Please Note: I previously posted this in the Religion/Theology forum, but I thought I might post it here now - since it is relevant to current on going discussions. No longer being a religious person myself, however having once had an Evangelical background many, many, many years ago, I thought this would be an interesting book to read, when I had learned that the author of the 2004 New York Times bestseller,
The Faith of George W. Bush , had written a fairly complimentary book about Sen. Obama and his religious faith.
Now the author, Stephen Mansfield does indeed describe himself as a Conservative-Republican and a Conservative-Evangelical, so it intrigued me to find out what he thought of Sen. Obama's version of socially liberal Evangelical Christianity.
Mr. Mansfield devotes several pages to analyzing the philosophy of Sen. Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. For a conservative writer, he was amazingly open and fair minded toward Rev. Wright. He seemed to look past Rev. Wright's more flamboyant style and extreme rhetoric and concentrated instead on Rev. Wright's interesting mixture of left-wing Liberation Theology with a fairly traditional Evangelical emphasis on repentance and personal salvation.
The author does not seem to have any difficulty accepting that being pro-gay rights and pro-choice was actually incorporated into Rev. Wright's and his Sen. Obama's expression of their theological understanding of social and political liberation as being intrinsic to the Gospel.
The author spends a fair amount of time examining Sen. Obama's early religious background, which in many ways was a lack of religious background. He does make the comment that given that Sen. Obama's mother was an atheist who approached religion respectfully, but anthropologically, and both his Kenya father and Indonesian stepfather were only nominally Muslim, but completely secularist in their worldview, Sen. Obama would probably be the first American president, should he win, who was not consciously raised Christian by their parents.
Nonetheless, Mr. Mansfield does seem to believe that Barack Obama's personal conversion was absolutely genuine and heartfelt. Still he describes Sen. Obama's faith as, skeptical and critical thinking, open minded to other religious traditions and breaking from more traditional Evangelical circles, Sen. Obama clearly believes that their are other paths to God and a life of righteousness than only the Christian model.
Although Mr. Mansfield did not formally endorse Sen. Obama in the race for the Presidency, at least within the pages of this book, there is no doubt that he considers Sen. Obama an absolutely sincere Christian believer who does have a genuine relationship with God. And for largely this reason Mr. Mansfield postulates that Sen. Obama has a unique opportunity to heal many of the divisions in America by bridging the liberal and humanistic side of America with the traditional religious side.
At the very least, I found it a most fascinating book. There is no doubt that for a Conservative Republican who is also a Conservative Evangelical, the author is quite liberally educated and displays an impressive open mindedness.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Wr%2BC09ifL._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpgAmazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Barack-Obama-Stephen-Mansfield/dp/1595552502/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218605733&sr=1-1Powell Books - link:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9781595552501-0
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