Frederick Douglass, D.H. Dilbeck
Frederick Douglass, D.H. Dilbeck
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Frederick Douglass
America's Prophet

Author: D.H. Dilbeck

Narrator: David Sadzin

Unabridged: 8 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/12/2020


Synopsis

From his enslavement to freedom, Frederick Douglass was one of America's most extraordinary champions of liberty and equality. Throughout his long life, Douglass was also a man of profound religious conviction. In this concise and original biography, D. H. Dilbeck offers a provocative interpretation of Douglass's life through the lens of his faith. In an era when the role of religion in public life is as contentious as ever, Dilbeck provides essential new perspective on Douglass's place in American history.

Douglass came to faith as a teenager among African American Methodists in Baltimore. For the rest of his life, he adhered to a distinctly prophetic Christianity. Imitating the ancient Hebrew prophets and Jesus Christ, Douglass boldly condemned evil and oppression, especially when committed by the powerful. Dilbeck shows how Douglass's prophetic Christianity provided purpose and unity to his wide-ranging work as an author, editor, orator, and reformer. As "America's Prophet," Douglass exposed his nation's moral failures and hypocrisies in the hopes of creating a more just society. He admonished his fellow Americans to truly abide by the political and religious ideals they professed to hold most dear. Two hundred years after his birth, Douglass's prophetic voice remains as timely as ever.

About D.H. Dilbeck

D. H. Dilbeck is a historian from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and the author of two books, A More Civil War and Frederick Douglass: America's Prophet.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ryan on February 03, 2019

The following is what I thought to be an innocuous enough book review written for publication in an internationally renowned Christian magazine. It has not been published, and as I found out upon request some time after submission - will not be. If I was in any doubt, the reasons given made clear wh......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on March 13, 2023

A fantastic brief biography of Douglass through the lens of his religious faith and practice. While there have been "many biographers" of Douglass, "one underappreciated part of Douglass's life" is his religion, which Dilbeck argues "is vital to understanding who he was, how he thought, and what he......more

Goodreads review by Nathan on September 09, 2020

It is one of those ironies of history that it has required a place within the Church to make a genuine prophetic message. There are a great many people--Frederick Douglass included--who have criticized American churches for hypocrisy when it came to matters of justice for blacks, and in many cases t......more

Goodreads review by Deb on May 12, 2018

I should have been more discerning in my selection of a biography about Frederick Douglass. This one by DH. Dilbeck is based on the author's insights into not only what drove Douglass to become the man he was, but to assert that Douglass's place in history is as a prophet for America. There is no den......more

Goodreads review by Roger on December 20, 2018

Dilbeck offers a comprehensive assessment of the impact of Christianity on the life of Frederick Douglass. As the most revered abolitionist of his time, Douglass defied the racist South’s belief that God had ordained slavery. Douglass believed all people were born free and some chose to do evil. Tho......more