In this first of a three-volume, comprehensive series, Gary Dorrien mixes theological analysis with historical and biographical detail to present the first comprehensive interpretation of American theological liberalism. Arguing that the indigenous roots of American liberal theology existed before the rise of Darwinism, Dorrien maintains that this tradition took shape in the nineteenth century and was motivated by a desire to map a progressive "third way" between authority-based orthodoxies and atheistic rationalism. Dorrien characterizes American liberal theology by its openness to historical criticism and evolutionary theory, its commitment to the authority of individual reason and experience, its conception of Christianity as an ethical way of life, and its commitment to make Christianity credible and socially relevant to modern people. As the first entry in a projected three-volume series on American liberal Christianity, this masterfully written work offers a biographical narrative of the 19th-century figures who, while influenced by English and German ideas, shaped an indigenous theology. Writers such as William E. Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Bushnell, Henry Ward Beecher, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charles Briggs, and Borden Parker Bowne are all featured here. These thinkers developed modernist schools that sought to find a middle ground between orthodoxy and rationalism, claims Dorrien (The Barthian Revolt in Modern Theology). A significant feature is the author's coverage of the divinity schools at Harvard, Boston, Yale, and Chicago universities; surprisingly, he finds the most consistent theological liberalism at Boston University. He also describes the controversies these liberals engendered in the churches and the resulting heresy trials. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.AJames A. Overbeck, Atlanta-Fulton P.L., GA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Gary Dorrien is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University in New York City. An Episcopal priest, he is the author of eleven books and over one hundred articles that range across the fields of theology, philosophy, social theory, politics, ethics, and history.