The Bottom: A Theopoetic of the Street is a profoundly moving work that liberates our preconceived notions of theology, literature, and poetry. Chaz speaks to our collective conscience in the necessity and beauty of reorienting our vision; from the top to the bottom. With each successive chapter, one is led to seeing the glory of God in the fullness of one another. Thus, it may be organized as a book when, in fact, it is a living prayer. ~ The Rt. Rev. Daniel G. P. Gutiérrez XVI, Bishop of The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania

This book is proof of the gifted writer Nnedi Okorafur’s wisdom and warning: “Words are powerful when chosen well and hurled with precision.” Dr. Howard’s hurled poetic prose is a timely testimony that challenges, enlightens, and surprises in deep ways. There is terrible and beautiful truth here, excavated by daring explorative living and thinking. If you let yourself receive what it offers, your understandings of God, Self, and Other will be transformed forever. ~ Kirk Byron Jones, Prof. Emeritus, Andover Newton Theological School and Author of Soul Talk: How to Have the Most Important Conversation of All

I once heard a preacher say that we should be careful as we climb the ladder of success and upward mobility, lest on our way up we pass Jesus on his way down. The entire story of Jesus is about a God who leaves the comfort of heaven to join the suffering here on earth, a God who hears the cries of the oppressed. We have a Savior who comes to us as a brown-skinned Palestinian Jewish refugee in the middle of a genocide and who dies a victim of state-sanctioned execution, naked, tortured, humiliated, hanging on the empire’s cross. Chaz Howard has penned a smooth book that flows like blues, and jazz, and the freedom songs. It’s a book that moved me in the space beyond words and pixels, in the depths of my soul. Read it, and read it again, and pass it around. Here is the Gospel of Chaz, inviting us to descend into holiness. ~ Shane Claiborne - Author, Speaker, Activist, Co-Founder of Red Letter Christians

To know Chaz is to know love. Far deeper than sentimentality, this is the kind of love that is akin to "soul force" that became the hallmark of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.'s movements. It is transformative, inclusive -- and revolutionary. As a minister, Chaz shared this presence through his uncommon sermons. As the youngest chaplain in the history of UPenn, students came to know him for his deep listening. And now, as an author, we get see the world through his remarkable lens of radical love and holy play. What a joy! ~ Nipun Mehta - Founder of ServiceSpace.org, an incupator of projects that works at the intersection of volunteerism, technology, and the gift-economy.

In this startlingly fresh and challenging book, Charles (Chaz) Lattimore Howard engages in a very personal and deeply embodied form of theology that moves from abstraction to flesh-and-blood human experience. As he journeys “downward” to build real relationships with sisters and brothers living on the streets, he invites the reader on that mysterious journey to meet those on the margins, where we discover harsh truths about social injustice and dehumanization. But we also discover our truest selves, and ultimately come to know more intimately the passionate love of God. ~ Sister Mary Scullion R.S.M., Co-Founder and Executive Director of Project HOME and Internationally Recognized World Leader in Addressing Homelessness