Though it is not well remembered today, the United States has always had an active religious left. In every period of our history, people of faith have envisioned a society of peace and justice, and at three critical junctures--the abolition of slavery, the creation of the New Deal social welfare system, and the civil rights movement--people of faith have transformed elements of their prophetic vision into reality.
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.