Theologies Against White Supremacy: Bonhoeffer and the Below(T&T Clark New Studies in Bonhoeffer’s Theology and Ethics)

In this sensitive work, Whyte examines issues and ambiguities within Bonhoeffer’s writing—as well as complexities in his biography—that imply gaps in his understanding of the full theological implications of Christ’s solidarity with suffering. Whyte explores how, whilst Bonhoeffer ardently opposed white supremacist oppression enacted by the National Socialists, he also evidenced persistent entanglement with white supremacist logics and primary longings. Bonhoeffer scholars who ignore, miss, or dismiss these entanglements display vulnerability to those same logics. This book engages with a wide range of thinkers, including: Reggie Williams, Lisa Dahill, Michael Mawson, Katie Cannon, Gustavo Gutiérrez, and Keri Day. It also considers the distinct responses to white supremacy offered in the early 20th Century by Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., Pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church, and the leadership of the Azusa Street Revival as evidence that Bonhoeffer’s view was not the only theological ‘view from below’. Ultimately, Whyte offers a constructive theological ethical method for repentance away from white supremacy that builds on, critiques, and moves beyond Bonhoeffer. This method seeks to overcome the primary longings at the root of white supremacy to better resist the manifestations of white supremacist in our day. This work honors Bonhoeffer whilst seeking to go further along the paths of repentance he walked by addressing issues he did not consider.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. On Interpreting Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Claims 2. On Bonhoeffer’s View from Below 3. Encountering the Counter Logos 4. View(s) from Below: Suffering and Repentance 5. Bonhoeffer, Guilt, and Confession 6. The Spirit Outside the Church Conclusion Bibliography

About the Author :
Christopher Whyte is a Lecturer in the M.S. in Organizational Leadership Program at Johns Hopkins University, USA.

Review :
This is a theologically rich and courageous work. Whyte reads Bonhoeffer with honesty and repentance, refusing to idealise him while drawing deeply from his witness to Christ “from below.” In confronting how white supremacy distorts the Christian imagination, Whyte offers a model of theology that binds confession together with faithful discipleship. In so doing, he calls readers—especially those who have benefited from historical entanglement with white supremacy—to a more truthful, Christocentric solidarity with the oppressed. It is unsettling and deeply hopeful, as it needs to be. If it receives the attention it deserves, it could provide a vital inspiration for many Christians today. As the United States strains under the spasms of nationalistic Christian fervor that afflicts our own social body, many Christians who find their religious identities pulled into dangerous contortions have continued to look to Bonhoeffer’s legacy for help. For just that reason, Whyte’s critique could not have come at a better time. This book is neither a cynical takedown of Bonhoeffer for his internalized racism nor even an attempt to recover the flawed complex figure he was (pobody’s nerfect!) It is instead a sensitive and careful interrogation of Bonhoeffer’s place in a Christian ethics of exemplarity—a reading of Bonhoeffer against Bonhoeffer to prompt us to more critical modes of emulation in our own resistance to evil, guided not by hero myths but by material solidarity with those who suffer. A deeply conscientious book clearly borne of the very self-examination it commends.