Product Description

When an historic 140-year old church in the shadow of the towering South Bronx projects begins offering hip-hop services, powerful questions about the nature of rap and religion challenge the church, the community and ultimately the culture to take a hard look at what they have become. Led by a charismatic Southern priest, one of the founders of hip-hop, and crew of rappers and religious figures, Disciples of the Street follows their new approach to church from the hip-hop holy land of the Bronx to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia and into the national media spotlight. Author Eric Gutierrez follows their remarkable personal and spiritual struggles, through the reactions they face from both the institutional church and the world of hip-hop as they confront both in order to find something holy. In this unexpected story of rap and redemption set in the birthplace of hip-hop, Gutierrez looks deeply into what hip-hop and the traditional church have to say about the evolving nature of religion and culture in America today. Compelling and compassionate, the result of months of research and scores of interviews, Disciples of the Street is the definitive look at a popular movement growing in influence and gaining traction throughout the country, with hip-hop churches and services springing up from LA to New York. It is also a moving story of faith, controversy and transformation in the pews and in the projects that offers hope for the future of rap and religion in America today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1175881 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Review
"This is a stunner. Eric Gutierrez opens closed windows of the soul and delivers an utterly challenging, refreshingly original work. Read it."
----Malcolm Boyd - Bestselling Author of Are You Running with me, Jesus?


Praise for Eric Gutierrez' Disciples of the Street: The Promise of a Hip Hop Church
"A vivid journey to the birthplace of hip hop where a little hell and a whole lot of hope break out. Both a promising and cautionary tale of church and culture in America. A fascinating read!"
----Ronald F. Thiemann - Bussey Professor of Theology, Harvard Divinity School

About the Author
Eric Gutierrez'commentaries on religion, politics and culture appear in print and on radio, including the Los Angeles Times and Progressive Talk AM. He is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Customer Reviews

Great and inspiring read!
I came to this book not expecting much but found the characters rendered in complex and fascinating emotional colors. God--and love--comes from the most unexpected places and faith seems that much stronger when it springs up in a weed-strewn, neglected, drug-fueled community. Great read!

Complex, profound, and moving
This beautifully written book is a stirring antidote to the reigning image of American Christianity as insular, intolerant, and monochrome. Gutierrez has found in the story of a hip-hop Episcopal church in the Bronx a complex and moving reaffirmation of Christianity as a force for hope, transcendence, and social justice. And joy. This portrait of a white gay Episcopal priest who discovers his mission in hip-hop and in the vibrant, troubled South Bronx projects is ultimately about the possibilities for joy in even the most troubled, contested circumstances. It's full of wonderful detail, humor, sadness, surprise, and a deep understanding of the frailty and potential of each of its closely observed real-life characters. It made even this (very much) lapsed Catholic feel the spirit!

A thought provoking story
In this engaging book, Eric Gutierrez tells the dynamic and interrelated stories of a parish in the Bronx and the rise of a hip hop ministry. Primarily covering a three-year period (2004-07), Gutierrez's historical account offers the reader a window into the faith, lives, and passionate personalities of a variety of people. Better yet, Gutierrez tells their stories in a highly readable prose that preserves each individual's voice and perspective. Not surprisingly given the presence of "promise" in the subtitle, the book is optimistic and uplifting in its overall vision. Still this is not merely a "feel good" account. Gutierrez makes this story timely by engaging some very important questions facing contemporary Christians. The book revolves around the core issues of the nature of tradition (continuity/change), what are appropriate ways to communicate the Christian message (only inherited forms? or also new mediums such as rap?), what counts as a Christian community, and what constitutes a prophetic Church. Furthermore, the book takes seriously the question of how God's radical (and radically inclusive) love relates to each individual person as well as the collective.

While I found the book compelling, there is one issue I wish Gutierrez had contemplated more. On p. 86 a longtime female Church leader asks several connected questions about the Church's responsibility toward developing the economic futures of the youth as part of Christian service. Unfortunately this question of the Church's relationship to the faithful's material life--what I take to be the heart of Paula's concerns voiced at this particular moment--is left in silence. But as the evangelical minister Jim Wallis likes to remind us, the Hebrew prophets and Jesus were deeply committed to socio-economic justice. In our own economically perilous era, such questions remain timely and urgent ones.