiet and deep faith in God, which has colored and influenced every aspect of his remarkable life. There are vignettes by the dozen which remind us of the old-time country Baptist upbringing in the deep South. The little country church, his remarkable parentage, Sunday School, Training Union, revival meetings–all touching memories literally of a way of life and church all but gone in the peculiar pressures of a nation which has radically changed.
Carter`s portrayal of his deacon father and his hard-to-categorize mother is classic. He documents these early influences in a rural Georgia upbringing which led him early to a commitment to Christ and the church. He writes incisively about these formative years which ultimately led him to the U.S. Naval Academy, marriage, and parenthood. The early death from cancer of his father proved to be a traumatic event in the family which brought him and his family reluctantly back to Plains, an event which in time produced the extraordinary process which led to the governorship of Georgia and the presidency of the nation.
The book keeps coming back to its unifying purpose well stated in its title, Living Faith. Stemming from the early experience of accepting Christ, Jimmy Carter explains succinctly how this relationship came about. One of the most helpful parts o the book is his painful sharing of the reality of doubt as he matured and confronted the challenges of a highly technical and mechanistic age. An intensive questioning correlated with serious study about the issues produced deep insight about these realities. Quotations abound from Reinhold Niebuhr (his favorite theologian), Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth, Martin Buber, Paul Tillich, Hans Kung, Soren Kierkegaard. Any student of theology realizes that one does not move with ease through these ponderous and profound writers.
Yet Carter, grounded in a biblical faith, has had these theological insights about a growing and expanding faith which in turn has produced a rare Christian maturity of exceptional proportions. The on-going result is apparent. He is a Sunday School teacher in his home church in Plains. He and his wife believe in and practice a daily devotional life. They are involved in Christian ministry. One of the reasons why he is respected and admired as a former president stems from his Christian values, genuine humility, and rock-like convictions regarding involvement in peace and reconciliation projects around the world.
Not only is this book delightfully readable, but the reader will be additionally surprised and touched by the poetic expressions from Carter`s pen which are found throughout the book. One of the strengths of the boo is apparent as he shares the long list of challenges he and his family have faced. The prevalence of cancer in the family, political setbacks, the frank sharing of family differences, the racial prejudice-based pressures directed toward the family business, and the peculiar strife in the local church life are some of these. It is obvious that life for the Carters has been extremely complex, and yet through it all, their living faith has made the difference in coping.
The book touches sensitively, yet forthrightly and discerningly on the irritating aspects of the vicious right-wing turn of the Southern Baptist Convention. Despite Carter`s "born-again" presidency, SBC leadership literally derided him and failed to support him. The conclusion is obvious that Carter was not given by church leaders the respect he rightly deserves. What a strange paradox! Here is a former president of the United States of America, who with his wife, dons overalls and works hard all day long on projects sponsored by "Habitat for Humanity," one of their favorite ministries. A key part of his book centers in his involvement with Brotherhood mission trips (an identifiable key with Baptist men everywhere). And still the dilemma deepens in that the ultra-conservatives intensify even now their disdain for this great man.
The Carter Center in Atlanta is a significant confirmation of this paradox. While other former presidents build memorials to house their papers and trumpet their accomplishments, the Carters have made certain that the Center which bears their name at Emory University is a place for creative efforts for peacemaking, international and local reconciliation, and basic research into related issues.
Let me strongly recommend this good book, especially to students of Christian Ethics as well as to students of the religious right who need to catch a balance of the "old-time Baptist faith" at work for the Lord in a confused world.
There is another volume recently published about Jimmy Carter. It is The Carpenter`s Apprentice, written jointly by his pastor, Dan Ariail, and a close friend, Cheryl Heckler-Fetty. (1996, Zondervan Publishing House, $15.99) It is a warm, engaging, thought-provoking book which confirms gently, positively, and delightfully Carter`s own pages. It, too, is well worth reading.
