Prophetic Politics: Christian Social Movements and American Democracy

Extract

Prophetic Politics: Christian Social Movements and American Democracy. By David S. Gutterman. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005. 236p. $34.95 cloth, $18.95 paper.

Are religion and democracy hopelessly incompatible forces in our time? David Gutterman would like us to believe that they are not. In this book, he examines both recent historical and contemporary examples to show how religion can either thwart or support democratic politics, depending upon how it is practiced. He looks at four Christian “social movements”: the revivalism of Billy Sunday in the early twentieth century, the ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the mid–twentieth century, and the Promise Keepers movement and Jim Wallis's Call to Renewal in our own time. Gutterman shows that whereas the movements of Billy Sunday and the Promise Keepers are essentially antidemocratic (and also “antipolitical”) in nature, the examples of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Call to Renewal demonstrate that religious social movements can enhance pluralism, mutual respect, and dialogue in American politics.