How Should Christians Respond to Discussions of Racial Injustice?
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The Monstrous Crew
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In today's episode, we had the privilege of sitting down with Shatoyia Bradley, a business owner, fashion designer, writer, editor, wife, and mother for a frank discussion about racism, her experience as a black woman in the church and in America, and loving our neighbors in the context of systemic injustice.
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Race and Black Theology Reading List: An Annotated Bibliography
Below is a list of books that I highly recommend. They aren’t listed in order of importance, however, “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie Glaude, would be a great start.
The typical set of caveats apply to this bibliography, like many others in its category, of course. Black thought is not a monolith; like any tradition, it is less a sustained echoing chorus, and more a long argument over time. Its diversity, breadth, and sophistication cannot be captured in a brief introductory bibliography like this one.
The authors on this list have sustained disagreements with each other, and therefore it stands to reason that no reader will agree with the entirety of these texts. Yet we consider this list to be something of a bare minimum for serious discourse about the question of taking black experiences and contributions seriously in Christian theology and ethics.
While it is unlikely that any treatment of the experiences of blacks in America will engage all of these sources, it is virtually unimaginable that any responsible treatment of those questions can proceed with reference to none of them. The education of several lifetimes can be accessed simply by consulting the bibliographies of the sources contained herein.
The criteria for inclusion on this list are unsystematic and inexact, but we solicited suggestions from friends of Mere Orthodoxy for sources that are written by Christians, substantively address Christian involvement in black racial issues, or are of pressing significance that white Christians can overlook them only at great harm to the power of their own analysis and ignorance of the real issues. The commentary that follows each of these selections below is from these friends. We are grateful for and indebted to them for their suggestions. Omission of any important source from this list ought not necessarily be construed as a sleight against that source. We would be grateful for readers to suggest additional sources in the comments below.
The Cambridge Companion to Black Theology
An introductory handbook like this one is often an excellent place to start to understand the broad contours of a body of thought, and to find an accessible point for immersing oneself more fully in that tradition. The essays in this volume understand black theology as a global movement, not at all confined to the question of addressing racism in all of its varietie...
