Overview
In an era when the label "evangelical" is hotly contested and often entangled with political agendas, Daniel Lee Hill's Bearing Witness offers a timely reexamination of what it means to live out the gospel in public life.
Drawing on the rich legacy of nineteenth-century abolitionists David Ruggles, Maria W. Stewart, and William Still, Hill constructs a compelling evangelical framework for public witness, anchored in Scripture and the practice of lament and burden-bearing. Hill challenges evangelicals to rediscover their roots in a tradition that speaks powerfully to contemporary debates over church, culture, and the call to social justice.
Bearing Witness will be an indispensable guide for professors, students, pastors, and laypeople committed to a faith that speaks to the public square.
Drawing on the rich legacy of nineteenth-century abolitionists David Ruggles, Maria W. Stewart, and William Still, Hill constructs a compelling evangelical framework for public witness, anchored in Scripture and the practice of lament and burden-bearing. Hill challenges evangelicals to rediscover their roots in a tradition that speaks powerfully to contemporary debates over church, culture, and the call to social justice.
Bearing Witness will be an indispensable guide for professors, students, pastors, and laypeople committed to a faith that speaks to the public square.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part 1: Giving the Faithful Dead a Vote
1. Freedom in the Time of Slavery
2. David Ruggles: Learning to Read and Reimagine the World
3. Maria W. Stewart: Nurturing the Seeds of Change
4. William Still: Preserving, Renewing, Anticipating, and Inspiring
Part 2: The Twofold Work of Public Witness
5. Lament as Public Witness
6. Burden Bearing as Public Witness
Conclusion: Remembering the Dead
Indexes
Part 1: Giving the Faithful Dead a Vote
1. Freedom in the Time of Slavery
2. David Ruggles: Learning to Read and Reimagine the World
3. Maria W. Stewart: Nurturing the Seeds of Change
4. William Still: Preserving, Renewing, Anticipating, and Inspiring
Part 2: The Twofold Work of Public Witness
5. Lament as Public Witness
6. Burden Bearing as Public Witness
Conclusion: Remembering the Dead
Indexes
Endorsements
“This is required reading for anyone grappling with the church’s mission, evangelical identity, and public witness. Hill skillfully retrieves the antebellum witness of David Ruggles, Maria W. Stewart, and William Still by exploring their contributions to the abolitionist movement and extends their logic into the present to spark the contemporary Christian imagination into faithful prophetic action. A must-read!”
Walter R. Strickland II, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; author of Swing Low: A History of Black Christianity in America
“In our time of social fragmentation and political polarization, we might rightly wonder how the church ought still to speak. Even more pointedly, Hill asks how the evangelical church ought to testify to the good news of God’s reign, without being another voice shouting into the crowd. With wisdom, care, and faithful guidance, Bearing Witness calls the church to a posture of bearing witness, inviting us to feast on the riches of the catholicity of the church that tells and enacts God’s good story of redemption and restoration so that we, too, might faithfully engage in the time and space in which God has placed us. Hill shows us the profound ways that the ‘blood and sweat’ of David Ruggles, Maria W. Stewart, and William Still ‘still speak,’ inviting us to clear-eyed, hope-filled, and catholic listening and action.”
Jessica Joustra, associate professor of religion and theology, Redeemer University
“Today’s Christians have a lot to learn from Daniel Lee Hill. His thoughtful analysis of Ruggles, Stewart, Still, and what they teach us about God, ourselves, and our callings in the world shows—perhaps counterintuitively—that righteousness in public life depends to a large extent on evangelical witness (grounded in the Bible) to the Lord’s will with respect to social ethics. Let us learn to live and die well in service of God and neighbor as we make good use of the models and theological wisdom in this book.”
Douglas A. Sweeney, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University
“The term ‘evangelical’ is all too often defined by the gifts and liabilities of those of European heritage. Daniel Hill shows how this good news tradition is also defined and displayed by three nineteenth century African-Americans named Ruggles, Stewart, and Still. These forbears show us an evangelical faith where the good news is not merely a matter of simple facts and private piety but indeed a public faith that involves bearing one another’s burdens. Let Hill be your guide toward a better vision of a ‘good news’ faith.”
Vincent Bacote, professor of theology and director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics, Wheaton College
“Bearing Witness is a treasure. It reminds me of several proverb-like sayings. First, ‘other’ voices can be fellow voices when it comes to Christian community. We need to be open to learning from such voices and seeing life through their lenses. Second, never forget, or you will never grow. The self-criticism the experience of slavery should engender can teach us much if we are good listeners. Third, lament is a striving for the better with God. Sanctification assumes growing in honesty about how we see the fallen world and then acting on the need to change. Not only does this book deliver on those points; it is a lesson on a painful period in our nation’s history from which we must learn to do better. Read this book, listen, lament, and learn . . . and then imagine what could be.”
Darrell L. Bock, executive director for cultural engagement, Hendricks Center, and senior research professor of New Testament studies, Dallas Theological Seminary
Author
Daniel Lee Hill
Daniel Lee Hill (PhD, Wheaton College) is assistant professor of Christian theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University, in Waco, Texas. He is the author of Gathered on the Road to Zion: Toward a Free Church Ecclesio-Anthropology.