Refuting the common perception that the American left has a religion problem, Vaneesa Cook highlights an important but overlooked intellectual and political tradition that she calls "spiritual socialism." Spiritual socialists emphasized the social side of socialism and believed the most basic expression of religious values—caring for the sick, tired, hungry, and exploited members of one's community—created a firm footing for society. Their unorthodox perspective on the spiritual and cultural meaning of socialist principles helped make leftist thought more palatable to Americans, who associated socialism with Soviet atheism and autocracy. In this way, spiritual socialism continually put pressure on liberals, conservatives, and Marxists to address the essential connection between morality and social justice. Cook tells her story through an eclectic group of activists whose lives and works span the twentieth century. Sherwood Eddy, A. J. Muste, Myles Horton, Dorothy Day, Henry Wallace, Pauli Murray, Staughton Lynd, and Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke and wrote publicly about the connection between religious values and socialism. Equality, cooperation, and peace, they argued, would not develop overnight, and a more humane society would never emerge through top-down legislation. Instead, they believed that the process of their vision of the world had to happen in homes, villages, and cities, from the bottom up. By insisting that people start treating each other better in everyday life, spiritual socialists transformed radical activism from projects of political policy-making to grass-roots organizing. For Cook, contemporary public figures such as Senator Bernie Sanders, Pope Francis, Reverend William Barber, and Cornel West are part of a long-standing tradition that exemplifies how non-Communist socialism has gained traction in American politics.

Christianity is often assumed to be pro-capitalist and socially conservative – in short, necessarily aligned with the political Right. But can this be straightforwardly true of a religion founded by a figure who drew his early followers from among the poor and downtrodden and spoke against the accumulation of earthly riches? In this book, Anthony A.J. Williams shows that this assumption is far from correct by giving an introductory overview of a tradition of socialist and radical Christianity that can be traced back to the communal ownership described in the Acts of the Apostles. Focusing on modern Christian Left movements, from Christian Socialism and the social gospel to liberation theology and red-letter Christianity, Williams examines the major challenges faced by the Christian Left today, both from within Christianity itself and from the secular Left. Does the Bible and Christian theology really support collectivism and universal equality? Can Christian radicalism remain viable in an age of identity politics? This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between religion and politics.