Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of ConservatismDavid R.Swartz. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.

Abstract

Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism David R. Swartz. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.In 1973 the Washington Post suggested that the evangelical left could shake both political and religious life in America (1). Ultimately, it did not. David R. Swartz's work Moral Minority explains the unfulfilled aspirations of the evangelical left while complicating deterministic narratives of an ascending religious right. In short, the author questions the inevitability of the Moral Majority's mobilizing behind conservative doctrine. Instead he offers a portrait of a movement politically up for grabs (2) in the postcivil rights era and, in doing so, charts how and why the evangelical left became the moral minority-rather than the majority-in an age of burgeoning conservatism.There is no historical reason why evangelicalism should identify with a single political orientation. Viewing evangelicalism as far from monolithic, Swartz argues that evangelicalism and its political machinations are and were fundamentally fragmented (8). Why then, he asks, has evangelicalism been so closely linked with conservative rather than progressive politics? In answering his primary research question, Swartz demonstrates that evangelicalism held more than one response to civil rights fatigue, the liberal Warren Court, and the various social and cultural changes of the period. Moreover, Swartz illuminates the often obscured role of the evangelical left.Much like its historical subjects, Moral Minority is also fragmented. Three distinct chronological sections follow the general arc of the movement. Each section follows specific individuals whom Swartz uses to explore broader narratives. Section One follows the emergence and politicization of American evangelicals. Carl Henry, John Alexander, and Jim Wallis help to explain the movement's evolving positions on social engagement, racial justice, and Vietnam respectively. Swartz's use of imbricated biographical portraits reveals rich, textured accounts of figures many scholars know little about. However, much like second-gene ration civil rights histories, the author risks losing the forest through the trees. Readers will come away with a nuanced understanding of select individuals as well as their intellectual, political, and spiritual development. This tells us less, though, about how the evangelical left developed nationally and globally.Section Two helps to explain the social awakening of the evangelical left through what Swartz labels as the global reflex. Swartz shines here, rightly unpacking evangelicalism as an expression of transnational interconnected movement. The influence of evangelicals outside the United States significantly altered the course of the evangelical left and, for that matter, evangelicalism as a whole. …