Christianity Corrupted

Overview

“Christianity Corrupted is a timely and relevant study of race and evangelicalism. The public meaning of Christianity has continually been shaped by struggles between the destructive legacy of racism and anti-racist struggles for social justice. A thoughtful analysis offering new possibilities on this important subject!”—Sylvester A. Johnson, founding director, Virginia Tech Center for Humanities

“Christianity Corrupted creates a space where the black theological and human story can be heard. The author flips colonizing historiographical and theological lenses uncovering the insidiousness of dominant expressions of Christianity corrupted by white supremacy, and offers a pneumatological re-awakening of Pentecost as divine alternative of racial equality and justice.”—Néstor Medina, author, Christianity, Empire and the Spirit, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto

“Christianity Corrupted is an imperative resource for scholars of religion and sincere Christians. Engaging and clearly written, an excellent overview of central themes in liberation theology.”—Noel Leo Erskine, author, Plantation Church,  Candler School of Theology, Emory University

“Christianity Corrupted presents the historical and theological factors that have supported white supremacy and distorted our understanding of God's intent for humankind. It unpacks the cultural phenomena that have enabled an oppressive system of privilege and supremacy (based on race) to subsume and alter the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ. A great resource for those engaged in social justice ministry and community advocacy, and for all seeking to preach the Word of God as an empowering message of hope, unstained by oppression and division.—Bishop Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, Presiding Bishop, Fifth Episcopal District, The Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church

Christianity Corrupted examines the development of oppressive Christian theologies and the normalization of white superiority and white privilege in the United States.

Divided into three parts, the first part traces the roots of the theological scandal to the integration of the Reformed notion of election and Enlightenment theories of race, the white colonists’ belief in the supposed racial inferiority of blacks, and the cultivation of proslavery theologies. The second part demonstrates how enslaved Africans formulated their own brand of Christianity and cultivated a theology of spiritual resistance of necessity in response to the oppressive theologies of their white Christian enslavers. The final part reflects on the impact of the roots of this scandal evident in the theological causes of the Civil War, the rise of Jim Crowism, rise of the Moral Majority, and the complicity of white evangelicals in the election of Donald Trump fostering the re-legitimization of white nationalism.

Christianity Corrupted examines the subsequent spiritual and social resistance to the roots of this scandal as evident in the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power Movement, and Black Lives Matter movement and proposes a theological solution for Antiblackness Supremacy and White Christian Supremacy.

Jermaine J. Marshall is a historical theologian who teaches courses in African American religious history, church history, and theological studies at the Interdenominational Theological Center, New York Theological Seminary, St. John’s University, and Indiana Wesleyan University. He currently lives in New York City and is the Senior Pastor of Williams Institutional Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Harlem.