Rev. Peter Laarman
Contributor
Summer 2004
A step back from the election to take the long view. Michael Walzer asks what is required to live a good life and finds that it is in working to build community.
Spring 2003
A long overdue issue with articles about patriotism, environmentalism, and James Luther Adams, a Unitarian Universalist minister and theological ethicist.
Spring 2000
We explore our commitment to coalition work and investigate how class, race, and gender biases can prevent us from building coalitions effectively.
Spring 1999
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors — As we approach the millennium, communities of faith are mining their traditions for a language that speaks to the suffering caused by global debt.
November 26, 2025
Attitude of Gratitude: How the Most Basic Religious Impulse Is Also the Most Valuable
Religious Socialism is happy to present, in this season when the thoughts of many are turned towards family, food, and thankfulness, this short reminder of our need to be grateful for the gifts of the earth, from longtime RS contributor, Peter Laarman. It was originally published on his Substack here.
July 24, 2024
Investigators of Ecological Supervillains Miss the Biggest One: A Review of “The Grab”
Rev. Peter Laarman's review of The Grab highlights its bold exposé of land- and water-grabs by global investors, but critiques the film for stopping short of naming the culpability of capitalism itself.
January 25, 2023
Well-Kept Secret: Religion’s Role in the Triumph of Neoliberalism
Reviewing a slim and rather dry volume by a British sociologist of religion is not the sort of thing one imagines provoking an outraged response. Yet I found myself increasingly agitated as I made my way through Matthew Guest’s Neoliberal Religion: Faith and Power in the Twenty-First Century (Bloomsbury Academic 2022). I doubt that Professor Guest intended
February 18, 2021
False Faith in Meritocracy: Reckoning with Our Bad Old Normal
Peter Laarman discusses several new books that address the failures of our supposedly meritocratic system and asks the big question at the heart of the discourse—would even a perfectly meritocratic system would ever be a just one?
January 21, 2021
The Inauguration Was a Reconsecration of Sacred Space
Joe Biden's inauguration as president of the United States represents a chance to get back on track.
October 19, 2019
Religious Populism Today?
The populism of the Right has plenty of religious friends. But what about the populism of the Left?