Never before in this century have evangelical Christians been so involved in public life. From Sojourners magazine to Evangelicals for Social Action, from the Christianity Today Institute to Pat Robertson’s School of Public Policy and Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Federation, theologically conservative Christians have entered the political arena with a new intensity and sophistication. But ironically, …

Continue reading “A Plea for Conservative Radicals and Radical Conservatives”

Book Review: Grunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (or at Least the Republican Party). By Rod Dreher. Crown, 272 pp. I think I might qualify as a Crunchy Conservative. I wear Birkenstocks whenever …

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Book Review: Ethics After Babel: The Languages of Morals and Their Discontents. By Jeffrey Stout. Beacon, 328 pp., $24.95. The book is divided into three parts: the first argues that there is no universal human language for making or defending ethical judgments; the second explores the implications of that thesis for religious ethics; and the …

Continue reading “After Babel: The Virtues of Liberalism”

There has always been a ‘religious right.” Perhaps the first Christian instance of this phenomenon was the resistance of the Jerusalem Christians to Paul’s liberal tendencies, as recorded in Acts. Though Paul provided many proof texts for future conservatives, on the greatest issue of his time he was adventurously liberal, opening the church to the …

Continue reading “Assessing the Concerns of the Religious Right”

Are George W. Bush’s religious convictions his own business and no one else’s? Or do they have very public consequences? We can begin to probe the question by considering the religious context of his entry into national politics. Not long after he was recruited for Christ by Billy Graham amid personal and business difficulties of …

Continue reading “Bush’s Religious Passions”

On Passion Sunday in 1960, the Episcopal pastor of a growing parish in suburban Los Angeles revealed his covert spiritual experiences of recent months. Unknown to most parishioners, he and 70 other members had been “speaking in tongues” — making utterances that most mainline churches equated with overheated Pentecostalism and Holy Roller tent revivals. Dennis …

Continue reading “Charismatic and Mainline”

Being new and just getting started, we always seem to be late in whatever we are doing. We hope that this year we will learn from our experiences and that we will get you the details about the 1998 Forum a little faster than we did this time. We didn’t even decide to come to …

Continue reading “Confessions of a Conservative”

Dionne, who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has taken a special interest in the place of religion in politics, chairing the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and editing (with John DiIulio Jr.) What’s God Got to Do with the American Experiment? (2000). His 1991 book Why Americans Hate Politics was …

Continue reading “Liberalism After 9/11”

In 1611, a year now considered — with the King I James Version and all — a pretty good year for Christendom, John Donne complained that "new philosophy casts all in doubt . . . ‘Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone.. . Prince, subject, Father, Son, are things forgot." Assumptions about moral and general …

Continue reading “Past Imperfect: History and the Prospect for Liberalism — II”

Although the term liberal Protestantism carries several meanings, and is thus more than a little troublesome, the choice of that label enables one to begin with an upbeat answer. Does liberal Protestantism — as a species of thought, faith and social commitment — have a future? I believe religious liberalism, thus understood, is doing rather well …

Continue reading “Past Imperfect: History and the Prospect for Liberalism – I”

Book Review: Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative. By David Brock. (Crown, 336 pp.) Long before Bill Clinton trashed his presidency by lying about his adulterous relationship with Monica Lewinsky, the political right heaped scurrilous accusations upon him and sought to expel him from office. The litany of charges pervaded conservative magazines …

Continue reading “Slime-master: Inside the ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’”

At the very time when ecumenical Protestants are drawing closer to Roman Catholics, the rift within Protestantism is growing wider. The ecumenical and neo-orthodox movements, as well as joint participation in graduate theological education, have not brought the different traditions together. In fact, the gap between conservatives and the neo-orthodox and liberals is growing wider …

Continue reading “The Challenge of Conservative Theology”

Book reviews: The Strange Death of American Liberalism By H. W Brands. Yale University Press, 191 pp. Religion and the Demise of Liberal Rationalism By J. Judd Owen. University of Chicago Press, 218 pp. Also in paperback. Liberalism in America is either dying or alive and well — depending on whom you listen to or …

Continue reading “The Liberal Choice: Adam Smith or FDR?”

It’s a puzzle: the Christian Coalition is fighting off extinction, but the Religious Right seems as powerful as ever. "Christian Coalition losing clout" headlined the (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot on February 19, the day of the pivotal South Carolina Republican presidential primary. The article quoted Furman University professor James Guth, a longtime chronicler of the coalition: "If …

Continue reading “Ups and Downs of the Religious Right”