Overview

"How do we remain faithful to and work within a Christian church that has been historically complicit in racism and that still exhibits racist actions in its communal life? While there have been numerous recent accounts addressing why the Christian church of the West is marked by racism and whiteness, there has been less attention given to how we reconcile the church's racial inequities with the belief that God works through God's people. In Bonhoeffer and the Racialized Church, Ross Halbach seeks to reframe the question within Dietrich Bonhoeffer's conception of the ""ultimate and penultimate."" Bonhoeffer's acute sense of God's continual speaking offers a prophetic challenge to the church: instead of masking the realities of racial sin or pursuing easy resolution, we must confront the full consequences of whiteness in repentant expectation of Christ's coming. Halbach places the writings of Bonhoeffer into dialogue with the contemporary writings of Willie Jennings, J. Kameron Carter, and Brian Bantum, allowing these various perspectives to augment one another. This approach gives new clarity to present theological discussions of race through a consideration of God's regenerative work. Discussions of race must move from seeking a diagnosis to exploring a dialogue that delves deeper into the issue. Racism is not a question to be answered but a resistance that hinders the church from hearing God's present call, which is given to the body of Christ through baptism and Eucharist. The church's response to God's call is found not in the assurance of a solution but in the obedient act of the church's participation with Christ in preparing the way for the church to hear how the triune God has already spoken and continues to speak today."

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9781481312769

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Reviews

...it is a book that will repay careful engagement, especially for Christians who find themselves searching for a theological lens through which to view the quest for a church (and churches) that reflect God's purpose for humanity. --Stephen R. Haynes Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology

I think Halbach's Bonhoeffer and the Racialized Church is a remarkable book. He makes an excellent contribution to existing scholarship on Bonhoeffer's pertinence to the struggle against white supremacy (as did Bonhoeffer in his way and in his own time). Halbach also provides erudite analyses of many of Bonhoeffer's works, particularly his Ethics. Further, he shows that Bonhoeffer's oeuvre is a gestalt that one cannot reduce to any one text. Each piece-- Act and Being, or Creation and Fall or Christ the Center, or Ethics --has its own space and time, but never apart from the whole of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life and thought. Halbach, in addition, takes the inventive, fresh works of notable African-American theologians to address systematically one of humankind's most pernicious problems. --Josiah Ulysses Young, III Modern Theology ...it is a book that will repay careful engagement, especially for Christians who find themselves searching for a theological lens through which to view the quest for a church (and churches) that reflect God's purpose for humanity. --Stephen R. Haynes Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology

"I think Halbach's Bonhoeffer and the Racialized Church is a remarkable book. He makes an excellent contribution to existing scholarship on Bonhoeffer's pertinence to the struggle against white supremacy (as did Bonhoeffer in his way and in his own time). Halbach also provides erudite analyses of many of Bonhoeffer's works, particularly his Ethics. Further, he shows that Bonhoeffer's oeuvre is a gestalt that one cannot reduce to any one text. Each piece-- Act and Being, or Creation and Fall or Christ the Center, or Ethics --has its own space and time, but never apart from the whole of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life and thought. Halbach, in addition, takes the inventive, fresh works of notable African-American theologians to address systematically one of humankind's most pernicious problems. --Josiah Ulysses Young, III ""Modern Theology"" ...it is a book that will repay careful engagement, especially for Christians who find themselves searching for a theological lens through which to view the quest for a church (and churches) that reflect God's purpose for humanity. --Stephen R. Haynes ""Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology"""

Author Information

Ross E. Halbach is Adjunct Faculty in the School of Biblical & Theological Studies at Multnomah University.

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