Spirit of American Liberal Theology

Gary Dorrien is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, and Professor of Religion, Columbia University. He is the author of more than twenty books and three hundred articles that range across the fields of social ethics, philosophy, theology, political economics, social and political theory, religious history, cultural criticism, and intellectual history. He is a two-time recipient of the American Library Association’s Choice Award, a 2012 recipient of the Association of American Publishers’ PROSE Award, and a 2017 recipient of the Grawemeyer award for his book The New Abolition: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Black Social Gospel. Social critic Michael Eric Dyson wrote in 2021: “Gary Dorrien is the greatest theological ethicist of the twenty-first century, our most compelling political theologian, and one of the most gifted historians of ideas in the world.” Philosopher Cornel West describes Dorrien as “the preeminent social ethicist in North America today.” Philosopher Robert Neville calls him “the most rigorous theological historian of our time, moving from analyses of social context and personal struggles through the most abstruse theological and metaphysical issues.” Dorrien told an interviewer in 2016: “I am a jock who began as a solidarity activist, became an Episcopal cleric at thirty, became an academic at thirty-five, and never quite settled on a field, so now I explore the intersections of too many fields.”

"No one knows more about American theological liberalism than Gary Dorrien, and no book about it is more illuminating than this astonishing study of the liberal tradition in the nation in which it has been most persistent and diverse. Dorrien has read everything—from multi-volume tomes to letters and notes in archival collections—and then condensed this material into a coherent narrative in which the reader encounters not only the ideas but also the creative human beings who gave them birth. Writing in a terse and lively style, he presents us with an inclusive array of personalities and positions: men and women, Black and white, who refashioned an ancient tradition in a continually changing culture. The story is full of gripping descriptions, lucid insights, and bold judgments. It is a magisterial work." - E. Brooks Holifield, C.H. Candler Professor Emeritus, Emory University"Dorrien's abridgement and revision of his three-volume history remains an authoritative reference that can function almost as an encyclopedia of liberal theology in the United States. If one wants to know more about an American theologian, one will be able to find an account of her or his life and thought that stands largely on its own, written by a master scholar. At the same time each essay fits into a larger story, and Dorrien's readable style will entice the reader into the overall history." - John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor of Theology Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology, and Co-Director of the Center for Process Studies"In The Spirit of American Liberal Theology, the preeminent religious historian of our time, Gary Dorrien, offers a fresh, compelling, and definitive interpretation of the liberal theological tradition in the United States, from its Unitarian and Transcendentalist beginnings, through its social-gospel heyday, to its myriad trajectories in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: evangelical and ultramodernist, personalist and process, pietistic and naturalist, feminist and liberationist, dialectical and revisionist, Protestant and Catholic, comparative and interfaith. With his signature blend of historical precision, deep analysis, lucid prose, and gripping storytelling, Dorrien shows how American liberal theology, despite its shortcomings, is more relevant today than ever, continuing to resist authority religion, chart a third way between overbelief and disbelief, engage in social-justice activism, integrate the latest advances in science and critical biblical scholarship, and creatively refashion itself in response to postmodernity, queer theory, liberation movements, ongoing interreligious encounter, and a global ecological crisis. An ideal textbook for college and seminary courses, The Spirit of American Liberal Theology is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of progressive religious thought and committed to its future development." - Demian Wheeler, Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology and Religious Studies, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities