Religion and Radical Politics: An Alternative Christian Tradition in the United States - Softcover

Craig, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566393353 ISBN 13: 9781566393355

Publisher: Temple University Press, 1995

Synopsis

Religion and Radical Politics explores the history of American left-wing Christians who discovered the convergence between radical politics and Christian faith. Robert H. Craig examines the life histories of individuals, movements, and organizations that encompass more than a century of American history and discusses the role of religious activism in movements of social transformation. Craig demonstrates how, for many black preachers, labor organizers, Socialists, feminist agitators, and Christian pacifists, God was present where people struggled for justice. These were people who often were dismissed as unimportant because they lacked power, status, and prominence in the eyes of those who measure the world according to the standards of wealth and privilege. Craig describes the activists who participated in this (largely ignored) alternative tradition of social action on behalf of the poor and oppressed. Among those included are Jesse H. Jones, Edward H. Rogers, the Christian Labor Union, and the Knights of Labor, which represented workers; Frances Willard and Mother Jones, who worked to improve the status of women and working-class people; Reverdy Ransom, W.E.B. Du Bois, Hubert Harrison, and George Washington Woodbey, who wrestled with the relationship between race and class; Southern radicals such as Howard Kester, Claude Williams, and the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union, which struggled for racial equality; and those involved in the politics of nonviolence, such as Dorothy Day and A.J. Muste. Besides examining the role that religion has played in movements for social change, the author also stresses the contribution these movements have made in the development of American history andculture, providing a better understanding of ourselves as a people and a nation.

About this title

From the Publisher

Leftist Christians and radical politics in American history

From the Inside Flap

"This meticulously researched study....discusses a varied array of movements, organizations, and activists, many largely unstudied, who sought to aid the poor and oppressed through Christian social action....[This] thoughtful, lucid book will engage not only historians but also theologians, ethicists, political scientists, sociologists, indeed anyone interested in the convergence of religion and politics in the United States."
—Journal of American History

"Religion and Radical Politics is a helpful analysis of several chapters in American a religious history....built around a series of biographical sketches that explore the lives of people such as Terence Powederly, Frances Willard, Mother Jones, George Washington Woodbey, Claude Williams, Howard Kester, Harry F. Ward, A.J. Juste, and Dorothy Day. ...[It] is a remarkably strong book."
—Journal of Church and State

"A major contribution to American history and to Christian ethics. It will be controversial in the best way, raising questions which are the right questions, at least right for those who care for a democracy of human rights, universal participation, and social justice."
—David J. O'Brien, College of the Holy Cross

Edition details

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1566393353
• ISBN 13: 9781566393355
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320