The words of 1998 MacArthur Fellow Charles Johnson's ccoupled with the poignant photographs of Bob Adelman climax in this excellent literary work that chronicles the life and legacy of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The wonderful photographs and literary prose compliment each other beautifully throughout this masterpiece, detailing the life and democratic stuggles of King. Beginning from the early childhood of Mr. King to his untimely death,
Adelman's photographs depict a very young King with his family. It provides insight into his his upbringing and illustrates the foundation that culminates into the life of the great civil rights leader. It continues to depict his educational pursuits and ultimate marriage to the lovely Coretta Scott.

The books carries the reader through the voyage as a young King rises to prominence as a preacher, his continued quest for racial equality, and mainly
his persistent call for agapic love in conjunction with nonviolence. Also, shared in this tome is intimate photographs of King's time spent with his loving family and information about King's life that may not be well-known.

Although nearly 300-pages, this book capitvates the reader from cover to cover. All in all, Johnson and Adelman are to be commended for their efforts! This liteary piece is nothing short of superb!

Reviewed by Nedine Hunter
...

I have many photography books in my personal collection, and I have several on the civil rights movement, but this book is by far the best I have seen. The book combines the work of several photographers - including Alfred Eisenstadt, Charles Moore, Henri Cartier Bresson, plus some lesser knowns - who have been individually recognized for their own work. The photographs are a true documentary of Martin Luther King's life and death with many photos I have never seen before.

This is the finest book I have read on the lifestyle of the Lakota (Sioux),people not only before European contact, but also how they dealt with their transformation into "civilized" members of the dominate society. It was originally written in 1933. Luther Standing Bear took his name after entering Carlisle Indian School. How sad that the newcomers to North America didn't take the time to learn the culture of the original inhabitants of this land. We would all be better off today if they had. This book gives much insight into why. Even at this late date, there is a lot that can be learned from "Native Wisdom." I highly suggest that anyone interested, read this book. It will touch your heart!

I love this book, but I was looking for the hard jacket, and could only find softcover.

One can easily see why this book was awarded the Outstanding Book of 1995 by the Religious Speech Communication Assoc., it is so well written. The research appears exhaustive, the writer is is firm touch with his subject matter, having poured over sermon manuscripts and listened to tape after tape, and conducted interview upon interview.

One is able to grasp the essence of King's preaching from this reading. Long suspecting that King comes out of the liberal element in the church, this confirmed that suspiscion. The theology and subsequent preaching is far from what my confession would maintain as Biblical. This is social gospel, theology not from heaven down, but earth up, trying to impose its agenda upon God, rather than letting His word and plan of salvation have its way.

While one can easily relate to the race problems and frustrations with an American that would not listen to the pleas, but an America that responded violently, there remains no cause to make the precious Gospel a political one. Jesus had attempts to preach such freedom from political oppression, but in each and every instance, He maintained the gospel at the level it is intended, spiritual.

King thus is out of sync with his namesake, Martin Luther, as well as the historic Christian church. The gospel is about the forgiveness of sins for the life everlasting. As the famous hymn sings: "What is the World to Me?"

This book is vibrant with the complexities of the background and influences on King's theology and preaching. Enjoyed it, yet sad that the title "preacher" is applied to such a false teacher of God's Word. To apply humanity's agenda above and beyond God's is the height of sin and rebellion.

It is a wonderful idea to make available recordings of great speeches. I hope we have more of this in the future.
In the case of older speeches, the selection is very good, considering the restraints of time, and the readers are uniformly excellent.
As for the modern speeches, it is a marvel of technology that we can hear these speeches as delivered. It is incredible that we can hear the voice of William Jennings Bryan. I can listen to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" a thousand times and never tire of it! How I wish I could listen to the voice of Patrick Henry! But this selection is too heavily weighted to the modern, and many of those do not deserve billing as the GREATEST speeches of ALL TIME. Also, some of the modern speeches which are included are abridged, e.g. Reagan is cut off in the middle of a sentence, while lengthy and undeserving speeches are played out in their entirety.
Also, with only a few exceptions, the selection is almost entirely American. It is hard to understand why Jimmy Carter's lengthy speech on energy policy is included, while Pericles' funeral oration is not; or why only a small portion of a single Winston Churchill speech is included; why while Bill Clinton's complete 1993 pulpit address, in excess of 20 minutes, is included.
It would be helpful if the complete list of speeches were available to online buyers, as it would be to shoppers in a brick and mortar store.

I have listened to this collection twice now, both times with pleasure. Hearing the acutal voices of Amelia Earhart, Rev. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Neil Armstrong made a deeper connection than simply reading their words. The collection showcases different subjects and many times contrasts opposing viewpoints of the ideas. This volume is a fantastic introduction to the moving ideals and sometimes sad truths that have influenced Western Civilization.

Luther by Richard Marius is a biography of one of the most important figures of western civilization. Martin Luther was of course the instigator of the Protestant Reformation which swept across northern Europe in the 16th century.

Marius's novel is equal parts biography and critique. He gives a nearly comprehensive account of Luther's professional life. Luther's early years are only considered in certain aspects that might have affected his later life.

Marius also critiques Luther's actions and writings through the eye of a modern skeptic. Marius praises Luther for his steadfast courage in the face of excommunication. But he also condemns him for his vile hate-filled tirades against the Jews.

A very interesting aspect of this work is Marius's description of Luther's relations with his fellow Reformationists. Luther had high hopes for all men who sought to overthrow Papal authority. But like most reformers, he recoiled in anger from men like Zwingli and Melanchthon who he felt had misinterpreted the obvious meaning of the gospel. He often reserved his most vehement denunciations for these wayward reformers.

Luther is one of the people who we must understand if we are to understand the culture in which we live. Much of Luther's thought still echoes down to us from even the gulf of 500 years. For good and bad, Martin Luther forever changed the institutions of western civilization by opening our society to differences of opinion and scientific inquiry. He may have detested the course that his movement took but without him, it is unlikely that the positive outcomes of the Reformation could have been achieved.

I truthfully just don't get Charles Johnson. He has the makings of a really first rate novelist, but for whatever reason--vanity about his ability to get away with it?, lack of confidence in the value of his work without it?, skewed perceptions?--he clutters up his work with magic and he strains for a vocabulary and an erudition that sound totally unnatural. His National Book Award winner, Middle Passage (see Orrin's review), could have been a terrific book in the classic American nautical adventure tradition of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (see Orrin's review), Moby Dick, Billy Budd (see Orrin's review), Two Years Before the Mast, The Sea Wolf (see Orrin's review), etc.. But in mid-story he added on a storyline involving a mysterious African God and the whole thing went to heck in a handcart. In Dreamer, he's up to the same tricks and it's a shame.

Johnson apparently wrote the book because he wanted to try to understand Martin Luther King as a man and a moral philosopher, absent all of the mythos that has grown up around his martyred memory as a civil rights leader. He does an admirable job of recounting what writings and which theologians most influenced him and of presenting King, in his own words, giving sermons and speeches that develop his own philosophy. But there is another entirely unnecessary, even destructive, plotline in the novel. King's evil twin, Chaym Smith, appears and offers to act as his body double. Smith is violent, profane and cynical but also widely read and deeply philosophical. Johnson plays him off against King with Chaym taking the role of Cain and King of Abel. this allows Johnson room for extended meditations on the Cain/Abel tale, the duality of good and evil, and so on. Eventually, after coaching from aides, Chaym is able to pass for King at public events and even close associates can not tell the two men apart, so that on that fateful day in Memphis, we are no longer sure which one died.

Now, first of all, I just didn't feel that the Smith character added much to the story, In fact, because he so often takes us away from the true Martin Luther king, he is more of a distraction, often bringing the narrative to a screeching halt. But there's a bigger problem with this device; if you're going to use this kind of allegorical feature, you had better think through what you are saying with it. Johnson does not appear to recognize how the comparison to Abel diminishes King. Abel was after all a figure of virtual slavery. He was the gatherer, living off the fat of the land, who found favor in God's eyes precisely because he lived as God intended Man to live before the Fall. It is Cain who represents freedom and Man after the Fall, struggling to raise his own crops independent of God and being rejected by God for this very reason. To allude to King as an Abel like figure, when he is actually one of the great freedom fighters in Man's history, seems to me to be a nearly unforgivable sin. Moreover, the implication that King was a kind of passive, slave like creature does the man a great disservice.

Ultimately, Johnson has produced two books here--one good and one bad. The sections where King is on stage are vibrant and thrilling. They recapture some of the majesty of the man and the movement. The portions featuring Chaym Smith are flashy, particularly as they allow him to use SAT worthy vocabulary words that trip off the tongue like boulders, but they cheapen the rest of the book. He should have stuck to his knitting, dropped the doppelganger and ditched the dictionary.

GRADE: C

Dreamer by Charles Johnson gives a unique look at the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. By using a fictitious double, who must examine his own life in light of the civil rights era, Johnson allows the reader to see both King and Chaym Smith, the man who would be his stand-in, struggle with issues of nonviolence and its meaning in a violent world. This well-researched novel presents a fresh look at King's life by allowing artistic license to soar while it never clouds the truth. Although some details are the product of the author's imagination, others are well documented among King scholars. The presentation of fact in the environment of creative detail allows a glimpse of King that I have seen nowhere else. The story moves quickly and never digresses into detail that is irrelevant to the narrative, but gives enough pertinent detail to help those unfamiliar with the setting, while convincing those who know more details concerning King's life that the author is also a brilliant scholar. A GOOD READ.

Like Faith And The Good Thing, Dreamer works as philosophy and social criticism as well as fiction. Mr. Johnson has the personal courage to eschew trendy thinking and to pull together the truth from all corners of the world, ancient and modern. I like reading him because he tells me the truth; I can trust his judgment. He's incredibly erudite and yet there's no jive in his prose style, no textbook tone, no pretension. It's obvious thatl he's learned a few things while becoming a man and isn't afraid to show it. He demonstrates admirably that "rapping" needn't be doggerel. Kudos! Long live Martin Luther King!

Marius' obvious biases are evident from the outset of this book. Snide references to the delusion and superstition of people who took their faith seriously are only the start. Over and over again, Marius makes his disdain for anyone who believes in the supernatural quite clear. How then can we expect an unbiased biography of such an influential Christian reformer as Martin Luther?

To be sure, many of Marius' criticisms have merit. The Church at the time had been reduced to anti-intellectual superstition (from the masses of believers) and self-servince opportunism(from the majority of the clergy). And I agree that many at this time period who claimed to be believers were simply offering lip service so that they were not branded atheists by the Church. THIS, however, is what Luther sought to change. By combating the corruption of the Roman church, Luther was trying to bring the people of Germany into a more meaningful, less superstitious faith. That he did not succeed should not totally condemn his efforts.

Having said this, I find that I did enjoy the book. I am a conservative religious historian, but I enjoy reading books that challenge my own ideas, and often find I can learn a lot from people I disagree with. I have learned a lot about Luther's life from this book, and Marius has inspired me to look further into the life of this great Reformer. I recommend this book with one caution -- do NOT make this the only book you read about Martin Luther.

Marius the author appears to have been a Roman Catholic. He is a former academic (he died in 2001) and has written a number of books including one on Thomas More which sold reasonably well.

This book is not so much a biography but is an account of Luther's early life and his break from the Church. It is more an explanation of the doctrinal divergence which led to the Reformation. A number of people who have reviewed the book have suggested that Marius is biased against Luther. To some extent this is true and the last chapter of the book is a summation of what Marius sees as the negative aspects of Luther?s legacy. The fragmentation of Christianity the over reliance on Scripture and other problems. Some of these are a bit far fetched for instance Marius suggests that one of the reasons for the falling away of Christianity is that the key to worship in the evangelical church is preaching. This depends on the quality of the individual minister in a parish. The Catholic Church depends on ritual and thus even mediocre priests can keep a congregation because of the power of the ritual.

Despite what is said in the last chapter this is a readable and simple account of what is a complex subject. The Catholic Church in the 15th Century had developed doctrinal practices that were very different from the early church. The role of Mary, the importance of the saints, the importance of purgatory as a doctrine and the role of the Pope and the church were things which would have been difficult for those in the early church to understand. Luther believed that the key to an understanding of Christian doctrine lay with reading Scripture which he thought was the word of God. He placed no faith in the role of the Church as an institution and believed that all men could spread Gods word. He in fact called for the secular authorities to intervene in the affairs of the church and to reform it. The Church believed that it was an organisation which had been established by the word of God and that if no bible had been written then it and Christianity would still exist.

Marius is able to explain these two positions clearly giving justice to both sides of the debate. He in fact is able to talk about how the church had evolved and he is able to explain how reformers would be appalled by the veneration of relics and the use of the Popes powers over suffering after death to generate income.

The one weakness of the book is the overplaying of the suggestion that Luther was driven by a fear of death. An alternate explanation is simply that he was appalled by some of the practices of the contemporary church and he was a man who thought he had an insight in how it could be reformed.

The one weakness of the book is that it looks mainly at Luthers life and doctrine. It fails to explain why Luther was protected by the princes in Northern Germany and the institutional reasons why his message was accepted. Never the less an interesting and well written book.

Marius has performed an incredible task in bringing Martin Luther, and his times, to life for us in this new book.

I found the author's knowledge of Luther; Luther's writings and temperament; the history of the sixteenth century and the theological issues at stake during the Reformation, to be superb. I was especially impressed by the author's knowledge of the theological issues, and his insights regarding them.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I first got the book, but I soon discovered that I had found not only an excellent biography of Luther, but simply a very well written book. The material is very interesting, and Marius presents it in a very readable, and captivating style. The chapters are only as numerous, and as long, as necessary (which makes the reading easier). It was an enjoyable read from begining to end, and I doubt that a better biography of Luther has ever been written.

I hate that I finished it, and I am sure that I will read it again.

Did Luther truly follow his own standard of sola scriptura? Was Luther one of the first Higher Critics of the Bible? Did he really say: 'Here I stand, I can do no other' at the Diet of Worms? Were the ninety-five theses really posted on the church door at Wittenburg?

Read the book and find out!