Catholic News Service

By Gunther Simmermacher

10/23/2006

Besides the pope, retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa is arguably the world’s most famous living Christian cleric. He was instrumental in bringing down apartheid, and then played a central role in forging a measure of reconciliation in his polarized country.

It has been the privilege of South African journalist John Allen to have been close at Archbishop Tutu’s side throughout the crucial years of his ministry, as the archbishop’s and then the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s much-respected press secretary. As an intimate aide, Allen has …
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The Christian Century

October 17, 2006

by Lawrence Wood

Rabble-Rouser For Peace: The Authorized Biography of Desmond Tutu
by John Allen
Free Press, 496 pp., $28.00

One might have expected a tame, worshipful “authorized” biography of Tutu, but this one really captures the full man. It will probably remain definitive.

Americans have sometimes seen the campaign against South African apartheid as a reprise of their own civil rights movement. P. W. Botha and other Afrikaners with clipped accents seem to have inherited the Bull Connor role, while the impossibly heroic Nelson Mandela might have emerged from a 27-year stay …
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Tutu, Mandela used hard work, good luck

The Baltimore Sun

By Michael Hill

October 8, 2006

In the current alignment of American politics, there would be little doubt from which point on the social compass a statement like this might come: “We will show that scripture and the mainstream of Christian tradition and teaching know nothing of the dichotomies so popular in our day which demand the separation of religion from politics.”

But before jumping to any praise or denunciation, you should know those words were spoken in 1982 by Desmond K. Tutu as he took over …
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Mail & Guardian

Heidi Holland reviews Rabble-Rouser For Peace: The authorised biography of Desmond Tutu

If Desmond Tutu had become Archbishop of Canterbury — which a new book about him claims the Queen’s counsellors in London were considering in 1990 — the Church of England might have struck a deal over gay and lesbian rights by now, but South Africa would have missed some crucial signposts to the promised land.

Rabble-Rouser for Peace, Tutu’s biography by his former press secretary John Allen, charts the diminutive archbishop’s unique influence on South Africa’s fledgling democracy. It traces …
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“One might have expected a tame, worshipful ‘authorized’ biography… but this one really captures a full man. Heavily researched and benefiting from Allen’s long experience as a journalist, it will probably remain definitive.” — The Christian Century

“…[T]horoughly entertaining, inspiring, uncomplicated and thought-provoking.” — Catholic Online

“[Allen’s] reporting is impeccable… Rabble Rouser for Peace ultimately reminds us of the preeminent role Tutu played in the demise of [apartheid]. — Baltimore Sun

“Rabble-Rouser for Peace… is a well-written, deeply researched… tribute to one of the world’s moral guardians.” — Mail&Guardian

… For more reviews, see the “Reviews” section.

Book Review – Inspires

Kelvin Holdsworth
Weblog of the Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow

Episcopal biographies are a very specialised form of literature. I remember during one of the many (over 50) interviews that formed a part of my selection for ministry being told that all that I needed to do was to read a few bishops’ biographies and all would be well. On looking around the clerical study in which this conversation took place I found myself staring at one bookcase after another laden with the biographies and the autobiographies of …
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