A lifelong social activist, Dr. Obery Hendricks is one of the foremost commentators on the intersection of religion and political economy in America. Hendricks is the most widely read and perhaps the most influential African American biblical scholar writing today. His recent book, Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith (Beacon Press, 2021), has gathered wide acclaim. Cornel West calls him “one of the last few grand prophetic intellectuals.”
Hendricks’ award-winning book, The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted (Doubleday, 2006), was declared “essential reading for Americans” by the Washington Post. Social commentator Michael Eric Dyson proclaimed it “an instant classic” that “immediately thrusts Hendricks into the front ranks of American religious thinkers.” The Politics of Jesus was the featured subject of the 90-minute C-SPAN special hosted by the Center for American Progress, “Class, Politics and Christianity.” The tenth anniversary of its publication was acknowledged at a major 2016 panel at the American Academy of Religion at its annual convention in San Antonio, TX. Governor Howard Dean, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, has called his book, The Universe Bends Toward Justice: Radical Reflections on the Bible, the Church and the Body Politic(Orbis, 2011), a “tour de force.”