Ron Sider
Encyclopedia
Ronald James Sider is a Canadian
-born American
theologian and Christian activist. He is often identified by others with the Christian left
, though he personally disclaims any political inclination. He is the founder of Evangelicals for Social Action, a think-tank which seeks to develop biblical
solutions to social and economic problems. He is a founding board member of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. He is also the Professor of Theology, Holistic Ministry and Public Policy at Palmer Theological Seminary
in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.
, in Ontario
, and received a BA
in Europe
an history. While at Waterloo, he came in contact with the apologetic work of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
, and set his sights on a career in academia. Upon graduating in the late 1960s with Master of Divinity
and Ph.D.
degrees in history from Yale University
, he expected to teach early modern European history on secular university campuses, and continue his apologetic work for IVCF. In 1968, he accepted an invitation from Messiah College
to teach at its newly opened Philadelphia Campus in the inner city
of Philadelphia, PA. The racism
, poverty
, and evangelical indifference he observed at close hand made a deep impression that led him to write the book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.
What he saw as the injustice of the inner city
motivated Sider to work toward developing a biblical response to social injustice
. He brought together a network of similarly concerned evangelicals
, which in 1973 became the Thanksgiving Workshop on Evangelical Social Concern. It was this conference that issued the "Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern." Twenty years later, a similar gathering of evangelical leaders resulted in the Chicago Declaration II: A Call for Evangelical Renewal. In 2004 he was a signatory of the "Confessing Christ in a World of Violence" document.
He signed his name to a full-page ad in the Dec. 5, 2008 New York Times that objected to violence and intimidation against religious institutions and believers in the wake of the passage of Proposition 8. The ad stated that "violence and intimidation are always wrong, whether the victims are believers, gay people, or anyone else." A dozen other religious and human rights activists from several different faiths also signed the ad, noting that they "differ on important moral and legal questions," including Proposition 8.
In 1977, Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, was published. Hailed by Christianity Today
as one of the one hundred most influential books in religion in the twentieth century, it went on to sell 350,000 copies. He later authored Good News Good Works, (published by Baker Book House
), a call to the church to embrace what Sider sees as the whole gospel, through a combination of evangelism, social engagement and spiritual formation. Its companion book tells stories about effective ministries that bring both evangelism and social transformation together. Completely Pro-Life, published in the mid-1980s, calls on Christians to take a consistent stand opposing abortion
, capital punishment
, nuclear weapons, hunger
, and other conditions that Sider sees as anti-life. Cup of Water, Bread of Life was published in 1994. Living Like Jesus (1999) has been called Sider’s Mere Christianity
. Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America (1999) offers a holistic, comprehensive vision for dramatically reducing America’s poverty. Just Generosity has a new edition with updated statistics coming out and is expected sometime in 2007. Churches That Make a Difference (2002) with Phil Olson and Heidi Rolland Unruh provides concrete help to local congregations seeking to combine evangelism and social ministry.
, the social encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI. Later that year, he also gave his approval to the Manhattan Declaration
, calling on evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox not to comply with rules and laws permitting abortion, same-sex marriage and other matters that go against their religious consciences.
, David Chilton
and Gary North. Chilton's book, Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators, was published by a Christian Reconstructionist organization and argues that Sider's book takes a position contrary to the Biblical teachings on economics, poverty, and giving, and that the economic model it provides is untenable.
Church, is the father of three and lives in the Germantown
section of Philadelphia with his wife Arbutus, a family counselor. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2011, and they have five granddaughters. Sider's son Theodore
(Ted) is an atheist, and a tenured professor of philosophy at Cornell University
who has published over 40 scholarly articles and two books with Oxford University Press
.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
-born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theologian and Christian activist. He is often identified by others with the Christian left
Christian left
The Christian left is a term originating in the United States, used to describe a spectrum of left-wing Christian political and social movements which largely embraces social justice....
, though he personally disclaims any political inclination. He is the founder of Evangelicals for Social Action, a think-tank which seeks to develop biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
solutions to social and economic problems. He is a founding board member of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. He is also the Professor of Theology, Holistic Ministry and Public Policy at Palmer Theological Seminary
Palmer Theological Seminary
Palmer Theological Seminary was founded in 1925 as Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Originally located on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, it moved in 1940 to its present location in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, just across the street from the city boundary...
in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.
Education and career
Sider attended the University of WaterlooUniversity of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
, in Ontario
Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....
, and received a BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an history. While at Waterloo, he came in contact with the apologetic work of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is an inter-denominational, evangelical Christian, student-led ministry which for the past 70 years has been dedicated to establishing witnessing communities on U.S. college and university campuses...
, and set his sights on a career in academia. Upon graduating in the late 1960s with Master of Divinity
Master of Divinity
In the academic study of theology, the Master of Divinity is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America...
and Ph.D.
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
degrees in history from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, he expected to teach early modern European history on secular university campuses, and continue his apologetic work for IVCF. In 1968, he accepted an invitation from Messiah College
Messiah College
Messiah College is a private Christian college of the liberal arts and applied arts and sciences located in Grantham, Pennsylvania, near the capital city of Harrisburg...
to teach at its newly opened Philadelphia Campus in the inner city
Inner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
of Philadelphia, PA. The racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, and evangelical indifference he observed at close hand made a deep impression that led him to write the book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.
What he saw as the injustice of the inner city
Inner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
motivated Sider to work toward developing a biblical response to social injustice
Social injustice
Social injustice is a concept relating to the claimed unfairness or injustice of a society in its divisions of rewards and burdens and other incidental inequalities...
. He brought together a network of similarly concerned evangelicals
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
, which in 1973 became the Thanksgiving Workshop on Evangelical Social Concern. It was this conference that issued the "Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern." Twenty years later, a similar gathering of evangelical leaders resulted in the Chicago Declaration II: A Call for Evangelical Renewal. In 2004 he was a signatory of the "Confessing Christ in a World of Violence" document.
He signed his name to a full-page ad in the Dec. 5, 2008 New York Times that objected to violence and intimidation against religious institutions and believers in the wake of the passage of Proposition 8. The ad stated that "violence and intimidation are always wrong, whether the victims are believers, gay people, or anyone else." A dozen other religious and human rights activists from several different faiths also signed the ad, noting that they "differ on important moral and legal questions," including Proposition 8.
Publications
Sider has published over 22 books and has written over 100 articles in both religious and secular magazines on a variety of topics including the importance of caring for creation as part of biblical discipleship.In 1977, Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, was published. Hailed by Christianity Today
Christianity Today
Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
as one of the one hundred most influential books in religion in the twentieth century, it went on to sell 350,000 copies. He later authored Good News Good Works, (published by Baker Book House
Baker Book House
Baker Publishing Group is an evangelical Protestant Christian book publisher based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It has six subdivisions: Bethany House, Revell, Baker Books, Baker Academic, Chosen and Brazos Press.-Identity:...
), a call to the church to embrace what Sider sees as the whole gospel, through a combination of evangelism, social engagement and spiritual formation. Its companion book tells stories about effective ministries that bring both evangelism and social transformation together. Completely Pro-Life, published in the mid-1980s, calls on Christians to take a consistent stand opposing abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
, nuclear weapons, hunger
Hunger
Hunger is the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who frequently experience the physical sensation of desiring food.-Malnutrition, famine, starvation:...
, and other conditions that Sider sees as anti-life. Cup of Water, Bread of Life was published in 1994. Living Like Jesus (1999) has been called Sider’s Mere Christianity
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
. Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America (1999) offers a holistic, comprehensive vision for dramatically reducing America’s poverty. Just Generosity has a new edition with updated statistics coming out and is expected sometime in 2007. Churches That Make a Difference (2002) with Phil Olson and Heidi Rolland Unruh provides concrete help to local congregations seeking to combine evangelism and social ministry.
Ecumenical relations
In August 2009, he signed a public statement encouraging all Christians to read, wrestle with, and respond to Caritas in VeritateCaritas in Veritate
Caritas in Veritate is the third encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI and his first social encyclical. It was signed on June 29, 2009, and was published on July 7, 2009...
, the social encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI. Later that year, he also gave his approval to the Manhattan Declaration
Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience
The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience is a manifesto issued by Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christian leaders to affirm support of "the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty". It was drafted on October 20, 2009 and released November 20, 2009,...
, calling on evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox not to comply with rules and laws permitting abortion, same-sex marriage and other matters that go against their religious consciences.
Criticism
Sider's books have been criticized as bad theology and bad economics, with some of the most significant critiques coming from Christian ReconstructionistsChristian Reconstructionism
Christian Reconstructionism is a religious and theological movement within Evangelical Christianity that calls for Christians to put their faith into action in all areas of life, within the private sphere of life and the public and political sphere as well...
, David Chilton
David Chilton
David Harold Chilton was a Reformed pastor, Christian Reconstructionist, speaker, and author of several books on economics, eschatology and Christian Worldview from Placerville, California...
and Gary North. Chilton's book, Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators, was published by a Christian Reconstructionist organization and argues that Sider's book takes a position contrary to the Biblical teachings on economics, poverty, and giving, and that the economic model it provides is untenable.
Family
Sider is the child of a Canadian Brethren in Christ pastor. He attends Oxford Circle MennoniteMennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
Church, is the father of three and lives in the Germantown
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city...
section of Philadelphia with his wife Arbutus, a family counselor. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2011, and they have five granddaughters. Sider's son Theodore
Theodore Sider
Theodore Sider is an American philosopher specializing in Metaphysics and Philosophy of Language.Since earning his PhD. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1993, Sider has published three books and forty-seven papers. He has also edited a textbook in metaphysics with John Hawthorne and...
(Ted) is an atheist, and a tenured professor of philosophy at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
who has published over 40 scholarly articles and two books with Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
.