Christian Socialism

Turner's elegant volume casts a welcome light on the Anglican Christian Socialist tradition, from the nineteenth century to the present. While the book lays bare some of the flaws of this movement, more importantly Turner illuminates the positive challenges and promises that its proponents - people like Maurice, Tawney, Gore, or Williams and Milbank - still offer to the diseased and fractured life of contemporary liberal society. Ephraim Radner, Wycliffe College Philip Turner has produced a timely book that reclaims the insights of the Christian Socialist movement in the Church of England, tracing its roots and analyzing its present-day influence. Turner values this tradition's emphasis upon ideals, but tempers it with his own emphasis on the church's practice of the virtues. In a political climate where 'socialism' is bound for reappraisal, Turner's book is invaluable. John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee In a time of mounting concern over inequality in our society, the nineteenth-century Christian Socialists suddenly seem strangely relevant. Philip Turner offers a sober and unsentimental assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. His treatment of the theopolitics of Rowan Williams and John Milbank brings the story up to date in an engaging, lively way. Joseph Mangina, University of Toronto For anyone seeking an introduction to the thinking of key Anglicans within the Christian Socialist tradition, including an insightful assessment of their strengths and weaknesses and an appraisal of their contemporary relevance, this book provides it, and is likely to become a core text for those wanting to better understand and appreciate this strand of Christian social thinking. Joseph Forde, Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol 36, Issue 1, February 2023