Dr. David P. Gushee (BA, College of William & Mary; Master of Divinity, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy, Union Theological Seminary in New York) is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University, where he has served for eleven years.

Widely regarded as one of the world's leading Christian ethicists, he is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 22 books and approximately 150 book chapters, journal articles, and reviews. His most notable books include Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, Kingdom Ethics, The Sacredness of Human Life, Evangelical Ethics, A Letter to My Anxious Christian Friends, Still Christian, and the forthcoming Moral Leadership for a Divided Age: Fourteen People Who Dared to Change Our World.

Dr. Gushee was elected by his peers to serve as the current President of the American Academy of Religion and the immediate Past-President of the Society of Christian Ethics, a very rare combination for any religion scholar.

A devoted teacher, Professor Gushee offers courses to seminary students at Mercer's McAfee School of Theology, and to college students in Macon. Over a busy 25-year career, he has written opinion pieces or given interviews to almost all major national and religion media outlets in the United States and many around the world. He has also been heavily involved in numerous activist efforts for peace, justice, human dignity, and the integrity of God's creation, most notably in addressing torture, climate change, and the continued harm being inflicted on LGBTQ persons by Christian churches and families.

Dr. Gushee, his beloved wife Jeanie, and their regal cat Noah live in NE Atlanta, where they are happily surrounded by four generations of family members, including his father, sister, three children, and two grandchildren. He is a classic novel reader, world traveler, and tennis player, and awaits a call from his beloved Atlanta Braves to resume the baseball career he abandoned in college.

David Gushee argues convincingly that there is in U.S. politics an "evangelical center" of voters who do not identify with the politics and religion of either the right or the left. Although evangelical Christians are portrayed by the media as conservatives, Gushee claims that the evangelical movement includes nearly even numbers of voters on the right, in the center, and on the left of the political spectrum. He provides portraits of the major figures in each of the three camps, outlines the core convictions of the adherents, and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each group's positions. He suggests that the evangelical center is poised for growth; this book could be its manifesto.