Progressive & Religious
How Christian, Jewish, Muslim,
and Buddhist Leaders are Moving
Beyond the Culture Wars and
Transforming American Public Life
Robert P. Jones, Ph.D.
In recent years, Americans have become frustrated with the troubled relationship between religion and politics: an exclusive claim on faith and values from the right and a radical divorce of faith from politics on the left. Now a new group of religious leaders is re-envisioning religion in public life and blazing a trail that goes beyond partisan politics to work for a more just and inclusive society. Progressive & Religious draws on nearly 100 in-depth interviews with Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist leaders to tell the story of this dynamic, emerging movement.
Robert P. Jones explains how progressive religious leaders are tapping the deep connections between religion and social justice to work on issues like poverty and workers’ rights, the environment, health care, pluralism, and human rights. Interviewees include David Saperstein, Michael Lerner, Jim Wallis, Brian McLaren, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Susan Thistlethwaite, Feisal AbdulRauf, Eboo Patel, Kecia Ali, Surya Das, Robert Thurman, and E. J. Dionne.
Advance Praise for Progressive & Religious
“Robert P. Jones understands that progressive faith is not simply a “left” alternative to the Religious Right, but a bringing together of religious belief and practice with progressive politics... Progressive & Religious convincingly shows how people of many different faiths are creating an authentic social vision for a pluralistic America. I commend this book to all who are seeking to join their faith and politics in working for a better world.” — Rev. Jim Wallis, Sojourners, author of The Great Awakening
“Robert P. Jones is one of the most searching, thoughtful and practical thinkers in the revival of religiously-rooted progressivism, and his book is a great blessing for that cause and for the country. Anyone — left, right or center — who wants a guide to this new movement would do well to spend time with this book.” — E. J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post, author of Souled Out
"This instructive book should be in front of every newspaper journalist and every spiritual progressive. Sensitive to theological as well as political concerns, Progressive & Religious is a valuable introduction to the contemporary struggle for a progressive spiritual transformation of the world that is taking place in most of the world’s religions.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun Magazine, The Network of Spiritual Progressives, author of The Left Hand of God
“An illuminating road map to religious re-discovery in contemporary America. With a marriage of journalistic enthusiasm and intellectual rigor, Robert P. Jones skips among the tensions that mar intra-religious relations in our society, smashing erroneous preconceptions and championing a renaissance in the way we look at faith. The result is a thorough examination of religion in modernity that highlights the progressive tendencies shared by all faiths in highly readable form.” — Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, American Society for Muslim Advancement
