Dr. McDermott is the editor of an important new book– published by the Acton Institute in October– called, Race and Covenant: Recovering the Religious Roots for American Reconciliation.

In this episode, Dr. McDermott and I discuss the motivations behind his decision to explore America's racial challenges– deliberately from spiritual, religious, and theological perspectives. He describes the concept of national covenant– providing a number of examples from both the Bible and American history to show how pervasive the idea once was. Dr. McDermott also demonstrates how the national covenant is involved with America’s racial problems and they ways the covenant has been violated, with respect to the racial challenges America faces.

Dr. McDermott then distinguishes Race and Covenant from other books on race. His book rejects the pessimism that the country continues to be systemically racist while at the same time rejecting the underlying presumptions that white racism is America’s only racial problem and that government mandated policies and monetary redistribution, or special dispensations for blacks, are the best pathway forward.

Lastly, Dr. McDermott highlights some of the contributors and their chapters in Race and Covenant.