The award–winning author of The New Abolition continues his history of black social gospel with this study of its influence on the Civil Rights movement.The civil rights movement was one of the most searing developments in modern American history. It abounded with noble visions, resounded with magnificent rhetoric, and ended in nightmarish despair. It won a few legislative victories and had a profound impact on U.S. society, but failed to break white suprem...

"[A] brilliant and creative vindication of democracy . . . a theology of Western culture which remains intellectually unsurpassed." —Larry Rasmussen in Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public LifeThe Children of Light and the Children of Darkness, first published in 1944, is considered one of the most profound and relevant works by the influential theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and certainly the fullest statement of his political philosophy. Written ...

An expansive and ambitious intellectual history of democratic socialism from one of the world’s leading intellectual historians and social ethicistsThe fallout from twenty years of neoliberal economic globalism has sparked a surge of interest in the old idea of democratic socialism—a democracy in which the people control the economy and government, no group dominates any other, and every citizen is free, equal, and included. With a focus on the intertwined legacies...

Winner: 2012 The American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence in Theology and Religious Studies, PROSE Award.In this thought-provoking new work, the world renowned theologian Gary Dorrien reveals how Kantian and post-Kantian idealism were instrumental in the foundation and development of modern Christian theology.Presents a radical rethinking of the roots of modern theologyReveals how Kantian and post-Kantian idealism were instrumen

Gary Dorrien, the renowned social ethicist, theologian, and intellectual historian whose many books are routinely described as magisterial and definitive, in this book turns to interpret his own life as a participant in the religious, intellectual, and social justice currents of his generation. Dorrien tells his personal story of growing up in a working-class family in mid-Michigan, fixing on the crucifix in his Roman Catholic parish, being an inattentive student and a voracious reader, ge...

Transdisciplinary insights at the intersection of religion, democracy, ecology, and economyWhat is the relationship of religion to economy, ecology, and democracy? In our fraught moment, what critical questions of religion may help to assembly democratic processes, ecosystems, and economic structures differently? What possible futures might emerge from transdisciplinary work across these traditionally siloed scholarly areas of interest?The essays in Ass...

The Political Theology of Paul Tillich explores the political theology of one of the foremost thinkers of the 20th century, Paul Tillich, whose life and scholarship were decisively shaped by his experiences during World War I, his resistance to the rising scourge of Nazism in Germany, and his subsequent immigration to the United States. Tillich’s discerning analysis of fascism, grounded in his socialist commitments, and his continuing efforts to write theology in correlation with ...

In the world’s most developed democracies, anxiety about the future of democracy is palpable. The tension between moral aspiration and moral despair has reached a point of crisis. Christian realism arose during a similar time of crisis, when Reinhold Niebuhr used the insights of the Christian tradition to interpret the clash between democracy and totalitarianism.Beginning with Robin Lovin’s account of Christian realism as a nuanced blend of theological, moral, and political realisms...

A sweeping, ambitious history of American democratic socialism from one of the world’s leading intellectual historians and social ethicists“Dorrien is supremely qualified for the task he has set himself in this very thoughtful, necessary, and timely book.”—Maurice Isserman, author of The Other American: The Life of Michael HarringtonDemocratic socialism is ascending in the United States as a consequence of a widespread recognition that global capit...

Gary Dorrien expounds in this book the religious philosophy underlying his many magisterial books on modern theology, social ethics, and political philosophy. His constructive position is liberal-liberationist and post-Hegelian, reflecting his many years of social justice activism and what he calls "my dance with Hegel." Hegel, he argues, broke open the deadliest assumptions of Western thought by conceiving being as becoming and consciousness as the social-subjective relation of spirit to ...

Applied Christian Ethics addresses selected themes in Christian social ethics. The book is divided in three parts. In the first section, “Foundation,” several contributors reveal their Christian realist roots and discuss the prophetic origins and multifarious agenda of social ethics. Thus, the names of Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich come up frequently. In the second section, “Economics and Justice,” the focus turns to the different levels at which economics has significance for social j...

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008 was hailed by many as a historic event and by some as the end of the Reagan era in American politics. But conservatives have condemned Obama from the beginning of his presidency, and many progressives charge that Obama has betrayed the causes that he espoused in 2008.This book offers a brilliant critique of Obama's presidency and a powerful case that progressives should not give up on Obama. Gary Dorrien, described by Princeton...