Religion, socialism and economic justice
Support for socialism is on the rise in the U.S. What’s the religious response?
Support for socialism is on the rise in the U.S. What’s the religious response?
Matt Bernico is an assistant professor of communication and media studies at Greenville University in Greenville, Illinois. He co-hosts “The Magnificast,” a podcast on Christianity and leftist politics.
Elizabeth Bruenig is an opinion columnist for The Washington Post, writing most often on politics, religion and morality. She is Catholic and has written about her support for socialism.
Timothy P. Carney is an author, researcher and political commentator. His most recent book, Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse, is about societal change and loneliness. Carney has argued that people turn to socialism in the absence of other sources of community, like religion.
Heath W. Carter is an associate professor of American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of Union Made: Working People and the Rise of Social Christianity in Chicago.
Vaneesa Cook is a history lecturer at the University of Wisconsin. She is the author of Spiritual Socialists: Religion and the American Left.
Janine Giordano Drake is a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University. She is currently working on a book about Christian socialism.
Martin Hägglund is a professor of comparative literature and humanities at Yale University. In his most recent book, This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom, he challenges modern commitment to organized religion and capitalism and makes a case for a form of democratic socialism.
The Rev. Art Lindsley is vice president of theological initiatives at the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics. He researches religious teachings on economic systems, including Bible passages used to justify socialism, and was co-editor of Counting the Cost: Christian Perspectives on Capitalism and For the Least of These: A Biblical Answer to Poverty.