The Progressives' Bible

<p>While conservative groups have often appealed to the Bible to support their positions so too have many progressive voices rooted in the Bible seeing their struggles in its narratives and characters and drawing on its verses to prove the truth of their arguments. Abolitionism countered pro-slavery arguments with copious biblical material. Women's rights advocates strongly disagreed with one another about whether the Bible was good news for their cause but some argued that it was. Temperance a broadly inclusive reform movement in the nineteenth century employed arguments that reflected a critical non-literalist stance to the text. Civil rights speakers identified with biblical figures and struggles infusing their rhetoric with familiar verses. <i>The Progressives' Bible</i> foregrounds women especially women of color like Maria Stewart Septima Clark and Fannie Lou Hamer while also considering the works of crucial figures like Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr. A final chapter describes contemporary social justice movements that draw strength from biblical and religious traditions from Jewish Catholic and Protestant perspectives.</p>