Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair

Christianity Today 2022 Book Award Winner (Politics & Public Life)Outreach 2022 Resource of the Year (Social Issues and Justice)Foreword INDIES 2021 Finalist for Religion"Kwon and Thompson's eloquent reasoning will help Christians broaden their understanding of the contemporary conversation over reparations."--Publishers Weekly"A thoughtful approach to a vital topic."--Library JournalChristians are awakening to the legacy of racism in America like never before. While public conversations regarding the realities of racial division and inequalities have surged in recent years, so has the public outcry to work toward the long-awaited healing of these wounds. But American Christianity, with its tendency to view the ministry of reconciliation as its sole response to racial injustice, and its isolation from those who labor most diligently to address these things, is underequipped to offer solutions. Because of this, the church needs a new perspective on its responsibility for the deep racial brokenness at the heart of American culture and on what it can do to repair that brokenness.This book makes a compelling historical and theological case for the church's obligation to provide reparations for the oppression of African Americans. Duke Kwon and Gregory Thompson articulate the church's responsibility for its promotion and preservation of white supremacy throughout history, investigate the Bible's call to repair our racial brokenness, and offer a vision for the work of reparation at the local level. They lead readers toward a moral imagination that views reparations as a long-overdue and necessary step in our collective journey toward healing and wholeness.Christians are awakening to the legacy of racism in America like never before. Reparations explores the church's responsibility for the deep racial brokenness at the heart of American culture, investigates the Bible's call to repair it, and offers a vision for the work of reparation at the local level. The authors lead readers toward a moral imagination that views reparations as a long-overdue and necessary step in our collective journey toward healing and wholeness.This book won a Christianity Today 2022 Book Award (Politics & Public Life) and an Outreach 2022 Resource of the Year Award (Social Issues and Justice). It was also a Foreword INDIES 2021 Finalist for Religion."Kwon and Thompson's eloquent reasoning will help Christians broaden their understanding of the contemporary conversation over reparations."--Publishers WeeklyFrom the Inside Flap"In love, the authors direct the White American church to tell the truth to itself and its complicity in and endorsement of racism at the expense of their Black brothers and sisters in Christ. Wrestle with this book alone or in small groups, but don't call it quits. Let the book's inevitable discomfort lead to growth, understanding, and the beauty of repentance."--Christina Edmondson, cohost of the Truth's Table podcast"The subject of reparations has been the cause of much heat and little light in some Christian circles. Here is a study written with a rare combination of pastoral tenderness and intellectual rigor. I hope it ends the debate about reparations and helps many to begin the work toward achieving it."--Thabiti M. Anyabwile, pastor of Anacostia River Church"With crisp historical details and analysis, combined with a wide-ranging engagement with sources, the authors are to be commended for exposing America's original sin. This will not be easy reading, but it will be absolutely indispensable reading for all churches."--Paul Chang-Ha Lim, award-winning historian and professor, Vanderbilt University"As our country awakens to the difficult truth of our shared story and more and more of us are compelled to engage in the reparative work at the intersection of race and economics, Kwon and Thompson's book is a powerful and important step in the exploration of what repair looks like, not