Awakening to Justice
Faithful Voices from the Abolitionist Past
2024
First Published
4.50
Average Rating
240
Number of Pages
"O where are the sympathies of Christians for the slave and where are their exertions for their liberation? . . . It seems as if the church were asleep." David Ingraham, 1839 In 2015, the historian Chris Momany discovered a manuscript that had been forgotten in a storage closet at Adrian College in Michigan. He identified it as the journal of a nineteenth-century Christian abolitionist and missionary, David Ingraham. As Momany and a fellow historian Doug Strong pored over the diary, they realized that studying this document could open new conversations for twenty-first-century Christians to address the reality of racism today. They invited a multiracial team of fourteen scholars to join in, thus launching the Dialogue on Race and Faith Project. Awakening to Justice presents the groundbreaking work of these scholars. In addition to reflecting on Ingraham's journal, chapters also explore the life and writings of two of Ingraham's Black colleagues, James Bradley and Nancy Prince. Appendixes feature writings by all three abolitionists so readers can engage the primary sources directly. Through considering connections between the revivalist, holiness, and abolitionist movements; the experiences of enslaved and freed people; abolitionists' spiritual practices; various tactics used by abolitionists; and other themes, the authors offer insight and hope for Christians concerned about racial justice. They highlight how Christians associated with Charles Finney's style of revivalism formed intentional, countercultural communities such as Oberlin College to be exemplars of interracial cooperation and equality. Christians have all too often compromised with racism throughout history, but that’s not the whole story. Hearing the prophetic witness of revivalist social justice efforts in the nineteenth century can provide a fresh approach to today's conversations about race and faith in the church.
Avg Rating
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Authors
Jemar Tisby
Author · 9 books
Jemar Tisby is president and co-founder of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective. He has written about race, religion, and culture for The Washington Post, CNN, Vox, Christianity Today and The New York Times. He is the co-host of the Pass The Mic podcast, which is frequently rated as one of the top 100 religion and faith podcasts on iTunes. Tisby is a PhD student in history at the University of Mississippi, studying race and religion in the 20th century, and he has spoken to thousands at colleges, conferences, and churches across the country on such topics as “Understanding the Heart Cry of Black Lives Matter,” “The Historical Politics of Race in America,” and “The Image of God and the Minority Experience.” In 2017, the Religion News Association recognized him for excellence in student religion reporting for his articles on the police-related killings of unarmed black citizens. https://thewitnessbcc.com
Douglas M. Strong
Author · 1 books
Douglas M. Strong (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is dean of the School of Theology and professor of the history of Christianity at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, Washington.
Esther Chung-Kim
Author · 1 books
Esther Chung-Kim (Ph.D., Duke U.) is assistant professor of religious studies at Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California. She is the author of Inventing Authority.
