A comprehensive, balanced, and insightful review of the liberal American Protestant story.
The rise and fall of progressive American Protestant leadership.
Political science professor Compton provides a historical review of the role of social justice and reform within white Protestant churches in the U.S., noting that the importance of social issues through much of American history was especially related to the authority of church leaders and the strength of denominational and ecumenical organizations. However, as the author shows, after more than a century of such authority tying together the activities of American churches, these structures fell apart rapidly beginning in the turbulent 1960s, opening the way to a starkly different religious landscape in the modern U.S. Compton begins by exploring the unique American view—beginning with the Puritans—“that Americans were duty bound to remake society in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom”—a view that situated the concept of sin as communal in nature. From that view arose the Protestant movements against slavery and other social ills. Compton notes that in the 19th century, the power of progressive denominational authorities was joined by a social need for professionals to belong to established churches, a trend that sociologist Max Weber explored during the Progressive Era. Among the many high-water marks in the history of progressive Protestantism’s firm grip on the rudder of public affairs were temperance, suffrage, New Deal social programs, and the struggle for civil rights. Multifaceted changes in society, however, from the rise of Evangelicalism to the radicalism of Vietnam-era protests, led to the near collapse of once-mighty Protestant denominations and related ecumenical networks. As Compton chronicles, there followed the rise of the religious right and the increasing disregard for edicts from progressive church leadership, trends that seem to have found their apotheosis in the form of evangelical support for Donald Trump.
A comprehensive, balanced, and insightful review of the liberal American Protestant story.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-19-006918-6
Page Count: 408
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.
Two bestselling authors engage in an enlightening back-and-forth about Jewishness and antisemitism.
Acho, author of Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, and Tishby, author of Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, discuss many of the searing issues for Jews today, delving into whether Jewishness is a religion, culture, ethnicity, or community—or all of the above. As Tishby points out, unlike in Christianity, one can be comfortably atheist and still be considered a Jew. She defines Judaism as a “big tent” religion with four main elements: religion, peoplehood, nationhood, and the idea of tikkun olam (“repairing the world through our actions”). She addresses candidly the hurtful stereotypes about Jews (that they are rich and powerful) that Acho grew up with in Dallas and how Jews internalize these antisemitic judgments. Moreover, Tishby notes, “it is literally impossible to be Jewish and not have any connection with Israel, and I’m not talking about borders or a dot on the map. Judaism…is an indigenous religion.” Acho wonders if one can legitimately criticize “Jewish people and their ideologies” without being antisemitic, and Tishby offers ways to check whether one’s criticism of Jews or Zionism is antisemitic or factually straightforward. The authors also touch on the deteriorating relationship between Black and Jewish Americans, despite their historically close alliance during the civil rights era. “As long as Jewish people get to benefit from appearing white while Black people have to suffer for being Black, there will always be resentment,” notes Acho. “Because the same thing that grants you all access—your skin color—is what grants us pain and punishment in perpetuity.” Finally, the authors underscore the importance of being mutual allies, and they conclude with helpful indexes on vernacular terms and customs.
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781668057858
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon Element
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A welcome call to grow up and cut out the whining.
The New York Times columnist serves up a cogent argument for shelving the grudge and sucking it up.
In 1976, Tom Wolfe described the “me decade” as a pit of mindless narcissism. A half century later, Bruni, author of Born Round and other bestselling books, calls for a renaming: “‘Me Turning Point’ would have been more accurate, because the period of time since has been a nonstop me jamboree.” Our present cultural situation, he notes, is marked by constant grievance and endless grasping. The ensuing blame game has its pros. Donald Trump, he notes, “became a victor by playing the victim, and his most impassioned oratory, such as it was, focused not on the good that he could do for others but on the bad supposedly done to him.” Bruni is an unabashed liberal, and while he places most of the worst behavior on the right—he opens with Sean Hannity’s bleating lie that the Biden administration was diverting scarce baby formula from needy Americans to illegal immigrants—he also allows that the left side of the aisle has committed its share of whining. A case in point: the silencing of a professor for showing an image of Mohammed to art students, neither religiously proscribed nor done without ample warning, but complained about by self-appointed student censors. Still, “not all grievances are created equal,” he writes. “There is January 6, 2021, and there is everything else. Attempts by leaders on the right to minimize what happened that day and lump it together with protests on the left are as ludicrous as they are dangerous.” Whether from left or right, Bruni calls for a dose of humility on the part of all: “an amalgam of kindness, openness, and silliness might be an effective solvent for grievance.”
A welcome call to grow up and cut out the whining.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781668016435
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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