Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair
by Duke L. Kwon
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Christians are awakening to the legacy of racism in America like never before. While public conversations regarding the realities of racial division and inequalities have surged in recent years, so has the public outcry to work toward the long-awaited healing of these wounds. But American Christianity, with its tendency to view the ministry of reconciliation as its sole response to racial injustice, and its isolation from those who labor most diligently to address these things, is show more underequipped to offer solutions. Because of this, the church needs a new perspective on its responsibility for the deep racial brokenness at the heart of American culture and on what it can do to repair that brokenness. This book makes a compelling historical and theological case for the church's obligation to provide reparations for the oppression of African Americans. Duke Kwon and Gregory Thompson articulate the church's responsibility for its promotion and preservation of white supremacy throughout history, investigate the Bible's call to repair our racial brokenness, and offer a vision for the work of reparation at the local level. They lead readers toward a moral imagination that views reparations as a long-overdue and necessary step in our collective journey toward healing and wholeness. show lessTags
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Theologically robust, historically researched, and a book that takes great care to both define the sin and offer a philosophy of a pathway forward.
There are those who are quick to try and dismiss the arguments made by stating that the book lacks a Gospel-based teleological end, or presume the book is merely about promoting unqualified ubiquitous "white guilt" to its readers. To do so is gravely missing the point the book is trying to make. The book isn't promoting an earthly Kingdom in replacement of a heavenly one, and to cast that assumption would be to read something that Kwon and Thompson did not say.
Rather, the book is applying a theological truth to the current context surrounding the conversation of restitution and repair, and show more asking for its readers, congregations, and churches to consider the implications of what this could look like in the place where God has rooted them. It is asking for an honest reflection towards the communities and cities that have been and continue to be ravaged by the sins of America's past and the church's willingness to come alongside those injustices. Particularly for Reformed Christians, the book's emphasis on repentance should remind us of First and Second Adam language rather than for Christians to try and deflect these issues to mere individual responsibility. If we accept corporate sin(first Adam) and corporate redemption(Second Adam) as a narrative of anthropology, then surely this cannot mean that there are no societal implications for today in these concepts in the conversation surrounding race. Theology and Doxology are all intertwined into the everyday.
If Christians are asking for Kwon and Thompson to define the end of sanctification in the discussion of racial reconciliation (ie "when is enough enough"), then I fear they are placing an expectation that they do not consistently apply when it comes to the mortification of sin in other areas of their life. But if the Christian is to read this as a challenge to progressive sanctification to consider how we can love God and neighbor better, then this book is worth your time to challenge your assumptions and dive deeper into the good work of the Good Samaritan that we are all called to participate in. show less
There are those who are quick to try and dismiss the arguments made by stating that the book lacks a Gospel-based teleological end, or presume the book is merely about promoting unqualified ubiquitous "white guilt" to its readers. To do so is gravely missing the point the book is trying to make. The book isn't promoting an earthly Kingdom in replacement of a heavenly one, and to cast that assumption would be to read something that Kwon and Thompson did not say.
Rather, the book is applying a theological truth to the current context surrounding the conversation of restitution and repair, and show more asking for its readers, congregations, and churches to consider the implications of what this could look like in the place where God has rooted them. It is asking for an honest reflection towards the communities and cities that have been and continue to be ravaged by the sins of America's past and the church's willingness to come alongside those injustices. Particularly for Reformed Christians, the book's emphasis on repentance should remind us of First and Second Adam language rather than for Christians to try and deflect these issues to mere individual responsibility. If we accept corporate sin(first Adam) and corporate redemption(Second Adam) as a narrative of anthropology, then surely this cannot mean that there are no societal implications for today in these concepts in the conversation surrounding race. Theology and Doxology are all intertwined into the everyday.
If Christians are asking for Kwon and Thompson to define the end of sanctification in the discussion of racial reconciliation (ie "when is enough enough"), then I fear they are placing an expectation that they do not consistently apply when it comes to the mortification of sin in other areas of their life. But if the Christian is to read this as a challenge to progressive sanctification to consider how we can love God and neighbor better, then this book is worth your time to challenge your assumptions and dive deeper into the good work of the Good Samaritan that we are all called to participate in. show less
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