Bending History: Selected Talks of Joseph W. Mathews conveys the message and methods of a radical churchman in the 20th century, who started a global movement of renewal of the church and local communities in over forty nations. CONTENTS Foreword - Bishop James K. Mathews Introduction - John Epps (General Editor) Meet Joe the Man: "The Time My Father Died" Section I: Joe's Theology Commentary - John Epps "The Christ of History" (booklet form 1969) Three RS-I Lectures (mid to late 60s) "This is the Time of Sanctification" (1972) "The Barefoot Jesus" (1977) "Endlessness" (1972) Section II: The Religious Life Commentary - John Epps "Meditation" (1970) "Prayer" (1970) "Poverty" (1970) "Transparent Being" (1970) "The Recovery of the Other World" (1972) "The Long March" (1974) "Hope" (1974) Section III: The Life of Service Commentary - George Holcombe "A Call to Sociological Love" (1972) "Human Motivity & Reformulation of Local Community" (1973) "Mission: Just Five Things" (1975) "Sophistication" (1973) "Forging Social Philosophy" (1976) "Profound Humanness: Integrity" (1976) "What Hath Been Wrought" (1977) Section IV: New Form of the Religious Commentary - John Cock "Transpadane Christianity" (1974) "Paravocation" (1975) "Those Who Care" (1975) "The New Movement" (1972) "Two Faces of the Movement" (1975) "Six Speeches" (1976) "On Taking Care of Yourself" (1975) Postlude - George Walters The Archives - Betty Pesek ENDORSEMENTS: "[I]n 1955 [I] went to the University of Texas from Yale and there I met Joseph Mathews. . . . He and I became close friends and colleagues. He brought to that campus a spiritual depth and enthusiasm. . . . There he was at a largely secular campus of 25,000 . . . students, and he created something of a religious revival. But it wasn't the "tub-thumping" revival, or one characterized by "evangelism." . . . It was rather [a] spiritual revival as he pushed students to new depths of intellectual search on spiritual issues. He had a following hard to imagine, and it took only two or three years for him to [help] develop it into the Christian Faith and Life Community. He took the germ of that idea with him through many parts of the world as he developed [a] movement. If we had had a structure in the Methodist Church or even in Protestantism that had the rigor of the [Roman] Catholic hierarchy, Joseph Mathews would probably have been treated first with hostility, as was St. Francis, and then later admitted into the fold as one who was the great revivalist of spiritual life in our time." Dr. John R. Silber (formal remarks made at Washington, D. C., April 4, 2003), Boston University President (1971-96; 2002-03); Chancellor (1996-2003) "He [my brother Joe] was convinced that modern theology had done all the theological groundwork for church renewal. For him the task was to help work out the concrete pragmatic application that these insights demanded.he was convinced that modern theology had done all the theological groundwork for church renewal. Always he was focused on the Christian message, but this had to be available for all. "God works in a mysterious way" but his wonders serve the present age in every place and every person." James K. Mathews, Ph.D., Bishop of the United Methodist Church, from the Foreword "The 21st century is in desperate need of Joe's words of challenge and healing. I will always cherish my years of study and work with him and his team as we attempted to facilitate human development around the globe." Robertson Work, Principal Policy Advisor, Decentralized Governance, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) "Joe could see into people. They felt he really knew them. He told me he had a dream to spread the Fifth City ideal of community throughout the whole world. That motivated me to carry on. Joe was a powerful symbol. I called him the Dean of the Iron Men." Ruth Carter, Director of
