Christianity and Democracy Today

My 30th book announced -- due out March 2025

A milestone in my academic career will take place this coming March, when this new book comes out with Routledge:

Christianity and Democracy Today is a collection of essays that were originally produced for a conference at Tübingen University organized by Prof. Paul Peterson, a very talented scholar at that grand old German university. I am grateful to Prof. Peterson for his leadership in attracting scholars from around the world to undertake this project, and for doing most of the heavy lifting for this edited volume that Routledge is soon releasing.

Here is the publisher’s description of the book:

This volume explores Christianity’s relationship with democracy in a global perspective.

How are the various democratic ideals being addressed by influential Christian intellectuals, theologians, ethicists, churches and church leaders around the world today? The contributors reflect on the status of the democratic idea in the churches, theological academy and public religious life in a variety of social and political contexts. They consider how the democratic idea can be cultivated in Christian communities and intellectual traditions with a view to contemporary challenges.

The Table of Contents gives you an idea of the breadth of coverage offered by the international roster of scholars who participated:

Introduction David P. Gushee and Paul Silas Peterson

1. Christianity and Democracy Today in the United States David P. Gushee

2. Christianity and Democracy Today in Europe Paul Silas Peterson

3. Christianity and the Struggle for Democracy in China Fuk-tsang Ying

4. Christian Conversion, Democracy and Minority Vulnerability in India and Neighboring Countries Chandra Mallampalli

5. Inside-Out or Outside-In: Christianity and Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa Nicola de Jager

6. Christianity and Democracy Today in Latin America Paul Freston and Joanildo Burity

7. Democracy as a Theological Concept? Religious Narratives and Political Mythologies in the Russo-Ukrainian War Pavlo Smytsnyuk

All of us attempted to ask fundamental questions about the relationship between Christianity and liberal democracy today, given the long connection between the two ideas in the modern world.

I was struck by the extent to which people in a number of authoritarian contexts still connect Christianity with liberal democracy.

What I mean is that there are still millions of people around the world, suffering under tyranny, who understand Christianity as a source and ground of their commitment to liberal democracy.

But the authors also document cases in which Christianity gets coopted into authoritarianism and becomes embedded in authoritarian regimes.

This is a stark reminder that what we make of Christianity is up to those of us who claim Christianity. That is, at a human level, in the real world, it is our decisions and actions, traditions and innovations, that shape the ever-evolving manifestation in the world of the religion we claim.

I ask my seminary students to take heed of this. I warn them that whatever version of Christian faith they end up living and proclaiming in the company of those they serve may well be what their people simply understand Christianity to be. That is especially true of the youthful and less experienced believers who haven’t been around the faith that long.

So we had better be careful, and responsible: “Let not many of you become teachers, for those who teach will be judged with great strictness.” (James 3:1)

I have spent much of my career presenting a version of Christianity that assumed, and eventually made explicit, a deep commitment to the values of liberal democracy. This book collection is a reminder that such a commitment is shared by many around the world, even in places where democracy is in eclipse.

This is comforting.

***

I pause just a moment to note that this is my 30th book. That is a milestone, and one that I could not have imagined when I got started in 1993. Just for fun, I list here every single one of my books, in reverse order, from newest to oldest. I am putting into bold the ones that have had the widest significance and/or highest sales. It’s Christmas time! Perhaps you can give one of these to someone this year!

In a future post I will describe the two remaining book projects that I envision undertaking before I put away my quill.

Here is the list:

(29) The Moral Teachings of Jesus: Radical Instruction in the Will of God. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2024.

(28) Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2023.

(27) Introducing Christian Ethics. Canton, MI: Front Edge, 2022.

(26) After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020. Nominated for Grawemeyer Award.

(25) Justice and the Way of Jesus: Christian Ethics and the Incarnational Discipleship of Glen Stassen. Editor, with Reggie L. Williams. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2020.

(24) In the Shadow of a Prophet: The Legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch. Editor & Contributor, with William H. Brackney. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2020.

(23) Moral Leadership for a Divided Age: Fourteen People Who Dared to Change Our World. With Colin D. Holtz. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2018.

(22) Still Christian: Following Jesus Out of American Evangelicalism. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017.

(21) Letter to My Anxious Christian Friends: From Faith to Fear in Unsettled Times. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016.

(20) Evangelical Ethics (Library of Theological Ethics). Editor, with Isaac B. Sharp. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.

(19) Changing Our Mind. Canton, MI: Read the Spirit Books, 2014. Third Edition, 2017. Translations; Georgian, Swahili, Mandarin, Spanish, Korean.

(18) In the Fray: Contesting Christian Public Ethics, 1994-2013. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014.

(17) Evangelical Peacemakers: Gospel Engagement in a War-Torn World. Editor/Contributor. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013.

(16) Glen Harold Stassen: Baptist Peacemaker, Global Christian Ethicist (Festschrift), Co-Editor/Contributor, with Reggie L. Williams. Perspectives in Religious Studies 40, no. 2 (Summer 2013).

(15) The Sacredness of Human Life: Why an Ancient Biblical Idea is the Key to the World’s Future. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013. Nominated for Grawemeyer Award; Winner, Georgia Author of the Year Award.

(14) Yours is the Day, Lord, Yours is the Night: A Morning and Evening Prayer Book. Editor, with Jeanie Gushee. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012. Reisssued as A Morning and Evening Prayerbook. New York: HarperCollins, 2018.

(13) A New Evangelical Manifesto: A Kingdom Vision for the Common Good. Editor/Contributor. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2012.

(12) Religious Faith, Torture, and Our National Soul. Co-editor and Contributor, with Jillian Hickman Zimmer and J. Drew Zimmer. Macon: Mercer, 2010.

(11) The Scholarly Vocation and the Baptist Academy. Co-editor and Contributor, with Roger Ward. Macon: Mercer, 2008.

(10) The Future of Faith in American Politics: The Public Witness of the Evangelical Center. Waco: Baylor, 2008.

(9) Only Human: Christian Reflections on the Journey toward Wholeness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

(8) Getting Marriage Right: Realistic Counsel for Saving and Strengthening Marriages. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.

(7) Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, with Glen H. Stassen. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 2003. First Edition translations: Japanese, Bulgarian, Spanish, Indonesian, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Finnish. Second Edition, substantially revised: Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016. Second edition translation: Korean.

(6) Christians and Politics Beyond the Culture Wars: From Despair to Mission. Editor/Contributor. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000.

(5) Toward a Just and Caring Society: Christian Responses to Poverty in America. Editor/Contributor. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999.

(4) The Future of Christian Higher Education. Co-Editor and Contributor, with David S. Dockery. Broadman & Holman, 1999.

(3) A Bolder Pulpit: Reclaiming the Moral Dimension of Preaching, with Robert H. Long. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1998.

(2) Preparing for Christian Ministry: An Evangelical Approach. Co-edited with Walter Jackson. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996.

(1) The Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust: A Christian Interpretation. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1994. Translation: German. Second Edition: Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust: Genocide and Moral Obligation. St. Paul: Paragon House, 2003.