Another Side of the Christian Left

Abstract

Chapter 4 explores how another manifestation of Thurman’s pragmatism—his Christian liberalism—was represented within the Fellowship Church and beyond. Chapter 4 takes a broader look at Thurman’s activism within the scope of the midcentury Christian Left and examines how the characteristic cosmopolitanism and Christian liberalism of the movement thrived within the institution. The chapter also expands on how the Fellowship Church’s values transcended its walls through connections to a dynamic international community of religious liberals as well as through a thriving liberal religious middlebrow book culture via Thurman’s 1949 book, Jesus and the Disinherited. Overall, this chapter emphasizes the timeliness of the Fellowship Church and sheds light on the expressions of religious nonviolence that took shape in the mid-twentieth century.