Wisdom, health, honor, hopethese revered ideals are now jeopardized, James Evans claims, by thetowering social problems of North American society, nowhere more achingly and emblematically than inAfrican American life.
Evans here creates a practical theology by working at the intersection of religious understandings in theAfrican American community and its most pressing social problems. He skillfully probes to their deepestcultural and religious roots. There the moral distortions of racism, poverty, shame, disease, dysfunctional families, and even problematic elements in religious life can be excised so that new, more helpful ideas ofgrace, salvation, and community can flourish.
Evans's fresh and fruitful work is an affirmation of the transformative power of religious engagement and its ultimate source in the religious community that is God's own self.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Social Problems as Theological Problems
The Tasks of Practical Theology
A Conceptual Overview of Social Problems
Theological Problems and Social Problems
The Negro Problem
Honor, Shame, and Grace
The Affirmative Action Debate: The Rhetoric of Honor and Shame
A Conceptual Overview of Honor and Shame
Honor, Shame, and American Slavery
Honor and Shame in the Bible
Jesus, Honor, and Shame
Paul, Honor, and Shame
From Honor to Amazing Grace
Health, Disease, and Salvation
The Health Care Debate: More than a Question of Ethics
A Conceptual Overview of Health and Disease
Health and Disease in African American Experience
Health and Disease in the Bible
Is There a Balm in Gilead?
Salvation in African American Experience
Hope, Racism, and Community
Eschatology in Modern Theology
The Rise of White Supremacy in the United States
Reexamining Eschatology
Toward the Beloved Community
Spiritual Renewal and Social Transformation
Spirituality and Social Tranformation
African Spirituality
African Spirituality and the Church
We Shall All Be Changed: A Spirituality for New Life
Notes
Index
About the Author :
James H. Evans Jr. is Robert K. Davies Professor of Systematic Theology at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. He is the author of We Shall All Be Changed (1997), Modern Christian Thought: The Twentieth Century (2nd edition, 2006), and Playing: Christian Explorations of Daily Living (2010), all with Fortress Press.
