Michael Battle is the Extraordinary Professor at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice, the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and formerly taught at General Theological Seminary in New York where he was the Herbert Thompson Professor of Church and Society and Director of the Desmond Tutu Center. He was ordained a priest by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and later given one of the highest Anglican Church distinctions as “Six Preacher,” by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Battle has published nine books, including Reconciliation: the Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu, and Ubuntu: I in You and You in Me. He lives in Knightdale, North Carolina.

"It is the overarching scope of your life, the depth of your experience, the centering spirit within and the translation of those inner murmurings into concrete acts of justice and love that leave me nearly breathless. How long have we known each other? Of course I knew the outlines of your ongoing and remarkable life and witness. I experienced your friendship and benefited from your wise counsel. We broke bread. I knew of your courage and integrity manifested in so many stages. Still, I am at once both happy to see more deeply into your life now even as I am appalled and not a little saddened by my own dank ignorance now uprooted by the biography. So, may I say, 'Hello, Malcolm. It is very good to meet you in the light of day.' Very good, indeed."—Larry B. Stammer, thirty-year Los Angeles Times journalist