I just received a fascinating new book from Eerdmans Publishing on the intersection of conservative politics and Evangelicalism. From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservatism by D.G. Hart promises to be at the very least a great read. And it comes at just the right time — several months before the primary season starts in earnest.
Hart contends that Evangelicals have not truly imbibed the conservative way of thought, and from my vantage point, that’s actually a good thing. Evangelicals should be Christ-followers before they are conservatives. I suspect that Hart has quite a bit more to say on this topic, however, which would be worth considering. Here’s the publisher’s description of this book:
A provocative account of recent evangelical Christian engagement with conservative politics
This book provides a fresh, lively, iconoclastic history of evangelical Christians’ involvement with American politics. Examining key evangelical political figures — from Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson to Billy Graham and Chuck Colson to Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis — D. G. Hart argues that American evangelicalism, from the right as much as the left, is (and always has been) a bad fit with classic political conservatism and its insistence on the limited role of government.
Whenever evangelicals have pushed for government solutions to moral or social problems or for crusading military and foreign policy ventures abroad, Hart argues, their religious and moral idealism has trumped the sober realism of classic conservatism and a careful understanding of the virtues of the American political system. Further, Hart predicts that, with such a tenuous relationship to the core principles of conservatism, evangelicals on the right are unlikely to remain politically conservative unless they finally accept — really accept — the limited uses of politics to effect lasting social change.
Readers of From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin are sure to find Hart’s voice timely and compelling.
For more on this title, see the product detail page at Eerdmans.com.
ISBN-10: 080286628X
List Price: $25.00.
Pages: 252
Purchase Links: Christianbook.com, Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.
Disclaimer: This book was provided by the Eerdmans Publishing for review. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.
