The Sin of White Supremacy

Overview

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"Hill Fletcher draws on her expertise in interreligious theology as well as extensive research into the history of Euro-American Christianity to lay out the devastating connections between Christian theology and the ideologies of racial supremacy that underpin our current political crisis.... Then, thank God, she presents a theological paradigm to help us move toward racial and religious transformation.... Hill Fletcher's arguments in The Sin of White Supremacy, and especially her presentation of the Crucified One as the transforming theological paradigm of love in a white racist world, could not be more needed." --National Catholic Reporter

"One of the strengths of Fletcher's The Sin of White Supremacy is that it begins to unpack the theological history of racism in the United States in a way that is readily accessible. Importantly, this allows her work to be very useful for undergraduate- and graduate-level students who are exploring the very Christian beginnings of racism in the United States." --Reading Religion

"A worthy volume to the growing corpus of antiracist theologies envisioned by White Catholic theologians. It can be of particular use to graduate students, academics, and those involved in ministry looking for a 'thick description' of the origins and production of White Christian supremacy and ways to name, understand, and begin to dismantle it." --Theological Studies

How have Christian theologies of religious superiority underwritten ideologies of white supremacy in the United States? According to Hill Fletcher, the tendency of Christians to view themselves as the “chosen ones” has often been translated into racial categories as well. In other words, Christian supremacy has historically lent itself to white supremacy, with disastrous consequences.

How might we start to disentangle the two? Hill Fletcher proposes strategies that will help foster racial healing in America, the first of which is to demand of white Christians that they accept their responsibility for racist policies and structural discrimination in America.

Jeannine Hill Fletcher is a professor at Fordham University and a constructive theologian whose research is at the intersection of systematic theology and issues of diversity (including gender, race, and religious diversity). Her books include Monopoly on Salvation? A Feminist Approach to Religious Pluralism (2005) and Motherhood as Metaphor: Engendering Interreligious Dialogue (2013).