Robust Liberalism: H. Richard Niebuhr and the Ethics of American Public Life

Timothy A. Beach-Verhey is Pastor of Faison Presbyterian Church in North Carolina. He previously served as Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics and Director of the Program for the Theological Exploration of Vocation at Davidson College. He lives in Faison, North Carolina.

…an engaging guide to Niebuhr’s work, and [Beach-Verhey] provides a compelling account of Christian participation in the common good.

Beach-Verhey demonstrates deep insight into the cultural forces that paralyze public life in the United States. His theory about the nature of liberal democracy is similarly insightful, and his case for Niebuhr’s radical monotheism is quite compelling.

In this fine book on public theology, Timothy Beach-Verhey seeks to find a way for American Christians to contribute to public discourse wihtout seeking to dominate (as in the past) or to accommodate to its assumptions (our current temptation). He proposes a revival of the 'robust liberalism' of H. Richard Niebuhr because Niebuhr negotiates the relation between the particular and the universal better than any contemporary alternative.