White Religion and Black Humanity

by Harry H. Singleton III

Overview

In this insightful work, Harry H. Singleton, III, analyzes the white religious establishment’s use of Christian faith throughout American history to link divine will with black oppression. This exploitation establishes Christian faith as the single most persuasive tool in convincing whites of their superiority and blacks of their inferiority. Singleton calls for a reexamination of the major categories of Christian theology due to its misuse by many leading white clergy and theologians. He constructs a more liberating approach to Christian faith by freeing it from its convenient concerns with heaven more than the earth, with the church more than the world, and with the individual more than the community. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in both the historical and contemporary impact of Christian faith on the current racial situation in America.

For the first chapter, please visit the following website:
White Religion and Black Humanity - Chapter 1

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761857372
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	12/22/2011
Pages:	214
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Theologian Harry H. Singleton, III, completed his graduate work at The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He is the author of Black Theology and Ideology: Deideological Dimensions in the Theology of James H. Cone and is currently associate professor of religion and theology at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction 1. The Question of Black Humanity 2. The Necessity of a Dehumanized Black Humanity 3. White Religion, Racial Morality, and Black Dehumanization 4. White Religion and Black WOhuMANity 5. The Racialization of God and Black Dehumanization 6. The Divinity of Whiteness Revealed 7. The Christian Institutionalization of Black Dehumanization 8. White Religion and the "Independent" Black Church 9. The Last Things and the Black Things 10. The Twilight of a Racist Theocracy Bibliography Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

What a timely work. In this period of the [reemergence] of the myth of a post-racial society, this work is needed and welcomed.. .. Both the white church and. .. the black church are challenged to give up the inherited oppressive theology and embrace the truly transforming and liberating gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a must-read for the college, university, seminary, and. .. intellectual communities. —Jacquelyn Grant, Ph.D., Callaway Professor of Systematic Theology, The Interdenominational Theological Center, Georgia


This book. .. is not only provocative but altogether persuasive concerning the racialization of the theology and practice of Christianity in America. It is one of the best treatments of American Christianity (both black and white) that I have seen. Most importantly, the author’s significant engagement with major historical, sociological, philosophical, and theological thinkers welcomes interdisciplinary conversation.. .. In my judgment, this book should be read and pondered carefully by all who are concerned about the status of Christianity in America both in the past and the present. —Peter J. Paris, Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor of Christian Social Ethics, emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary