The Gospel of Church

With astonishing archival findings and narrative lucidity, The Gospel of Church supplies a beautiful primer on the religious debates that originate the modern labor movement. Janine Drake exposes how Christian leaders turned against union organizing to preserve their universalizing hold on the moral order. This is a book appears just as socialism experiences a revitalized presence in public conversation and Christian nationalism is on the rise. Required reading for activists, agitators, educators, and historians who want to understand when and why so many American Christians got scared of strikes. * Kathryn Lofton, author of Consuming Religion * Janine Giordano Drake's revelatory book will lead readers to a new understanding of the church as a site of political contest in the early 20th century. A feat of research and scholarship, her account of religion, class, and politics will help scholars gain a deeper understanding of Christianity as a social force- one that has reshaped the political landscape with implications reaching to the present day. * Kimberly Kather Phillips-Fein, author of Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal * Janine Giordano Drake skillfully and effectively tells the story of how protestant ministers, organized into the Federal Council of Churches and motivated by wider Social Gospel commitments, suppressed working class movements in support of socialism and industrial unions. Her well-documented argument shows how Protestant ministers and the FCC, between 1908 and 1920, used notions of Christian justice to strengthen their own power and public presence while weakening unions and voices on the working-class religious left. Her work bridges scholarship in the fields of labor and religious history and speaks to important political developments that reverberate to this day. * Randi Storch, author of Red Chicago: American Communism at Its Grassroots, 1928-35 * Drake's work offers a powerful reminder to leaders invested in Christian social reform today. * Katar Ina Von Kühn, The Christian Century * This book's thesis is that the commonly accepted narrative about the Social Gospel needs a profound revision...Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *