Herman F. Greene

Struggling for the Soul of Our Country

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Browning, an octogenarian, a professor of the humanities, and a decades-long social activist, struggles for the soul of America. He sees a nation spellbound by violence, immediate gratification, and capitalism that breeds sick individuals and is unable to face up to climate change and other unprecedented problems of our age. Being the primary threat to world order through its militarism, economic imperialism and patterns of consumption, it deprives people, within and outside of the United States, of their land, resources, ways of life, and prospects. Browning recounts his life-long journey of deciphering this spell and discovering antidotes. Caught between anger and hope he refuses to recognize existing social structures as realistically necessary. While recognizing that alternatives such as Christian socialism may be viewed as Utopian, he views adherence to the status quo to be more fantastic and dangerous by far. Browning's critiques are insightful, but more impressive are the ways he constructively offers the wisdom of the great thinkers of his time, such as Thomas Berry, Martha Nussbaum, E. Maynard Adams, Pope Francis, David Korten, Robert Bellow, Paul Tillich, Richard Rorty, and others, as well as his own thought, to recovery of the soul of a nation. This book will be particularly meaningful to progressive Christians and Jews who seek to understand the social relevance and imperatives of their traditions in a secular age.”