West is probably the most well-known religious socialist in America. Prophesy Deliverance!, his first book, offers a genealogy of racism in modernity alongside a historically grounded account of religious socialism in black communities. For the latter, West articulates his own viewpoint of individuality and democracy as the norms that guide an antiauthoritarian commitment to socialism. Among other figures, West draws on the legacy of Rev. George W. Woodbey, a Baptist preacher who campaigned for the Socialist Party in the early 20th century.

Quigley’s Religious Socialism offers an excellent multifaith introduction to the varied traditions of religious socialism. It deftly uses analysis, interviews, and personal narratives to explore and present the ethical commitments that inspire Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu faith leaders to express their respective faiths through religious socialism.

Dorrien’s American Democratic Socialism, a 752-page tour de force, is a definitive summary of the moral and religious genealogies of democratic socialism in an American context. It is unrivaled in its scope and unequaled in its detailed treatment of the intellectual histories that produced socialist traditions in the United States. The book narrates, in part, the origins and development of the black church — the tradition that most famously produced Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr.