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A Collection of Resources on Christian Leftist Ideas and Movements

Please note that the below is very much  a work in progress. -Tim

General

  • Bell, Rob. Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. London: Collins, 2012.

    • A very easy read. While I disagree with him on so much stuff now, it came to me and saved me at a time when I was inches away from losing my faith altogether. When I started having questions, it gave me answers that no one else could give me. So it has a special place in my heart.​

  • ​“Religious Socialism.” Accessed March 31, 2021. https://www.religioussocialism.org/ 

    • Democratic Socialist, but some good resources here.

  • ​“You Need to Take the Religious Left Seriously This Time - POLITICO,” accessed May 29, 2022, https://www.politico.com/amp/news/magazine/2021/02/25/religious-left-politics-liberal-471640.

 

Types of Leftist Christianity

The Social Gospel

Liberation Theology

  • "Liberation Theology." Wikipedia. December 17, 2018. Accessed December 21, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology.

  • Cone, J. H. A Black Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll NY, US: Orbis Books, 1986.

  • Gutiérrez, G. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. Maryknoll NY, US: Orbis Books, 1973.

Christian Socialism

Christian Marxism

  • Chiakulas, C. “A Stab in the Dark at Christian Marxism.” Radical Christian Millennial, 1 June, 2017. Accessed May 29, 2022. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/radicalchristianmillennial/2017/06/stab-dark-christian-marxism/.

  • Friedrich Engels, “On the History of Early Christianity,” 1892. Accessed 29 May 2022, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894/early-christianity/index.htm.

  • Karl Kautsky, “Foundations of Christianity,” 1908, accessed 29 May 2022, https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1908/christ/index.htm.

  • Montero, Roman A., and Edgar G. Foster. All Things in Common: The Economic Practices of the Early Christians. Resource Publications, 2017.

  • Myles, Robert J. Class Struggle In The New Testament. Lanham, USA: Fortress Press, 2021.

  • Smith, David. The Days of His Flesh: The Earthly Life of Our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1909.

  • Stead, F. Herbert. The Proletarian Gospel of Galilee in Some of its Phases. London: The Labour Publishing Co., 1922.

  • Wang, Zhixi. “The Gospel According to Marxism: Zhu Weizhi and the Making of Jesus the Proletarian (1950).” Religions 10, no. 9 (September 2019): 535. Accessed May 29, 2022. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/9/535.​

  • White, Bouck. The Call of the Carpenter. New York: Doubleday, 1911.

  • Unable to locate the following in English:

    • Zhu Weizhi (1948) Jesus Christ

    • Zhu Weizhi (1950) Jesus the Proletarian

Christian Communism

Christian Anarchism

  • "Christian Anarchism." Wikipedia. December 13, 2018. Accessed December 21, 2018. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_anarchism.

  • Ellul, J. Anarchy and Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991.

  • Tolstoy, L. The Kingdom of God is Within You: or, Christianity not as a Mystical Doctrine, buy as a New Life-Conception. Translated by A. Delano. London, UK: Walter Scott, 1894.

 

Denominations, Concepts, Theologies

Anglicanism

Contextual Theology

  • Park, Andrew Sung. The Wounded Heart of God: the Asian Concept of Han and the Christian Doctrine of Sin. Nashville TN, US: Abingdon Press, 1993.

Feminism

Nomad Podcast, Episode N180

LGBTIQA+

Preterism

"Preterism." Wikipedia. December 10, 2018. Accessed December 21, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preterism.

 

Theologians and Thinkers

Christian Anarchists

  • Eller, Vernard

  • Day, Dorothy

  • Tolstoy, Leo

  • Bulgakov, Sergei

Christian Marxists

  • Zhu Weizhi

  • Wang Zhixi

  • Engels, Frederick

Christian Communists

  • Boer, Roland

  • Hewlett, Johnson

Christian Socialists

  • Kingsley, Charles

  • Dearmer, Percy

  • Bliss, William

  • Tillich, Paul

Social Gospel

  • Rauschenbusch, Walter

Liberation Theologians

  • Cone, James Hal

  • Gutiérrez, Gustavo

  • Sobrino, Jon

  • Ateek, Naim

  • Mitri, Vrahev

  • Segundo, Juan Louis

  • Sobrino, Jon

  • Arrupe, Pedro

Radical Reformers

  • Müntzer, Thomas

Radical Theologians

  • Althizer, Thomas J. J.

  • Hamilton, William

Vague Progressives

  • Rollins, Pete

  • Caputo, John

  • Küng, Hans

Liberal Protestants

  • Schleiremacher, Frederick

  • Ritschl, Albrecht

  • Von Harnack, Adolf

  • Spong, John Shelby

  • Borg, Marcus

  • Crossan, John Dominic (n.b. a former Catholic priest)

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Podcasts

©2022 by Timothy Gray

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