A History of the Grassroots Movements in Christianity that Preserved Jesus’s Message of Social Justice for 2,000 Years and Their Impact on the Church Today

In the same spirit as Howard Zinn’s groundbreaking work The People’s History of the United States, Diana Butler Bass reveals the under-reported movements, personalities, and spiritual practices that continue to inform and ignite contemporary Christian worship, activism, and social justice reforms in the name of Jesus. The book will offer up a much-needed “other side of the story” for progressive Christians, drawing from examples of alternative practices in every period of Christian history, including:

* Care for the environment and celebrating God in nature
* Defining compassion, hospitality, and social justice as the primary function of the church
* Pacifism as the dominant Christian response to war
* Highlighting the female attributes of God
* Celebrating human sexuality as a gift from God

This is the book that progressives and liberals have been waiting for – a deeply researched history of Christianity that sheds new light on the underreported personalities and movements of the faith.

Diana Butler Bass is the author of seven books on American Protestantism, including Christianity for the Rest of Us, Strength for the Journey, and The Practicing Congregation. She earned her Ph.D. in Church History from Duke University and has taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Rhodes College, and Virginia Theological Seminary. From 1995 – 2000 she wrote a weekly column on American Religion for the New York Times syndicate and is a popular speaker at retreats and workshops across the country. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

A People’s History of Christianity is a selection of the Progressive Book Club.

“Butler-Bass has created a perfect armchair companion for contemporary Christians. Charmingly written and refreshing to read, yet rich in details and thorough in its mapping of the major themes and events that have shaped the evolution of the Western Church, A People’s History is our story re-told with both clear-eyed affection and a scholar’s acumen.”
Phyllis Tickle, Author, The Great Emergence

“It would be difficult to imagine anyone reading A PEOPLE’S HISTORY without finding some new insight or inspiration, some new and unexpected testimony to the astonishing breadth of Christianity through the centuries.”
Philip Jenkins, author of The Lost History of Christianity

“What an exciting book… Highly recommended”
Library Journal (February 15, 2009).

AVAILABLE MARCH 2009
Religion
$25.95 ($27.95 Can.)
Hardcover
336 pages; 6 x 9
ISBN: 978-0-06-144870-6