For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation
Many faith believers affirm justice-centered theology, working towards a model of racial understanding and peacebuilding. In Dear White Christians, author Jennifer Harvey offers a dramatic alternative to the popular reconciliation model: a reparations paradigm. Despite efforts in and since the Civil Rights Movement, Christians have failed to understand the work required for peacebuilding, notably repentance. Imperative to challenging oppressive social institutions is the honest confrontation of “white” racial identity within historical and modern contexts. Although deep racial tensions continue to divide the church and society at large, Harvey’s publication offers a Biblically-rooted justice to help all people envision new racial possibilities.
PLT Contributor Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove reviews:
“A gospel for white people, this book calls for nothing less than laying down the trump card of reconciliation for the sake of true repentance and conversion. Jennifer Harvey is proclaiming truth. Listen to her.”
PLT Contributor Lisa Sharon Harper writes:
“Dear White Christians is a must-read. This kind of unflinching analysis is both rare and powerful. Through thorough analysis coupled with prophetic vision, Harvey decodes the mystery of the failure of the ‘racial reconciliation’ movement and offers clear direction forward toward the repair of our racialized society.”
For more information on this book click here.
Fellow travelers are scholars, activists, and practitioners that embody the ideals and commitments of the Project on Lived Theology. We admire their work and are grateful to be walking alongside them in the development and dissemination of Lived Theology.
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a writer, speaker and founder of the Rutba House, a house of hospitality where the formerly homeless are welcomed into a community that eats, prays, and shares life together. He is also an associate minister at the historically black St. Johns Missionary Baptist Church. His publications include Strangers at My Door: A True Story of Finding Jesus in Unexpected Guests (2013) and New Monasticism: What it Has to Say to Today’s Church (2010).
Lisa Sharon Harper is Sojourners Chief Church Engagement Officer, and previously served as founding executive director of New York Faith & Justice. She is committed to tax reform, comprehensive immigration reform, health care reform, poverty, racial and gender justice, and transformational civic engagement. Her publications include Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith (2014) and Left, Right & Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics (2011).