December 20, 2004

MINNEAPOLIS - A stellar gathering of African American churchpeople and theologians recently convened at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference to reinvigorate the social-justice agenda of America's Black churches. Proctor, twentieth-century prophet of the Black church, was a scholar, teacher, university president, public servant, Africanist, mentor, family man and preacher. His life and legacy is a model of uncompromised faithfulness, theological integrity, and informed social action.

The conference was born with a claim to represent a paradigm shift reflected by acts of reclamation and proclamation-a reclamation of the spirit of liberation imbued in the life of the African American church and African American Christianity and a proclamation of commitment to confront those present forms of gross injustice apparent at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Spirited essays from this dynamic and powerful gathering are now available in Blow the Trumpet in Zion: Global Vision and Action for the 21st-century Black Church from Fortress Press. In this exciting volume, many of the most dynamic and progressive African American faith leaders confer on how best to revive and enhance the prophetic role of the Black church today.

Edited by Iva E. Carruthers, Frederick D. Haynes III, and Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Blow the Trumpet in Zion concentrates the prophetic powers of Black theology and preaching to support African American community and economic development, ministerial and lay readership, and outreach to a new generation.

In addition to the editors, contributors include Larry Murphy, James H. Cone, Asa G. Hilliard III, Obery M. Hendricks Jr., Jacquelyn Grant, Randall C. Bailey, Delman L. Coates, Charles G. Adams, Renita J. Weems, Vashti M. McKenzie, James A. Forbes Jr., Otis Moss Jr., Samuel "Billy" Kyles, Cecil L. "Chip" Murray, Monifa A. Jumanne, Portia Wills Lee, Otis Moss III, Stacey L. Edwards, Reginald Williams, Dwight N. Hopkins, and Gayraud Wilmore.

ISBN: 0-8006-3712-7; Paperback; 160 pages; $15.00.

To order Blow the Trumpet in Zion please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the web site at http://www.augsburgfortress.com/.

Fortress Press