Introduction

I argued in Part I that the progressive liberalism of both John Dewey and the American legal realists failed to develop a normative conception of community capable of protecting and promoting the interests of the most vulnerable and least advantaged segments of the population. Their reliance on democratic process was not sufficiently attentive to the ways process is shaped by power relations that relegate many to the perennial status of marginalized and disempowered outsider. I suggested in Part II that Walter Rauschenbusch's theology of the Social Gospel and Martin Luther King, Jr. 's theology of the Beloved Community provide the normative guidance needed to avoid the pitfalls of American progressive liberalism. These theologies are particularly attractive in light of the fact that much of progressive liberalism, as my study of] ohn Dewey indicated, has found it necessary to reject religious discourse and understanding in favor of a secular humanism that is often politically disempowering and spiritually unfulfilling.