“If you care about the future of progressive religion, if you seek to revive its impact on society, then you have opened the right book. The faith expounded here is humanistic, inclusive, and prophetic. Richard Gilbert is no mere theoretician. He is, and has been throughout an exemplary ministry of more than thirty years, a practitioner of the faith he advocates: publicly engaged religious leadership, seeking to help create what Dr. King called ‘the Beloved Community’ for us all.
—John A. Buehrens, President,Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
“Richard Gilbert's revised and updated Prophetic Imperative provides Unitarian Universalists with the best possible resource for social justice work in our congregations. It includes superb theological and ethical grounding, helpful social analysis and valuable practical suggestions for implementing justice work. Every minister and lay leader should read it and use it. It will be required reading for all Meadville/Lombard students preparing for UU ministry.”
—William R. Murry, President and Academic Dean, Meadville/Lombard Theological School
“By demonstrating that spirituality and social action are inseparable, Richard Gilbert challenges us to live our lives, as individuals and in congregations, in order "to both grow a soul and repair the world."
—Melvin Hoover, Director of Faith in Action, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
Richard describes the four roles any congregation can take toward society – social service, witness, education, action – and then walks us through each by providing a thorough and powerful review of the historical, theological, and sociological roots of a Unitarian Univeralist prophetic imperative.
—Fred Muir