Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
What happens when a kid from a working-class Michigan shack discovers the crucifix, Martin Luther King Jr., and Hegel — and never stops pulling on those threads?
Week 3 of Theology for Troublemakers gets personal. Gary Dorrien traces the four wellsprings that have shaped everything he's written and believed: the gospel of a crucified God, the dialectical fire of metaphysics, the liberationist witness of King, and the democratic socialist struggle for economic democracy. This is intellectual biography as theology — and theology as a way of staying in the fight.
In this live Q&A, Gary joins Tripp& Aaron to go deeper on the questions Week 3 opened up:
— What does it mean to be a democratic socialist and a Christian — and why does Dorrien think those belong together?
— Why does Hegel still matter for theology, and what do we do with the parts of him that are genuinely terrible?
— What is economic democracy, and how is it different from what Bernie Sanders actually ran on?
— What does love have to do with justice — and why did Niebuhr get that relationship wrong?
This is the rare conversation where someone lays out not just what they think, but why — and how a life spent organizing, pastoring, and writing actually fits together.
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Want to go further? Theology for Troublemakers is a full course with Gary Dorrien — one of the leading voices in Christian social ethics, professor at Union Theological Seminary, and author of the landmark Black Social Gospel trilogy. The course covers the social gospel, Reinhold Niebuhr, democratic socialism, community organizing, and more.
Join the class at homebrewedclasses.com
What happens when a kid from a working-class Michigan shack discovers the crucifix, Martin Luther King Jr., and Hegel — and never stops pulling on those threads?
Week 3 of Theology for Troublemakers gets personal. Gary Dorrien traces the four wellsprings that have shaped everything he's written and believed: the gospel of a crucified God, the dialectical fire of metaphysics, the liberationist witness of King, and the democratic socialist struggle for economic democracy. This is intellectual biography as theology — and theology as a way of staying in the fight.
In this live Q&A, Gary joins Tripp& Aaron to go deeper on the questions Week 3 opened up:
— What does it mean to be a democratic socialist and a Christian — and why does Dorrien think those belong together?
— Why does Hegel still matter for theology, and what do we do with the parts of him that are genuinely terrible?
— What is economic democracy, and how is it different from what Bernie Sanders actually ran on?
— What does love have to do with justice — and why did Niebuhr get that relationship wrong?
This is the rare conversation where someone lays out not just what they think, but why — and how a life spent organizing, pastoring, and writing actually fits together.
---
Want to go further? Theology for Troublemakers is a full course with Gary Dorrien — one of the leading voices in Christian social ethics, professor at Union Theological Seminary, and author of the landmark Black Social Gospel trilogy. The course covers the social gospel, Reinhold Niebuhr, democratic socialism, community organizing, and more.
Join the class at homebrewedclasses.com
