A Theology of Race and Place: Liberation and Reconciliation in the Works of Jennings and Carter
In a world marked by the effects of colonial displacements, slavery's auction block, and the modern observatory stance, can Christian theology adequately imagine racial reconciliation? What factors have created our society's racialized optic--a view by which nonwhite bodies are objectified, marginalized, and destroyed--and how might such a gaze be resisted? Is there hope for a church and academy marked by difference rather than assimilation? This book pursues these questions by surveying the works of Willie James Jennings and J. Kameron Carter, who investigate the genesis of the racial imagination to suggest a new path forward for Christian theology. Jennings and Carter both mount critiques of popular contemporary ways of theologically imagining Christian identity as a return to an ethic of virtue. Through fresh reads of both the "tradition" and liberation theology, these scholars point to the particular Jewish flesh of Jesus Christ as the ground for a new body politic. By drawing on a vast array of biblical, theological, historical, and sociological resources, including communal experiments in radical joining, A Theology of Race and Place builds upon their theological race theory by offering an ecclesiology of joining that resists the aesthetic hegemony of whiteness.
"Draper has spied out in our work possibilities for a different
future for theology, one that takes the problems of the racial
imagination seriously. If we will ever move beyond the racial
dilemmas of the West, it will require more Christian ethicists and
theologians who turn their attention to these matters. Andrew
Draper's text leads the way in this important work."
--Willie James Jennings, Yale University
"The great value of this book is in Draper's analysis of both
Carter's and Jennings' choice of conversation partners to illumine
arguments of how past theologies of race have been deficient just
to the extent they have lacked a theological control that keeps
them engaged with scripture. In particular, Carter and Jennings
argue that the need to account for the relation of Jesus to Israel
has been a source for continuing the racial evasion of Christian
theology. Draper's is the first book-length analysis of these
important contemporary voices of which I'm aware. I'm sure there
will be more, as the issues raised by these thinkers will continue
to shape theological discourse for many years to come."
--Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Emeritus Professor of Divinity
and Law, Duke University
"The theology of race and place is sorely neglected in the American
church. Andrew Draper is extremely qualified to speak on both as a
pastoral practitioner of the philosophy of ministry embodied in
Christian community development. This includes two powerful
aspects, reconciliation and relocation, both of which demonstrate
that place matters. I highly recommend A Theology of Race and
Place."
--Wayne "Coach" Gordon, Pastor, Lawndale Christian Community
Church; President Emeritus, Christian Community Development
Association
"As the bullets are flying and the bodies are falling across the
race line in America once again, precious few Christian theologians
dare examine the issue at its theological roots. Andrew Draper's
concise and insightful engagement with the bravest and most
exciting thinkers doing so today is a real gift. His own
contribution takes the conversation a big step forward by offering
us a winsome vision of a church that does not aspire to go beyond
race, but to learn what it means to embrace a vulnerable communion
in the middle of a world characterized by racial strife."
--Brian Brock, Reader in Moral and Practical Theology, Department
of Divinity, History and Philosophy, King's College, Aberdeen
"In this deeply engaging and transforming book, Andrew Draper
teases out the Christological and ecclesiological implications of
the theories on the origin of the racial imagination posited by
noted theologians Willie James Jennings and J. Kameron Carter. His
constructive task is to ground Jennings' 'ecclesiology of joining'
within the lived space of his multicultural congregation. Those
yearning to overcome the tortured ways that 'reconciliation' gets
deployed by the racial logic and practices inscribed within Western
Christian theology must read this book."
--James W. Lewis, Retired Dean, Anderson University School of
Theology, Anderson, IN
"Draper has spied out in our work possibilities for a different
future for theology, one that takes the problems of the racial
imagination seriously. If we will ever move beyond the racial
dilemmas of the West, it will require more Christian ethicists and
theologians who turn their attention to these matters. Andrew
Draper's text leads the way in this important work."
--Willie James Jennings, Yale University
"The great value of this book is in Draper's analysis of both
Carter's and Jennings' choice of conversation partners to illumine
arguments of how past theologies of race have been deficient just
to the extent they have lacked a theological control that keeps
them engaged with scripture. In particular, Carter and Jennings
argue that the need to account for the relation of Jesus to Israel
has been a source for continuing the racial evasion of Christian
theology. Draper's is the first book-length analysis of these
important contemporary voices of which I'm aware. I'm sure there
will be more, as the issues raised by these thinkers will continue
to shape theological discourse for many years to come."
--Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Emeritus Professor of Divinity
and Law, Duke University
"The theology of race and place is sorely neglected in the American
church. Andrew Draper is extremely qualified to speak on both as a
pastoral practitioner of the philosophy of ministry embodied in
Christian community development. This includes two powerful
aspects, reconciliation and relocation, both of which demonstrate
that place matters. I highly recommend A Theology of Race and
Place."
--Wayne "Coach" Gordon, Pastor, Lawndale Christian Community
Church; President Emeritus, Christian Community Development
Association
"As the bullets are flying and the bodies are falling across the
race line in America once again, precious few Christian theologians
dare examine the issue at its theological roots. Andrew Draper's
concise and insightful engagement with the bravest and most
exciting thinkers doing so today is a real gift. His own
contribution takes the conversation a big step forward by offering
us a winsome vision of a church that does not aspire to go beyond
race, but to learn what it means to embrace a vulnerable communion
in the middle of a world characterized by racial strife."
--Brian Brock, Reader in Moral and Practical Theology, Department
of Divinity, History and Philosophy, King's College, Aberdeen
"In this deeply engaging and transforming book, Andrew Draper
teases out the Christological and ecclesiological implications of
the theories on the origin of the racial imagination posited by
noted theologians Willie James Jennings and J. Kameron Carter. His
constructive task is to ground Jennings' 'ecclesiology of joining'
within the lived space of his multicultural congregation. Those
yearning to overcome the tortured ways that 'reconciliation' gets
deployed by the racial logic and practices inscribed within Western
Christian theology must read this book."
--James W. Lewis, Retired Dean, Anderson University School of
Theology, Anderson, IN
Product Details
- Title : A Theology of Race and Place: Liberation and Reconciliation in the Works of Jennings and Carter
- Author: Draper, Andrew Thomas
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Publication Date: 2016
- ISBN: 9781498280839
Andrew T. Draper is Senior Pastor of Urban Light Community Church in Muncie, Indiana, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Theology at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, where he also directs the Honors Guild.