Mobilizing the Religious Left - NYT Book Review

Mobilizing the Religious Left - Books - Review - New York Times: "Rauschenbusch is today being rediscovered by those who, concerned about the success of the religious right, hope to make more visible the presence of a religious left in the United States. In a 100th-anniversary edition, published as “Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century: The Classic That Woke Up the Church” (HarperOne, $27.95), Paul Raushenbush, an associate dean of religious life at Princeton University and the author’s great-grandson, has reprinted the text with essays by Cornel West, the Rev. Jim Wallis and others who “represent the best of the Social Gospel tradition” to prove that one can be a dedicated Christian and a social reformer at the same time. Such claims, however, pay insufficient attention to Rauschenbusch’s flaws and to the dangers of mixing religion and politics, no matter who is doing the mixing."