The Other Evangelicals: A Story of Liberal, Black, Progressive, Feminist, and Gay Christians—and the Movement That Pushed Them Out

Sharp, a professor of theological studies at Union Theological Seminary, debuts with a richly detailed history of forgotten progressive evangelical figures. While American evangelicalism is defined today by religious, social, and political conservatism (embodied by figures like Billy Graham), it wasn’t always so, writes Sharp, noting how, as a postwar conservative movement spread through American evangelicalism, “dissenters” who tried to “carve out space for an alternative kind of evangelicalism” were marginalized or excommunicated. Among this group were Howard O. Jones, who in 1957 became the first Black pastor to serve as an “associate evangelist” for the Graham crusade (though he experienced racism in the church); Letha Dawson Scanzoni, a founding member of the Evangelical Women’s Caucus, who wrote lightning-rod articles criticizing the idea of women’s spiritual inferiority to men; and Jim Wallis, founder of the progressive Christian magazine Sojourners. Still, the march of conservative evangelicalism continued, and by the 21st century, the movement mostly stood for antiliberalism, antifeminism, and antimodernism. Big changes are unlikely, the author suggests, because historically those who tried to do so “were cast out or... walked away.” Sharp skillfully brings the complexities of evangelicalism alive, and his meticulous research and careful analysis casts its history in a new light. This will fascinate scholars of American religion. (Apr.)