James Luther Adams (1901-1992) was the leading 20th century Unitarian theologian and a skillful proponent and defender of religious and political liberalism. A major American social ethicist, he combined a concern for the Christian tradition with openness to the social sciences and active involvement in religious and secular associations.

Adams was born in Ritzville, Washington, on November 12, 1901. His family background prepared him hardly at all for a role as a champion of liberalism. His father, James Carey Adams, was a Baptist country preacher, a premillenarian who later became a Plymouth Brother. Letta Barrett Adams, his mother, was also a devout believer. It was his educational experiences that provided the foundation of his liberal thinking. The "new law" he came to live by at the University of Minnesota was the scientific humanism of John Dietrich and the "new prophecy" he proclaimed was the anti-Rotarianism of H. L. Mencken. But...