"The latest from reporter and author Dionne (Why Americans Hate Politics) is a highly worthy alternative to polarizing arguments regarding religion, whether pro or con ('neo-atheist' tracts like Christopher Hitchens's God Is Not Great). It's also a smart rebuke of those who would divert the faithful with a narrow set of 'values' rather than viewing religion in a broader political context. Declaring that 'the era of the religious Right is over,' Dionne looks to history, tradition, teachers and texts (including recent religious scholarship) to reassert both progressive and conservative views on how religion can play a legitimate role in matters of economics, social justice and morality. Dionne explodes the myth that George W. Bush was elected by evangelicals (he says gains among moderates were far more important); demonstrates the absurdity and unfortunate consequences of restricting religious political concerns to abortion and gay marriage (though he fully explores both); and examines the fate of governmental faith-based initiatives past and present. Along the way, Dionne considers the current crop of presidential candidates and provides a stinging analysis of the president and Congress's intervention in the Terri Schiavo case. Rousing and wry, Dionne's sensible voice makes a powerful case for broadening religious vision and visibility in the public square." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Recognizing that 'it's much easier to scream across barricades,' he provides a political primer for politicians who want to reclaim the center...[H]is book provides new ways of talking about religion and public policy--just in time for liberals laboring to be 'born again.'

E. J. Dionne gives us a thoughtful and nuanced exploration of Christianity's contributions to American politics. Critical of the exclusionary politics of both the Left and the Right, he calls for a new bond between religious conservatives and progressives rooted in our shared moral values and inspired by the wonder and awe that give birth to faith.

Liberal commentator Dionne foresees different relations between faith and politics now that the religious Right is declining. . . . He turns to recent developments in Catholicism since Vatican II and among liberal Catholics as a springboard to his concluding injunction that Christians continue to participate in politics, out of Christian hope rather than self-righteousness.

E.J. Dionne brings special credentials to [] on the role of religion in American politics. As a former correspondent to the Vatican, current political analyst for and professor at Georgetown University, he knows the present with the keen sense of a beat reporter and the past with the perspective of a scholarly historian. He seems to have read and digested every book written on the subject, as 20 pages of footnotes amply attest. The result is an astute and important review of the intersection of faith and public policy.

For much of the last decade the notion has been abroad in the land that religion is a conservative influence in American politics. E. J. Dionne, a liberal and a Catholic and one of the wisest of American journalists, challenges this myth. As the country emerges from a dreadful era, Dionne provides a perspective from which to recover the wisdom that religion, like everything else in America, is politically pluralistic.

Is this really the year liberal Christians are going to take back politics? Not likely, but it is also not likely the year that the 'religious right' will dominate the political scene. columnist E.J. Dionne, a Catholic with extensive background in religion, writes in that 'we do not need and should not want, to end religion's public role. We do need a more capacious understanding of what that role is.'

Any book by E. J. Dionne is a treat, and one about religion is especially to be savored. This is not simply the work of an astute political commentator but of a person of faith who writes gracefully and often prophetically. He has an enviable flair for moving the reader along almost effortlessly and yet making clear and compelling arguments. There are fresh insights here in abundance.

In , Dionne recognizes that the Right raises legitimate points about the importance of personal morality, and that Christianity does have a 'conservative' streak in its skepticism about efforts to remake society in fundamental ways. . . . Another virtue of Dionne's book is the substantial attention it gives to specifically Catholic dynamics. . . . Dionne's book gives us reason to hope that an emphasis on human dignity across a broad range of issues--an emphasis resonating with Catholic thought, and increasingly embraced by Evangelicals--might be combined with Niebuhrian understanding of the limits and possibilities of politics.

tells the recent history of religion's role in American politics and the outlook for the future. Dionne . . . points to a general trend of increasing moderation of religious people in America. Christians who support abortion rights are acknowledging the horror of the practice, he writes, and Christians who used to vote exclusively on abortion are looking at other issues, too, including poverty and the AIDS crisis in Africa.

by E.J. Dionne Jr. is an attempt to chart the rocky ride our ship of state has endured the last few years. Given that this popular syndicated newspaper columnist is often the standard-bearer for rational progressive politics, this book is well researched, much sourced, and eminently readable.

In his new book , E.J. Dionne zeroes in on how spiritual restlessness is affecting American politics. Since the Reagan years, a seemingly monolithic religious right has focused on a narrow moral agenda and voted accordingly. But Dionne sees signs that this agenda (stopping gay marriage, abortion, and stem-cell research) may at last be broadening to encompass concerns with the poor and the environment.

E. J. Dionne is my favorite columnist. He is one of America's most insightful social commentators and a persistent articulator of the powerful but neglected vision of the common good that calls both Left and Right to moral accountability. is a crucial contribution to the new American discourse on faith and politics.

This book offers an insightful look into the intersection between religion and politics, coming from a self-described 'progressive Catholic.' While he doesn't mince words in his criticism of the Religious Right, it is clear that he believes that people of faith still have a part to play in directing the moral compass of our society.

E. J. Dionne Jr. is a syndicated columnist for the "Washington Post", a regular political analyst on National Public Radio, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a professor at Georgetown University. His books include the best-selling "Why Americans Hate Politics" (Simon and Schuster), which won the "Los Angeles Times" book prize and was nominated for the National Book Award.

Introduction: Is God's Work Our Work? Faith, Doubt, and Radical Amazement 1

Chapter 1: Is Religion Conservative or Progressive? (Or Both?) 25

Chapter 2: Why the Culture War Is the Wrong War: Religion, Values, and American Politics 45

Chapter 3: What Are the "Values" Issues? Economics, Social Justice, and the Struggle over Morality 71

Chapter 4: Selling Religion Short: When Ideology Is Not Enough 92

Chapter 5: John Paul, Benedict, and the Catholic Future 126

Chapter 6: What Happened to the Seamless Garment? The Agony of Liberal Catholicism 151

Chapter 7: Solidarity, Liberty, and Religion's True Calling 183

Notes 205

Acknowledgments 227

Index 235