Unfinished Business

Overview

How Black churches can act as agents of change in reducing poverty, especially for poor black women.

"A pioneering and path-blazing work in Christian ethics that combines a sophisticated class-based notion of thriving with an asset-building approach of public policy for prophetic Christian praxis. Keri Day makes Martin Luther King, Jr. and Fanny Lou Hamer smile from the grave!" —Cornel West

"[The author approaches] her subject-matter with an admirable zeal, making a case on behalf of not only black females but of women of any ethnicity who find themselves on the outside looking-in . . . Dr. Day's fervent hope is that "By promoting socially-conscious capitalism among black businesses and capitalists, black churches can develop a theology of holistic prosperity that considers the thriving of all members within society." Sadly, that's apt to prove easier said than done in the face of an economic system all too comfortable with exploiting the human condition."—Kam Williams, aalbc.com

This striking portrayal of the poverty of black women in this country describes the unemployment, underemployment, isolation, and lack of assets they typically experience. Day also takes on and demolishes the common stereotypes that castigate poor black women as "morally problematic and dependent on the money of good tax-paying citizens."

Day then calls on the black churches to become potential agents of change and leaders in addressing the unequal social and economic structures that hold captive these poor women. The goal is to empower poor black women to develop assets that will prevent long-term poverty and allow them to flourish.

Keri Day is associate professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religion at Princeton Theological Seminary. She previously taught theological and social ethics and served as director of Black Church Studies at Brite Divinity School. Fort Worth, Texas. She is author of Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism: Womanist and Black Feminist Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan), a chapter in a chapter in The Oxford Handbook of African-American Theology, and articles in numerous scholarly journals.