Library Journal
In this reintroduction of Baptist minister Rauschenbusch's classic 1907 social gospel treatise, Christianity and the Social Crisis, several contributors offer chapter-by-chapter commentary, among them pastor and evangelist Tony Campolo, author and scholar Cornel West, and philosopher Richard Rorty. As with a colorful sports broadcast, they offer up their particular viewpoints concerning Rauschenbusch's now-famous and still controversial ideas, e.g., his disbelief in original sin and his preaching of a social gospel. Many of the societal concerns and questions of 1907, e.g., his alarm over inner-city poverty, societal injustice, crime, and ineffectual government, are just as relevant today. The only seeming difference is in the voices of the individuals addressing these issues. It is interesting to read what each has to say about the hopes and dreams of Rauschenbusch, one of the original social gospel architects. Certainly not all are in agreement with his (or one another's) theology, eschatology, Christology, anthropology, and soteriology, but all acknowledge the need to attend to and address societal ills. Recommended for larger specialized university collections.
—Wesley A. Mills