New Press Launches Religion Line

The New Press, the New York–based not-for-profit publisher known for its left-leaning social and political history list, is launching a line of books focused on contemporary religion, thanks to a major grant from the Kendeda Sustainability Fund of the Tides Foundation, an organization dedicated to social justice. The line will release eight titles, beginning with two in June. Two more are set for the fall, with the remaining titles scheduled for publication in 2009.

The New Press has hired Rita Brock, a feminist religious scholar and organizer, to oversee the line, which will feature two series: Whose Religion, a series examining the core beliefs of a major religion that will offer detailed rejections of conservative interpretations of the faith, and Does-Not-Equal, a series focused on contentious religious social issues that will define them in terms of progressive politics and policies. The line will focus on the major faiths, Judaism, Catholicism, Islam and Protestant Christianity. Brock is based in Oakland, Calif., and will visit the New Press offices in New York about eight times a year for editorial consultation.

“Progressive religious voices are just not being heard,” said Brock, who was hired by executive director Diane Wachtell and editorial director Marc Favreau because of her long history of scholarly work and progressive organizing around religion. “Our plan is to break down the stereotype of religion as a right-wing phenomenon,” Brock said, “and to support progressive laypeople with materials that can help them make their case.” The line will likely continue to publish four to eight books a year, Brock said.

The first two books are from the Whose Religion series: Whose Church?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Catholicism by Daniel C. Maguire and Whose Torah?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism by Rebecca T. Alpert. All the books will be written by noted left-leaning, maverick religious scholars—Maguire, an ex-priest and theologian, calls for Catholics to support reproductive choice, while Alpert is a lesbian and an ordained female rabbi. “We like agitators for change,” Brock said about her authors.

Wachtell called the religious line “a political intervention. We’re out to reclaim progressive political values for religion in the contemporary world.”