Yale University Library Research Guides: Resources for Racial Justice: Race and Evangelicalism

Race and Evangelicalism

After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity by David P. Gushee Seeks to offer a new way forward for disillusioned post-evangelicals. Gushee starts by analyzing what went wrong with U.S. white evangelicalism in areas such as evangelical history and identity, biblicism, uncredible theologies, and the fundamentalist understandings of race, politics, and sexuality. Along the way, he proposes new ways of Christian believing and of listening to God and Jesus today.
The Next Evangelicalism: Releasing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity by Soong-Chan Rah Calls the North American church to escape its captivity to Western cultural trappings and to embrace a new evangelicalism that is diverse and multiethnic.
Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove Wilson-Hartgrove traces his journey from the religion of the slaveholder to the Christianity of Christ. Reconstructing the gospel requires facing the pain of the past and present, from racial blindness to systemic abuses of power.
Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity by Charles Marsh Offers a critique of the political activism of evangelical Christian leaders and churches in the United States. With emphasis on repentance and renewal, this work advises Christians how to understand past mistakes and to avoid making them in the future.

The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church's Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby Details how the American church has helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices.
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez Argues that evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism.
The Myth of Colorblind Christians: Evangelicals and White Supremacy in the Civil Rights Era by Jesse Curtis Argues that white evangelicals deployed a Christian brand of colorblindness to protect new investments in whiteness. While black evangelicals used the rhetoric of Christian unity to challenge racism, white evangelicals repurposed this language to silence their black counterparts and retain power, arguing that all were equal in Christ and that Christians should not talk about race.
White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America (Online) by Anthea Butler Argues that racism is at the core of conservative evangelical activism and power. Butler reveals how evangelical racism, propelled by the benefits of whiteness, has since the nation's founding played a provocative role in severely fracturing the electorate.