Faith And Fraternity

In Faith and Fraternity Laura Branch provides the first sustained comparative analysis of London’s livery companies during the Reformation, and demonstrates how they retained a vibrant religious culture despite their confessionally mixed membership.

This book fills one of the most significant gaps in modern British historiography. Despite its public profile, the Orange Order has not attracted commensurate scholarly attention. Uncritical apologists apart, historians have displayed condescending censure, stigmatising and dismissing the Order as sectarian - a term unduly restricted in their studies to violence and demonstrations. Having gained unique access to lodge membership records, MacRaild provides a timely corrective. MacRaild makes excellent use of archive material to provide a fascinating study of 'diasporic' Orangeism, showing how it was imported into mainland Britain and implanted within working-class communities as a 'way of life', able to attract adherents with no obvious Irish provenance or connection (the Toxteth lodge in North West England has a not insignificant black presence.) Impeccably researched and expertly written, Faith, Fraternity and Fighting is a major achievement and an important step in rescuing Orangeism from the stigma of sectarianism.

College is a time to learn, explore, and grow, but what does faith have to do with it? In this collection of essays, gifted writers in their twenties and early thirties reflect on their college years by telling stories—some hilarious, some heart-wrenching—on the intersection of faith and college. At a time when so much is written about young adults but not by young adults, this collection allows writers to reveal their college experience in their own voice, sharing, through reflection on their own joys and sorrows, unique insight into students’ experience of college. Themes include negotiating identity, sex and sexuality, discerning the future, studying abroad, and transitions in faith. This collection includes stories from large public universities and small, faith-related colleges. Perfect for faith leaders, college administrators, study groups, young adults, and anyone who loves a college student, Kissing in the Chapel, Praying in the Frat House reveals college struggles that help us reflect on faith and life in college, and forever.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY San Francisco Chronicle • The Plain Dealer The inspiring true story of a group of young men whose lives were changed by a visionary mentor On April 4, 1968, the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., shocked the nation. Later that month, the Reverend John Brooks, a professor of theology at the College of the Holy Cross who shared Dr. King’s dream of an integrated society, drove up and down the East Coast searching for African American high school students to recruit to the school, young men he felt had the potential to succeed if given an opportunity. Among the twenty students he had a hand in recruiting that year were Clarence Thomas, the future Supreme Court justice; Edward P. Jones, who would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for literature; and Theodore Wells, who would become one of the nation’s most successful defense attorneys. Many of the others went on to become stars in their fields as well. In Fraternity, Diane Brady follows five of the men through their college years. Not only did the future president of Holy Cross convince the young men to attend the school, he also obtained full scholarships to support them, and then mentored, defended, coached, and befriended them through an often challenging four years of college, pushing them to reach for goals that would sustain them as adults. Would these young men have become the leaders they are today without Father Brooks’s involvement? Fraternity is a triumphant testament to the power of education and mentorship, and a compelling argument for the difference one person can make in the lives of others.

In the wake of the #AbolishGreekLife and other calls for racial justice, the role of identity development also becomes ever increasingly important as we consider how to make the sorority/fraternity more inclusive for our students. In the end, it may really be the power of inclusion on college campuses that leads to many of the educational goals that we yearn for in student growth: the formal and informal social interactions, bonded in reflective learning, that help build social and academic success. In this we can celebrate together, especially those of us who have romanticized so many “bright college years.” This text is a response to a call for existential exploration as an attempt to critically revivify our understanding of the sorority/fraternity experience as it contributes specifically to students’ identity development and learning. The text is grouped around centering their experiences through three A’s: Amplifying Voice, Affirming Identity, and Advancing Belonging to highlight the identity experiences of the diverse spectrum of fraternity and sorority members across the intersections of identity so often excluded from the literature. Chapters in this text attempt to foreground how the fraternity/sorority experience explicitly contributes to these areas of student development across multiple identities including race, ethnicity, culture, gender identity, social class, and ability. Authors critically interrogate systems of oppressions that subjugate marginality from those with intersectional identities to recognize the larger challenges facing the sorority/fraternity movement as an attempt to disrupt these systems to better identify influences on identity development. ENDORSEMENTS "Pietro Sasso and associates are leading a game-changing conversation about the impact of fraternity and sorority communal experiences on student identity. Pietro Sasso and the contributing authors of this robust text successfully endeavor to inform practice through critical analysis, framing important questions, and offering pragmatic solutions that are timely, relevant, and practical in both the academy and the fraternal system. This book is a "must-read" for anyone seeking to understand or have a relevant impact on the intersections of sense of belonging, identity development, and sorority & fraternity life." — Jason L. Meriwether, Campbellsville University "In their most recent book examining contemporary sorority and fraternity life, Sasso, Biddix, and Miranda have curated discerning chapters that expand existing scholarship by exploring the impact of fraternity and sorority membership on identity development, belonging, and student voice through critical lenses. This book should be on the bookshelf of all higher education administrators and faculty." — Gavin Henning, New England College

Annotation. Church History.