The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of RaceWhy has Christianity, a religion premised upon neighborly love, failed in its attempts to heal social divisions? In this ambitious and wide-ranging work, Willie James Jennings delves deep into the late medieval soil in which the modern Christian imagination grew, to reveal how Christianity's highly refined process of socialization has inadvertently created and maintained segregated societies. A probing study of the cultural fragmentation-social, spatial, and racial-that took root in the Western mind, this book shows how Christianity has consistently forged Christian nations rather than encouraging genuine communion between disparate groups and individuals. Weaving together the stories of Zurara, the royal chronicler of Prince Henry, the Jesuit theologian Jose de Acosta, the famed Anglican Bishop John William Colenso, and the former slave writer Olaudah Equiano, Jennings narrates a tale of loss, forgetfulness, and missed opportunities for the transformation of Christian communities. Touching on issues of slavery, geography, Native American history, Jewish-Christian relations, literacy, and translation, he brilliantly exposes how the loss of land and the supersessionist ideas behind the Christian missionary movement are both deeply implicated in the invention of race. Using his bold, creative, and courageous critique to imagine a truly cosmopolitan citizenship that transcends geopolitical, nationalist, ethnic, and racial boundaries, Jennings charts, with great vision, new ways of imagining ourselves, our communities, and the landscapes we inhabit. |
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The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race Willie James Jennings No preview available - 2011 |
The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race Willie James Jennings No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
African America Andean articulated Bible biblical Bishop Bishop Colenso black bodies Cambridge capture Christ Christian identity Christian intellectual Christian theology church Colenso colonial colonialist communion conceptual connection creation crucial cultural death discern discursive displacement divine doctrine draws ecclesial encomiendas Equiano ethnic European existence faith formation Gentile global God’s gospel hermeneutic human Ibid important Indian indigenous inside intimacy Israel Jesuit Jesus Jewish Jews John William Colenso joining José de Acosta Ju/wasi land landscape language literary space living logic missionary modern moral narrative Natal nation native Ngidi Olaudah Equiano one’s pachacuti pedagogical Peru Pietermaritzburg political possibilities practices precisely present Procuranda race racial reading reality relation religion religious salvation Sanneh Scripture sense settlers Shepstone simply slave ship slavery social imagination Spanish spatial Spirit story suffering supersessionism supersessionist theologians theological theological vision tradition trajectory transformation translation University Press Valignano vernacular YHWH Zulu Zurara