New Midwest Book Review: Articulate, Eloquent and Timely
Historian, Pastor, Professor and Author Dr. Raymond R. Roberts is grateful for this new Midwest Book Review and feedback for his theology: “A Democratic Republican Faith” (2026). Dr. Roberts has been speaking at churches and conferences about his key messages, and is this is his first official book review.
Established in 1976, the Midwest Book Review is an organization committed to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing.
Midwest Book Review – July 2026
A Democratic and Republican Faith: A Public Theology for a Church and Nation in Crisis
Raymond R. Roberts, author
David P. Gushee, contributor
Wipf and Stock Publishers
https://wipfandstock.com
9798385251438, $43.00, HC, 206pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Democratic-Republican-Faith-Public-Theology/dp/B0H1F6QG11
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-democratic-and-republican-faith-raymond-r-roberts/1150020480
Synopsis: Experts justifiably warn that America’s democratic political culture is in crisis and that our country is slouching toward authoritarianism. While many have warned of the challenge that Christian nationalism presents to democracy, the publication of “A Democratic and Republican Faith: A Public Theology for a Church and Nation in Crisis” calls immediate attention to this issue. Author, Historian, and Pastor Raymond R. Roberts addresses the burden that mainstream Christianity has placed on democratic culture by failing to nurture members in a thick democratic and republican faith.
Pastor Roberts examines the positive role that religion must play in a liberal democratic society and shows how mainstream Protestants can do their part to revitalize the cultural and moral resources on which democracy depends. He also addresses Protestantism’s disarray and America’s democratic crisis by articulating the practical implications of nine principles of a public theology: theocentrism, creation, image of God, natural law, sin, hope, vocation, covenant, and ecclesiology.
Rediscovering the wisdom in these principles will give Protestants new purpose and vigor. Because these principles evolved alongside and shaped the ideas and practices of democracy, refreshing their meaning promises to strengthen ideas that are frequently considered more secular, such as liberalism, federalism, constitutionalism, human rights, the separation of powers, and the rule of law.
Critique: Articulate, eloquent, timely, and a badly needed contribution to our on-going national discourse with respect to the separation of Church & State, “A Democratic and Republican Faith: A Public Theology for a Church and Nation in Crisis” is another clarion class to address the Founding Father’s fear of how the State could corrupt the Church if the two were to merge into one.
Informed and informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking, “A Democratic and Republican Faith: A Public Theology for a Church and Nation in Crisis” is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, church, and seminary bookshelves, as well as college/university library Contemporary Political Science & Christian Social Issues collections and supplemental Constitutional Law curriculum studies lists.
It should be noted for political science students, academia, clergy, seminary students, political activists, and governmental policy makers that this hardcover edition of “A Democratic and Republican Faith: A Public Theology for a Church and Nation in Crisis” from Wipf & Stock is also available in paperback (9798385251421, $26.00) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99)
Editorial Note #1: Raymond R. Roberts is a Presbyterian pastor, Professor of Ethics at the University of Richmond, former Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee for Social Witness Policy for the Presbyterian Church (USA), author of the book Whose Kids Are They Anyway? Religion and Morality in America’s Public Schools, and co-songwriter with the band Reckless and Wild.
Editorial Note #2: David P. Gushee is distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University and chair in Christian social ethics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The elected past-president of both the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics, Gushee is the author or editor of twenty-nine books. He has an international reputation as one of the leading Christian moral thinkers of this era.
This Midwest Book Review is featured in their July 2026 online book review magazine “MBR Bookwatch”.
