violence resembles the Jesus of Richard ed—among other things—that “we Horsley. And Lohfink’s high estimation deplore the historic involvement of the of Jesus’ symbolic behaviors, including Moral Minority: The Evangelical in America with racism,” “we building community at table and through Left in an Age of Conservatism must challenge the misplaced trust of the healing, brushes the edges of John By David R. Swartz nation in economic and military might,” Dominic Crossan’s work. Significantly, University of Pennsylvania Press, and “we must attack the materialism of 384 pp., $47.50 Lohfink shares his refusal to separate our culture and the maldistribution of historiography from with Dale the nation’s wealth.” The document Allison, who has offered a brilliant cri- merica had lost its way. So believed immediately became a touchstone of the tique of Jesus scholarship. A50 evangelical Christians who con- evangelical left. The book ends, as not all Jesus books vened in downtown Chicago in late In Moral Minority, David Swartz do, with a reflection on Jesus’ basic claim November 1973. They arrived weighted recovers the story of the unlikely coali- regarding himself and with the church’s down by the gravity of the nation’s moral tion these progressive evangelicals most basic confession concerning him: failings and yet buoyed by a palpable forged in the 1960s and 1970s. The book “Jesus, true human and true God.” sense of opportunity: a social and politi- unfolds as a series of engaging biograph- Lohfink is frustratingly indirect on these cal awakening was afoot in the churches, ical sketches that offer a window into the points. He all but says that Jesus pos- and if properly channeled, it could right diverse experiences and concerns ani- sessed an awareness of his divine identi- the country’s course. mating the movement. ty: he understood his own acts as works No, this was not an early gathering of Some in the cast of characters will be of God, yet they were “accomplished by the Christian right. The major issues on familiar. For example, we meet current his own power.” Even his proclamation the agenda did not include abortion or Sojourners CEO Jim Wallis as a much of God’s reign implied a christological school prayer. Instead, the believers who younger man, radicalized by the Vietnam claim. But this is a sensitive subject: why crowded into the dingy Wabash Avenue War and at the helm of the “Post- doesn’t Lohfink come out and say YMCA spent Thanksgiving weekend whether Jesus possessed a divine self- hammering out the Chicago Declaration Reviewed by Heath W. Carter, who teaches histo- consciousness? And why doesn’t he say of Evan gelical Social Concern. They stat- ry at Valparaiso University in Indiana. definitively that the church’s confession of Jesus emerged from Jesus’ own per- son? Instead, he writes: “Jesus found oth- ers who saw what was happening through him and who he was.” Perhaps I am small-minded to want Lohfink to say clearly and directly how he imagines Jesus to have understood himself. I suspect that Lohfink would trace his own elusiveness back to Jesus, who knew better than to spell out such things for his followers. DEEPEN your practical faith. EXPAND your Christian network. ADVERTISE REFRESH your spirit. THE DUKE DIVINITY SCHOOL SUMMER INSTITUTE HERE presented by To contact our advertising department, the Center for Reconciliation

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37 Christian Century January 23, 2013 Americans,” a community of twenty- mid-1970s, though the evangelical left centrifugal trajectory undermined the some thing evangelicals alienated from was undoubtedly a minority movement, movement’s cohesion and diminished the churches of their youth, which it boasted surprisingly broad-based its clout. seemed content to abide, if not outright roots. It even packed an electoral punch, Swartz argues that even if the evan- baptize, the military campaign in South - or so it seemed in 1976, when a gelical left had managed to hang togeth- east Asia. The inaugural issue of the groundswell of evangelical support er, it would have faced an uphill battle by group’s eponymous magazine decried helped a born-again Democrat by the the 1980s. This is because a second the “American captivity of the church,” name of Jimmy Carter to win the White source of decline lay in the changing which had “resulted in the disastrous House. At that moment there seemed no political landscape. The evangelical left equation of the American way of life reason to question ’s com- followed some Catholics in championing with the Christian way of life.” patibility with progressive causes and a “consistent pro-life ethic,” which com- Swartz introduces us to a variety of candidates. bined support for the War on Poverty lesser-known figures as well, including So what happened? How was the with opposition to militarism, nuclear John Alexander, a white, Goldwater- evangelical left so quickly outmuscled proliferation, the death penalty and, cru- supporting Baptist turned devoted civil by the Christian right? Swartz offers cially, abortion rights. As Democratic rights activist, and Sharon Gallagher, a two answers. The first has to do with support for Roe v. Wade calcified, many California-raised fundamentalist whose dynamics internal to the movement. within the movement—already alienated powerful encounter with the ideal of The signers of the Chicago Declaration by Republicans’ positions on the beloved community led her to cofound had always been a fractious bunch, issues—found themselves increasingly an evangelical commune known as the divided—much like the larger New “without a political home.” Christian World Liberation Front. Left—along lines of race, gender and Moral Minority infuses a welcome Shifting seamlessly back and forth theology. After the Thanksgiving work- dose of suspense into the story of how from the lives of such leading individuals shop, these cleavages proved decisive, American evangelicalism became a cor- to the wider relational and institutional as black and white, female and male, nerstone of a resurgent modern conser- networks within which they moved, Anabaptist and Reformed evangelicals vatism. While historians have busied Swartz persuasively shows that by the went separate institutional ways. This themselves in recent years searching for the origins of the Christian right in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, Swartz demonstrates that as late as the 1970s, evangelicals’ political allegiances remained fluid. He is Discover God careful—and right—to avoid giving the impression that born-again believers more intimately stood then at a fork in the road, as likely to veer left as right. But in calling atten- for lasting peace. tion to the contingencies, most notably those surrounding the vexed politics of abortion, he underscores that even on the eve of the Reagan revolution some Growing into God: alternative routes were possible. A Beginner’s Guide to They still are. If one stands on this side of the Moral Majority, the Christian Christian Coalition and the values voter craze, it can be easy to forget that evangelical need not imply conservative, but history “ Mabry reminds us that offers countless reminders of this fact. authentic mysticism is While evangelical faith has often served to legitimize unjust systems and struc- a core part of Christian tures, it has also ignited concerted resist- practice that returns ance to the same. When Swartz writes us to community rather that the connections between progres- sive politics and evangelicalism “were— than pulling us away.” and are—startlingly substantial,” he —Library Journal invokes the witness not just of the evan- gelical left but also of abolitionists, women’s suffragists and trade unionists. www.questbooks.net Cultivate an open mind What comes next is another matter. With the Christian right seemingly back

Christian Century January 23, 2013 38 on its heels following the reelection of activist writing about his newfound love program at a nondenominational mega - President Barack Obama, will the of Catholicism? This might be worth church a short drive away: evangelicals of today find a more reading. promising way forward? Will a rising Here’s a bird’s-eye view of Haw’s With legions of staff and volunteers, generation embrace the gospel’s clari- story: his mother, who taught religious Willow’s youth branch of the church on call for a justice that defies party education classes in her Catholic parish, . . . could entertain teens, teach them, platforms, or will a new crop of believ- took him to mass every Sunday until he summer camp them, mentor them, ers recapitulate their parents’ wander- was partway through middle school, and exhaust them until they fell over ings in the political wilderness? In his when it occurred to her that the parish’s in giddy excitement. Their youth min- conclusion Swartz sorts through the youth group was pretty lame. She had istry was replete with its own separate muddled signs of the times and musters heard that there was a fantastic youth services, “relevant” songs, speeches, the best answer of a historian: only time will tell.

From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart: Rekindling My Love for Catholicism By Chris Haw Ave Maria Press, 256 pp., $15.95 paperback

y first thought upon learning that MChris Haw had written a memoir about his journey to Catholicism was, Oh no—not another one. Back when I was moving toward Rome myself, I read a lot of conversion memoirs. Some were classics like John Henry Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua and ’s Seven Storey Mountain. Others were contemporary apologies by fundamentalist Protestants turned fundamentalist Catholics who felt compelled to set their former coreligion- ists straight. Many were written by men (not women) who, like G. K. Chesterton, knew exactly what was wrong with the world. Many combined a romantic and ahistorical view of the glories of Rome with a craving for absolute authority. I did not want to read another book of that genre. But after a few minutes with From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart, I could tell that Haw is no fundamentalist. He wor- ries about military spending and envi- ronmental pollution. He is involved with urban community development. He is coauthor, with , of : Politics for Ordinary Radicals. An ordinary radical and social

Reviewed by LaVonne Neff, who blogs at Lively Dust and reviews books at the Neff Review.

39 Christian Century January 23, 2013