Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith And Politics After The Religious Right

Book Summary

"E. J. Dionne gives us a thoughtful and nuanced exploration of Christianity's contributions to American politics. Critical of the exclusionary politics of both the Left and the Right, he calls for a new bond between religious conservatives and progressives rooted in our shared moral values and inspired by the wonder and awe that give birth to faith."--Susannah Heschel, author of "Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus" "E. J. Dionne is my favorite columnist. He is one of America's most insightful social commentators and a persistent articulator of the powerful but neglected vision of the common good that calls both Left and Right to moral accountability. "Souled Out" is a crucial contribution to the new American discourse on faith and politics."--Jim Wallis, author of "God's Politics" and president of Sojourners "E. J. Dionne is this country's single most knowledgeable writer on religion and politics. Approaching this subject so central to the American experiment as a person of faith as well as a seasoned political reporter, Dionne brings an understanding and knowledge to the topic unique in the current debate."--Cokie Roberts, political analyst for ABC News and National Public Radio "For much of the last decade the notion has been abroad in the land that religion is a conservative influence in American politics. E. J. Dionne, a liberal and a Catholic and one of the wisest of American journalists, challenges this myth. As the country emerges from a dreadful era, Dionne provides a perspective from which to recover the wisdom that religion, like everything else in America, is politically pluralistic."--Andrew Greeley, author of "The Catholic Revolution" E. J. Dionne has a uniquevoice and special authority as a liberal spokesman on religion and politics in America. Here, he models how to lower the temperature of the public discussion about religion and politics so that real advances in understanding can take place. This book will further cement Dionne's standing as the leading voice in the mounting campaign to revive a broad-based, religiously liberal politics--something that we haven't seen since the days of Martin Luther King Jr."--Richard Wightman Fox, author of "Jesus in America" "Any book by E. J. Dionne is a treat, and one about religion is especially to be savored. This is not simply the work of an astute political commentator but of a person of faith who writes gracefully and often prophetically. He has an enviable flair for moving the reader along almost effortlessly and yet making clear and compelling arguments. There are fresh insights here in abundance."--Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University The religious and political winds are changing. Tens of millions of religious Americans are reclaiming faith from those who would abuse it for narrow, partisan, and ideological purposes. And more and more secular Americans are discovering common ground with believers on the great issues of social justice, peace, and the environment. In "Souled Out," award-winning journalist and commentator E. J. Dionne explains why the era of the Religious Right--and the crude exploitation of faith for political advantage--is over. Based on years of research and writing, "Souled Out" shows that the end of the Religious Right doesn't signal the decline of evangelical Christianity but rather its disentanglement from a political machine that sold it out to a narrow electoral agenda of such causes as opposition to gay marriage and abortion. With insightful portraits of leading contemporary religious figures from Rick Warren and Richard Cizik to John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Dionne shows that our great religions have always preached a broad message of hope for more just human arrangements and refused to be mere props for the powers that be. Dionne also argues that the new atheist writers should be seen as a gift to believers, a demand that they live up to their proclaimed values and embrace scientific and philosophical inquiry in a spirit of "intellectual solidarity." Written in the tradition of Reinhold and H. Richard Niebuhr, "Souled Out" will help change how we think and talk about religion and politics in the post-Bush era.

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