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The Christian Imagination
- Theology and the Origins of Race
- Narrated by: David Sadzin
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: History, Americas
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Publisher's Summary
Why 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.
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What listeners say about The Christian Imagination
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J. Colman
- 05-15-21
Extraordinary
This is the most beautiful, hope filled, challenging piece of ‘black theology’. It goes so much further than the boundary of black theology and goes to the heart of a refocusing of what it means to follow Christ.
Thank you Dr Jennings
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- R Brand
- 08-19-20
Origins of race
This is an impressive and important book for anyone seriously interested in race and its origin; strong on the distortions of the Christian story’s failures and opportunities. Fascinating early accounts of the race story are retold which help root the theological reflections. Heavy going in patches it is well worth the journey, and helped by superb narration.