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

This rigorous study from Wuthnow (Nurturing Happiness), an emeritus sociology professor at Princeton, offers a sweeping overview of the religious left over the past 25 years. Originating in the 19th century with movements that focused on addressing “the inequitable distribution of power,” the religious left today comprises organizations of numerous denominations that operate on local, state, and national levels and spearhead interventions ranging from directly aiding disadvantaged groups to lobbying legislative bodies to shaping public discourse online. Unlike the religious right’s focus on strong internal “bonding” within congregations, Wuthnow contends, the left adopts a more decentralized approach toward political action, forging interdenominational alliances and strategic networks with an array of activist groups, some of them secular. In Wuthnow’s view, this lends the religious left an agility that the right lacks and enables it, in spite of limited resources (and often an absence of the overt passion displayed by the right) to influence issues ranging from worker’s rights to gun control. While the author’s recommendations for how the left can augment its approaches are relatively paltry, he lucidly outlines how the movement’s apparent weaknesses can serve as strengths and pinpoints some of the key issues that face it, like declining funding and oppressive government policies. Scholars of contemporary U.S. religion and politics will be edified. (June)