. . In truth, it is not at all clear that most Christians are ready to imagine reconciliation.”, “If the social order and the processes of commodification are not transformed in relation to the body through salvation, then salvation becomes hyperlocalized to a single relationship: God and the one being saved.64”, Goodreads Members Suggest: Favorite Winter Reads. A fine book that suffers from being overwritten. Capitalism + colonialism = commodification, specifically as it relates to racialized bodies. If I was to recommend one theology book to pastors and teachers to read right now, it would be this one. The early Puritans did not see the widespread disease that was introduced through Spanish and other invaders that left large swaths of North and South American unpopulated as a human disaster and tragedy, but as God’s providence that opened up space for them to build new communities that were dedicated to God. Jennings weaves together various narratives of colonial incursion into the lives of indigenous and/or 'African' people in order to give the reader a sense of how race was constructed and understood, which largely amounted to the displacement of or assimilation of the other to the hegemonic category of whiteness. It also strengthens his critique of the MacIntyrean and Milbankean models of Christian tradition. seeing place in its fullest sense. Willie Jennings is an associate professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School. Why has Christianity, a religion premised upon neighborly love, failed in its attempts to heal social divisions? Each has provided a slightly different perspective. Theology and the Origins of Race, which focuses on key themes in Part III. This book is not an easy read for multiple reasons. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Christian Imagination : Theology and the Origins of Race by Willie James Jennings (2011, Trade Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! A treasure trove of theologically-based examinations of the formation of race originating in the colonialist period. . “To follow Jesus’ own trajectory” would result in “an advent of a new form of communion with the possibility of a new kind of cultural intimacy between peoples that might yield a new cultural politic” (p. 265). Theologically, Jennings contends, this process depended upon late medieval European Christians’ use of a supersessionist hermeneutic, enacted, e.g., in the culmination of the Reconquista in fifteenth-century Spain. Simultaneously dense and elegant, brining hundreds of years of theological and sociological work to bear on the work of separating peoples of the earth from their lands and (too frequently) their humanity. Very little preview and summary. "—Edward J. Blum, Journal of Religion The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race This year, we've all got more reason than usual to hunker down inside during the coldest months. is the basis of their ethical actions in the worlds of allegiances and kinships . To see what your friends thought of this book, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. . When people mostly did not move except for a few traders or pilgrims, there was a connection to the land and large scale migration and colonialism destroyed that connection. All are one in Christ. He calls for a re-reading of the OT with Israel at the center and Jesus the fulfillment of Israel. . The point Jennings stresses is that “Christian theology and segregationalist mentalities” are firmly entrenched within “a style of imagining social reality” that is “diseased . Any estimate of the factor of land must reckon with the biblical depiction of God as Creator and Owner, such that even his own people are but “tenants” whose residency within a designated territory is not a natural birthright but a gift of grace, a blessing that remains contingent upon trust and obedience (Lev 25:23). PASTORAL PENSÉES: Keeping Eschatology and Ethics Together: The Teaching of Jesus, the Work of Albert Schweitzer, and the Task of Evangelical Pastor-Theologians, The Gradual Nature of Sanctification: Σάρξ as Habituated, Relational Resistance to the Spirit, Participants in What We Proclaim: Recovering Paul’s Narrative of Pastoral Ministry, Three Reflections on Evangelical Academic Publishing, Bye-bye Bible? Throughout the 15th to the 19th centuries Christians of European dissent are following in Acosta’s footsteps and are not even sure that non-Europeans can hear the gospel message, both because they are not sure if non-Europeans are fully human and if they are fully human if they are worshipers of satan. . No Comments. in the kind of community imagined—its scope, character, and materiality. the only way for Christian communities to move beyond cultural fragmentation and segregated mentalities is to find a place that is also . Relatedly, in this account, theological anthropology and ecclesiology are not clearly delineated. . The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (Paperback) By Willie James Jennings. The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. Dec 24, 2012 - The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race [Jennings, Willie James] on Amazon.com. A phenomenally thought provoking work and for those who are willing to wade into its deep waters will be challenged to encounter things in a new way. And if you want a deep survey of how (often unconsciously, but also usually in horrible opposition to core Biblical values) racism came to color the very fabric of white consciousness and institutional activity--this book is worth a hard slog to read through. They illustrate the claim that when “race” was created by colonial European theologians, missionaries, and churchmen, orthodox Christian theology itself was altered: the ostensibly ideal scholastic “tradition” (Alisdair MacIntyre) became a “traditioned imperialist modernity” (p. 71). . The Christian imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race Willie James Jennings Summary by Dr. Amy Erickson. 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. Stanford Libraries' official online search tool for books, media, journals, databases, government documents and more. This is a profound work which brings together history, Christian missional thinking and systematic theology to examine the way accommodation of slavery and the colonization of the new world demonstrated a deformation in the imagination of Christians with respect to people and land driven by the commodification of both. In this book Willie Jennings takes on the task of theologically examining the formation of race in the colonialist period. . Mark Lewis Taylor. This is a deep read and unfortunately would be unapproachable for many people not familiar with the language of academic Christian theology, which is a shame because the arguments. Having black skin was seen as the most pernicious, lessening as skin lightened. Must like Carter, he argues that supersessionist strategies (the replacement of Israel with the Church) were a significant theological culprit in promoting whiteness as the 'place' where. The second significant stream that Jennings explores is the lack of connection to the land. I dare say it would be impossible to read this and think about race the same way. Dr. . As I lamented the seeming lack of robust Christian academic though in this area, this book was a breath of fresh air. Jennings is a Calvin College graduate, he received his M.Div. It is also erudite, appropriating insights in disciplines beyond the usual purview of evangelical theological scholarship (postmodern philosophy; postcolonial theory; critical social theory; cultural studies; and colonial-era political history, church history, and missionary practice). 248–49): A Christian doctrine of creation is first a doctrine of place and people, of divine love and divine touch, of human presence and embrace and of divine and human interaction . Jennings traces how theology impacted and influenced the development of racism and how theology was used to justify … A thoughtful and erudite historical and theological analysis of the interrelationships between racism, capitalism, and Christian theology. In so doing, the doctrines of creation and Christology (among others) were revised, albeit “not the creedal substance . 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