1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910779238703321

Autore

Jennings Willie James <1961->

Titolo

The Christian imagination [[electronic resource] ] : theology and the origins of race / / Willie James Jennings

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven [Conn.], : Yale University Press, c2010

ISBN

0-300-16308-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (379 p.)

Disciplina

270.089

Soggetti

Race - Religious aspects - Christianity

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Zurara's tears -- Acosta's laugh -- Colenso's heart -- Equiano's words -- White space and literacy -- Those near belonging.

Sommario/riassunto

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.Using his bold, creative, and courageous critique to imagine a truly cosmopolitan citizenship that transcends geopolitical, nationalist, ethnic, and racial boundaries, Jennings charts, with great vision, new ways of imagining ourselves,



our communities, and the landscapes we inhabit.