About the Book
2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalists - Multicultural
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove grew up in the Bible Belt in the American South as a faithful church-going Christian. But he gradually came to realize that the gospel his Christianity proclaimed was not good news for everybody. The same Christianity that sang, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound" also perpetuated racial injustice and white supremacy in the name of Jesus. His Christianity, he discovered, was the religion of the slaveholder.
Just as Reconstruction after the Civil War worked to repair a desperately broken society, our compromised Christianity requires a spiritual reconstruction that undoes the injustices of the past. 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. Grappling seriously with troubling history and theology, Wilson-Hartgrove recovers the subversiveness of the gospel that sustained the church through centuries of slavery and oppression, from the civil rights era to the Black Lives Matter movement and beyond.
When the gospel is reconstructed, freedom rings for both individuals and society as a whole. Discover how Jesus continues to save us from ourselves and each other, to repair the breach and heal our land.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II
Part I: Slaveholder Religion
1. Christmas on the Plantation
2. Immoral Majority
3. Racial Blindness
4. Living in Skin
5. This Is My Body, Broken
6. A Gilded Cross in the Public Square
Part II: The Christianity of Christ
7. The Other Half of History
8. Moral Revival
9. Having Church
10. Healing the Heart
Epilogue: A Letter to My Grandfather and Son
Acknowledgments
Notes
About the Author :
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (MDiv, Duke Divinity School) is a writer, speaker, and activist. He and his wife, Leah, founded the Rutba House, a house of hospitality where the formerly homeless are welcomed into a community that eats, prays, and shares life together. Jonathan directs the School for Conversion, a nonprofit that pursues beloved community with kids in the neighborhood, through classes in North Carolina prisons, and in community-based education around the country. Jonathan is also an associate minister at the historically black St. John's Missionary Baptist Church.Jonathan is the coauthor of Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers, a coeditor of Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, and the author of Strangers at My Door, The Awakening of Hope, The Wisdom of Stability, and The New Monasticism. He is also the coauthor, with Rev. Dr. William Barber II, of The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement.
The Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II is a Protestant minister and political leader in North Carolina. He is a member of the national board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the chair of their Legislative Political Action Committee. Barber has served as pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), in Goldsboro, North Carolina since 1993.
Review :
"So what happened to Christianity in America? This is the question my brother Jonathan faces head-on in this book. He follows this question to the heart of America's original sin, and he invites all of us to join him there and face another question: Is our God greater than America's racism? This is a question we must answer, no matter the color of our skin. Slaveholder religion has infected every corner of the church in America—including the black church. We must never forget that there were enslaved people who accepted the theology fed to them on plantations."
"A must-read for Christians interested in how race-infused politics and religion undermine the American democratic dream."
"Reconstructing the Gospel is an honest reckoning with the mangled, slaveholding religion that continues to pass for the gospel in the United States. It is not self-righteous or accusatory. Instead, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove vulnerably grapples with his own ongoing repentance of white supremacy’s powerful grip. Ultimately, this book is an invitation into the river that has been flowing for centuries in this land, providing a past and present counterwitness to the vandalization of Jesus’ name. A necessary and timely gift to the church!"
"I hope every Christian in America will read this book. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove exorcizes the demons of racism and white supremacy that have plagued the body of Christ for far too long. He points the way toward a Christianity that looks like Jesus again."
"Racism in American religion, especially in its most subtle forms, isn’t something we’ve had language for describing helpfully—until now. This is a masterful work, invaluable for coming to terms with the hidden wounds of racism and the awful lie that Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove calls, 'Christianity of the slaveholder.' Jonathan is a reflective soul, at home in his own skin, fully aware of the contradictions and struggles in his own heart. This transparency proves to be the perfect gift for the rest of us who have our own soul work to do in helping end whiteness as a religion."
"A poignant, compelling, and eye-opening journey that recognizes the racism in us, Christian churches today, and the implicit bias of the dominant culture. The blinders come off through stories, history, and creative biblical insight. We are left amazingly hopeful for ourselves and the church, with Jesus’ invitation to follow him to a whole new world."
"It has become obvious to any who seriously study our sources that much of what we call Christianity in the West today is in radical discontinuity with our faith in its early centuries. Our spiritual healing now depends on corporately facing our past with hope, just as any individual must do in our personal journey to wholeness. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is an honest, courageous, and compelling guide on this path of radical conversion."
"God has entrusted Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove with a message—the gospel of Jesus Christ has been tragically defaced by American white supremacy and must be reconstructed. In this passionate, fast-paced book, Jonathan gives us a distinctively Christological, hopeful path toward faithful reconstruction. God is able! Even though we, in our structures of sin, often feel powerless to exorcise the demon of white racism, know that God’s will shall be done, and God’s reign will come because God’s purposes shall not be defeated. What an empowering, hopeful word Jonathan has for Christians, white and black."
"This powerful and prophetic book should come with a warning label. It’s full of stories of ordinary folks working for racial justice, making you want to pull up a chair on the porch for a closer listen. But the stories pack a wallop of conviction, and you will not leave that porch unchanged."
"Jonathan is a moral prophet and spiritual physician for our time. In this timely book, with the precision of a heart surgeon, he exposes the sickness that has long plagued American Christianity and infected our society and politics, revealing that none of us is untouched by the disease. With the credibility of his life lived in solidarity with systemically oppressed people, he resounds a clarion call to reform the way in which we live the gospel. This is a must-read for all Christians in America. You will be humbled, enlightened, and motivated to heal the ailing heart of our country and recover its soul."
