Can "White" People Be Saved?

Yes, White people can be saved. In God's redemptive plan, that goes without saying. But what about the reality of white normativity? This idea and way of being in the world has been parasitically joined to Christianity, and this is the ground of many of our problems today. It is time to redouble the efforts of the church and its institutions to muster well-informed, gospel-based initiatives to fight racialized injustice and overcome the heresy of whiteness.

Written by a world-class roster of scholars, Can "White" People Be Saved? develops language to describe the current realities of race and racism. It challenges evangelical Christianity in particular to think more critically and constructively about race, ethnicity, migration, and mission in relation to white supremacy.

Historical and contemporary perspectives from Africa and the African diaspora prompt fresh theological and missiological questions about place and identity. Native American and Latinx experiences of colonialism, migration, and hybridity inspire theologies and practices of shalom. And Asian and Asian American experiences of ethnicity and class generate transnational resources for responding to the challenge of systemic injustice. With their call for practical resistance to the Western whiteness project, the perspectives in this volume can revitalize a vision of racial justice and peace in the body of Christ.

Missiological Engagements charts interdisciplinary and innovative trajectories in the history, theology, and practice of Christian mission, featuring contributions by leading thinkers from both the Euro-American West and the majority world whose missiological scholarship bridges church, academy, and society.



Johnny Ramírez-Johnson (EdD, Harvard University) is professor of anthropology in the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Seminary, where he also teaches in the Hispanic Center (Centro Latino). His books include A Way Up the Ladder, Motivation Achievement Via Religious Ideology: An Ethnography of a Seventh-day Adventist Puerto Rican Church and AVANCE: A Vision for a New Mañana.



Love L. Sechrest (PhD, Duke University) is vice president for academic affairs, dean of faculty, and associate professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. She previously served as associate professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, and she is the author of A Former Jew: Paul and the Dialectics of Race. Sechrest served two terms as cochair of the African American Biblical Hermeneutics section in the Society of Biblical Literature, and gives presentations on race, ethnicity, and Christian thought in a variety of academic, business, and church contexts.



Hak Joon Lee (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is the Lewis B. Smedes professor of Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary where he teaches in both master and doctoral levels and serves as chair of the department. He is copresident ofG2G-KODIA Christian Education Center, a research institute on Asian American Christianity and culture. He has written several books in English and Korean including The Great World House: Martin Luther King, Jr. (in English) and A Paradigm Shift in Korean Protestant Churches: A Road Map for Change and Renewal (in Korean), which was selected one of the most outstanding books of the year 2011 by the ministry of culture, sports, and tourism of South Korea.



Amos Yong (PhD, Boston University) is professor of theology and mission and director of the Center for Missiological Research at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He is the author or editor of over two dozen books, including Spirit of Love: A Trinitarian Theology of Grace, Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture (coedited with Estrelda Alexander), Science and the Spirit: A Pentecostal Engagement with the Sciences (coedited with James K. A. Smith), and The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh: Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global Theology.



Andrea Smith (PhD, University of California) is a professor of ethnic studies at UC Riverside. She is the author of Native Americans and the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances, Native Americans and the Christian Right, and Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. She is also the coordinator for Evangelicals 4 Justice and a board member for NAIITS, an indigenous learning community. Previously, she served as the coordinator of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians. She lives in Long Beach, California.

Preface


Introduction: Race and Missiology in Glocal Perspective (Johnny Ramírez-Johnson and Love L. Sechrest)
Part I: Race and Place at the Dawn of Modernity


1 Can White People Be Saved? Reflections on the Relationship of Missions and Whiteness (Willie James Jennings)


2 Decolonizing Salvation (Andrea Smith)
Part II: Race and the Colonial Enterprise


3 Christian Debates on Race, Theology, and Mission in India (Daniel Jeyaraj)


4 Ambivalent Modalities: Mission, Race, and the African Factor (Akintunde Akinade with Clifton R. Clarke)
Part III: Race and Mission to Latin America


5 Siempre Lo Mismo: Theology, Rhetoric, and Broken Praxis (Elizabeth Conde-Frazier)


6 Constructing Race in Puerto Rico: The Colonial Legacy of Christianity and Empires, 1510–1910 (Angel D. Santiago-Vendrell)
Part IV: Race in North America Between and Beyond Black-and-White


7 The End of "Mission": Christian Witness and the Decentering of White Identity (Andrew T. Draper)


8 Community, Mission, and Race: A Missiological Meaning of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Beloved Community for Racial Relationships and Identity Politics (Hak Joon Lee)


9 "The Spirit of God Was Hovering over the Waters": Pressing Past Racialization in the Decolonial Missionary Context; or, Why Asian American Christians Should Give Up Their Spots at Harvard (Jonathan Tran)
Part V: Scriptural Reconsiderations and Ethnoracial Hermeneutics


10 Intercultural Communication Skills for a Missiology of Interdependent Mutuality (Johnny Ramírez-Johnson)


11 "Humbled Among the Nations": Matthew 15:21-28 in Antiracist Womanist Missiological Engagement (Love L. Sechrest)


Conclusion: Mission After Colonialism and Whiteness: The Pentecost Witness of the "Perpetual Foreigner" for the Third Millennium (Amos Yong)


Epilogue: A Letter from the Archdemon of Racialization to Her Angels in the United States (Erin Dufault-Hunter)


List of Contributors


Subject Index


Scripture Index

"As I read through this book (a compilation of papers from an important academic conference) my first response was, Why couldn't I have been there! For those of us who could not attend this dynamic and important gathering, we have the tremendous opportunity to interact with the significant findings from a meeting of some of the best scholars on this topic. The problem of race and its intersection with missiology continues to elude many in the American church. Told from multiple perspectives and voices arising from a myriad of experiences and expertise, this text will serve as a vital primer for those who seek a more profound understanding of race, theology, and mission."



"The emphatically Christian voices in this important book explore the damage done to Christian witness by the tight bond between Western missionary activity and unreflective racist assumptions. While some particularly helpful contributors record parallel difficulties arising in other cultures, all pose a biblically based challenge to the aggressive nationalism, manipulative colonialism, and unthinking Enlightenment assumptions that long tainted Western missions activity. It is a sobering and thought-provoking book."



"Can "White" People Be Saved?: Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission is informed by a narrative historical timeline that traces and analyzes the study of race and racism. In an era where the relevance of church is increasingly called into question, this compilation of interdisciplinary essays is essential reading." weniger anzeigen expand_less