Prophetic Encounters: Religion and the American Radical Tradition

From Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the nineteenth century to Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Starhawk in the twentieth, American radicals have labored under a deep faith in the human capacity to transform the world--a faith and radicalism that has always been intertwined with the religious practices of Christians and Jews, pagans and Buddhists, orthodox believers and humanist heretics.

In Prophetic Encounters, Dan McKanan treats the history of the religious left and the history of movements for social change as a single history, showing that American radicalism is a continuous tradition rather than a collection of disparate movements. Emphasizing the power of encounter--encounters between whites and former slaves, between the middle classes and the immigrant masses, and among activists themselves--McKanan shows that encounters between people of different perspectives and beliefs have been transformative for centuries, uniting those whose faith is a source of activist commitment with those whose activism is a source of faith.

Offering a history of the diverse religious dimensions of radical movements from the Revolution to the present day, Prophetic Encounters invites contemporary activists to stand proudly in a tradition of prophetic power.

The United States has always had an active, vibrant, and influential religious Left. In every period of our history, people of faith have envisioned a society of peace and justice, and their tireless efforts have powered the social movements that have defined America’s progress: the abolition of slavery, feminism, the New Deal, civil rights, and others.

In this groundbreaking, definitive work, McKanan treats the histories of religion and of the Left as a single history, showing that American radicalism is a continuous tradition rather than a collection of disparate movements. Emphasizing the power of encounter—between whites and former slaves, between the middle classes and the immigrant masses, and among activists themselves—McKanan shows that the coming together of people of different perspectives and beliefs has been transformative for centuries, uniting those whose faith is a source of activist commitment with those whose activism is a source of faith. Offering a history of the diverse religious dimensions of radical movements from the American Revolution to the present day, Prophetic Encounters invites contemporary activists to stand proudly in a tradition of prophetic power.

From the Hardcover edition.

Introduction:

Chapter 1)  The Faith of the Working Men

Chapter 2)  African Identity and Black Radicalism

Chapter 3)  Encounters with William Lloyd Garrison

Chapter 4)  Personifying Radical Abolitionism

Chapter 5)   Radicals Fight and Unite

Chapter 6)   Confronting the Slave Power

Chapter 7)   New Religions for Radicalism

Chapter 8)   Women’s Rights, Women Ministers, and a Woman’s Bible

Chapter 9)   The Jesus of Labor

Chapter 10)  Encountering the City

Chapter 11)  The Religion of Socialism

Chapter 12)  The Radical Depression

Chapter 13)  The Gandhian Moment

Chapter 14)  Mentors of a New Left

Chapter 15)  New Encounters in the South

Chapter 16)  Expanding Circles of Encounter

Chapter 17)  From Encounter to Confrontation

Chapter 18)  Rebuilding the Left

Chapter 19)  A Women’s Decade

Chapter 20)  Resisting the Right

Chapter 21) The Future of Radicalism

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Radical Organizations

Resources for Further Study

Notes

Index