Soul on Ice

Cornell West's Hope on a Tightrope is on my Christmas wishlist. I'm looking forward to reading it and found a suggested reading list that West has posted at Amazon. One suggestion is Soul on Ice, by Eldridge Cleaver. I've never read it, though I have an old copy, so I picked it up today. It's really good.

I especially liked the part where Cleaver was trying to be a good Catholic and explain the mystery of the trinity to his priest.

Up shot my hand, my heart throbbing with piety (pride) for this chance to demonstrate my knowledge of the Word. To my great shock and embarrassment, the Father announced, and it sounded like a thunderclap, that I was lying, that no one, not even the Pope, undestood the Godhead, and why else did I think they called it the mystery of the Holy Trinity? I saw in a flash, stung to the quick by the jeers of my fellow catechumens, that I had been used, that the Father had been lying in wait for the chance to drop that thunderbolt, in order to drive home the point that the Holy Trinity was not to be taken lightly.

I had intended to explain the Trinity with an analogy to 3-in-1 oil, so it was probably just as well.

I had long ago read and reviewed Cleaver's Ice and Fire and was more familiar with the checkered nature of his Christian past (see the awkward photo above of Cleaver and his wife Kathleen with Pat Boone and his wife). Believe me, Soul on Ice is a much better read.

- Postfun.com | Cellmates of the Lord