Sundays Down South: A Pastor's Stories (Folklife in the South) - Hardcover

James O. Chatham (author)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 157806175X ISBN 13: 9781578061754

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi, 1999

Synopsis

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About this title

Review:

"'This is not a religious book, ' notes Chatham, a pastor with a social conscience who gives us stories about the lives of poor people struggling 'to live in the sunshine' in four southern locations. Poignantly addressing daily life, these cultural pictures tell tales of heroism and tragedy, ingenuity and vanity, triumph and foolishness. Along the way, Chatham observes that moral purpose and conviction are essential for survival and that 'the most sturdy and courageous hearts often come in very plain packaging.' Chatham explains that his churches were always 'more concerned with life in the present than with life in the hereafter, ' and his stories reveal him to have a listening heart that only judges the outside world insofar as it promises and never delivers."

--Library Journal
"This southern Presbyterian minister collects uplifting stories he has heard and experienced. Chatham gathers his stories from parishes in Virginia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Kentucky; and many of the tales relate how folks overcame difficult odds. Other stories convey the homespun philosophy of people such as Mr. Cecil, a high school history teacher in Fayette, Mississippi, who holds forth on mid-1960s segregation, or Miss Susie, an 87-year-old Fayette lady whose tales of reaching out to poor folks are remarkably heartwarming. As the stories move into the 1980s and 1990s and into more cosmopolitan areas, such as Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Louisville, Kentucky, helping troubled youth and drug addicts becomes a common topic. The centerpiece of the latter portion of the book is Chatham's experiences with two Louisville congregations, one white, the other black. All this is related in a friendly, Mayberry-esque style."

--Booklist

About the Author:

James O. Chatham, Asheville, North Carolina, is pastor emeritus of Highland Presbyterian Church, Louisville, Kentucky, where he served for twenty-five years. He is the author or editor of several books, including Matching and Dispatching: Wedding and Funeral Stories of a Battle-Toughened Pastor and Faith Grows by Risk: Stories from the Life of Kentucky Refugee Ministries.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 157806175X
• ISBN 13: 9781578061754
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 277