There is a balm in Gilead : the cultural roots of Martin Luther King, Jr. /

A professor of religion explains the derivation of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s civil rights thought in terms of the values instilled in him as a black growing up in the South. Baldwin maintains, and gives credible support to his points, that King cannot be understood separated from his cultural background, for it was within his parents' home, within his father's church, and within the race and class consciousness of the pre-1960s segregated South that King was seeded with the optimistic ideas of a just community of humankind for which he would fight in his adult life. By no means a complete biography, this book is a worthy addition to the King literature in contributing to a fully rounded image of the man. ~--Brad Hooper

Lewis (religion, Vanderbilt Univ.) has written a competent, if uncritical and derivative study of the origins of King's philosophy and civil rights activism. He focuses on three major influences: sense of place (the South), idea of community, and Christian optimism. To Lewis, King was far more deeply affected by the Southern black church than by any higher theological studies in the North. Lewis sees his work as a corrective to studies which overemphasize formal theology and underplay culture. In fact, works on King by scholars like David Garrow ( Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. & the Southern Leadership Conference, 1955- 1968 , Morrow, 1986), Stephen Oates ( Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King Jr. , LJ 7/82), and Taylor Branch ( Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 , LJ 1/89) have emphasized the importance of Southern black religion in King's life and career, presenting a balanced view of King's roots. Lewis gives us a useful summary rather than a major contribution. Recommended primarily for large university and public libraries.-- Anthony O. Edmonds, Ball State Univ., Muncie, Ind. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.