The Religious Left What It Does and How It Can Do Better

"Rigorous... a sweeping overview of the religious left over the past 25 years. (Publishers Weekly) Those of us who miss the Religious Left have looked for it in the wrong places, mistaken its metamorphosis for extinction, and become fixated on the movement that eclipsed it on the nightly news. Wuthnow's superb new book sets us straight." - Jeffrey Stout, author of Blessed Are the Organized: Grassroots Democracy in America

"Written by one of the keenest observers of American religion, this book provides an illuminating roadmap of the religious left's involvement in nearly every major social issue in recent years. With astute attention to organizational strategy, the book makes a case for the continuing significance of faith-based progressive advocacy in an often-inhospitable social environment." - Brian Steensland, Indiana University Indianapolis

"Uniquely equipped, and ready as always to explain contemporary trends through judicious study of the recent past, esteemed sociologist Robert Wuthnow uses the pages of this highly accessible, illuminating book to remind us that matters of faith continue to animate the entire spectrum of American civic life. In a moment when the literature - like the political climate as a whole - seems consumed by the workings of the religious right, he carefully unveils the manifold ways that the religious left has also stamped its influence on this century's political landscape, with noted failings, vulnerabilities, and successes along the way. A window onto our fraught times, when Washington seems free to weaponize religion according to its whims, Wuthnow's treatise is also an inspiring glimpse at how people of faith can and do continue to speak truth to power." - Darren Dochuk, author of Anointed With Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America