An unlikely evangelical 

Pilgrim: A Theological Memoir

Tony Campolo with Steve Rabey
Eerdmans, 2025.

When Tony Campolo died late in 2024, he was almost 90 and one of the most recognizable names in contemporary evangelicalism. He was the son of immigrant working class Italians in Philadelphia, his family having converted from Roman Catholicism to fundamentalist Baptist. Campolo was a lifelong American Baptist and a lifelong Democrat (eventually a spiritual counselor to Bill Clinton, especially during the Monica Lewinsky scandal). The Democratic loyalty might be especially surprising as so many people now assume that all white American evangelicals are inevitably Republican – or, even more extremely, MAGA.

Campolo’s theology and politics evolved over the decades. He was an excellent and humorous communicator. A sociology professor and prolific author, he spoke around the world (to crowds, he claimed, of between one quarter and one half million people). He promoted Christianity that advocated social justice, concern for the poor and for immigrants, and opposed gun rights. His special passion was reaching youth, and over the decades I have known many young, idealistic social-justice Christians who were inspired by him. He was a major influence on so-called Red Letter Christians who believe that Jesus’ actual words (highlighted in red in many Bibles) apply directly to proclaiming peace, denouncing racism and upholding human dignity for all.

Pilgrim is not the best written book. It contains long lists of summaries of issues and events. There are unfortunately not many stories, even though Campolo was a masterful storyteller. While he does talk some about Christian nationalism, I was surprised and disappointed that nothing much was said about today’s MAGA era; perhaps the book was penned before we realized just how grave the situation would quickly become.

Campolo is scathing about much of evangelicalism, denouncing its anti-intellectualism, legalism, judgmentalism and just plain meanness. Yet he has the official distinction of being the only evangelical publicly tried for heresy by the Christian Legal Society. He was cleared. He writes: “Eventually, I came to see my heresy trial as a badge of honour. I told my fellow evangelicals: ‘As a result of having been tried and tested and judged by a jury of evangelical leaders, I have officially been declared an evangelical. None of the rest of you can say that.’”

Campolo is like Ron Sider. Both had a very conservative theology and at the same time believed that the gospel has radical implications. Both are gone now, at a time when we need their voices more than ever, alas.