In this book, Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou take a look at critical race theory (CRT) and how it can intersect with a Christian theology. Despite the many voices claiming that CRT is antithetical to Christianity, the authors describe how CRT has been helpful for them in framing their own faith and how to live that faith out. While they do not claim that CRT has all the answers, they do contend that it brings clarity and understanding to the racial struggles of our time. They also believe that a vision of Martin Luther King's "Beloved Community" can provide a pathway and answers beyond the scope of CRT. They argue that an understanding of CRT can provide clarity and insight into our society and that belief in the Beloved Community can provide a way forward.

summary: Two academics with pastoral experience process the potential help that Critical Race Theory can bring to the church.If you are "very online" and active on social media, you likely have encountered discussions about Critical Race Theory. Similarly, if you are active in local school board meetings, you have likely seen community comments about the dangers of critical race theory in education. If this is true for you, you likely already know Christopher Rufo's work opposing CRT, which seems to have prompted Trump's executive order on CRT. And it is even more likely that you are aware of Rufo's tweets where he is explicit about rebranding CRT. One of those tweets says, "The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think "critical race theory." We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans."Rufo was late to the concern about CRT. Christians like Neil Shenvi started raising concerns about the related but different Critical Theory more than two years earlier, which resulted in a resolution from the SBC around Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality in 2019. And all of this was following the backlash to the increasing interest in addressing racism within the Evangelical Christian world. In 2018, The Gospel Coalition and the SBC public policy arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, jointly hosted the MLK50 Conference on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. This was closely followed by the Together for the Gospel Conference (T4G) giving significant time on the program to addressing racism, like this talk by Ligon Duncan.Looking back, it appears that 2018 was the high point of the Evangelical church's willingness to speak publicly about race, and since that time, race has become a more complex topic to address publicly. However, even the 2018 conferences were too late because a month before the MLK50, the New York Times had an influential article about the Black exodus from predominately white Evangelical churches and institutions following the overwhelming support of Donald Trump by White Evangelicals.This is probably too long of an introduction, but I think the context is essential to how I am reading Christianity and Critical Race Theory. I am no one important, but I have been involved in discussions around racial issues and the evangelical church for a long time. And I was active in those early online discussions about Critical Race Theory. I watched MLK50 and took my (then) three and four-year-old kids to the 50th anniversary of MLK's funeral in Atlanta. I spent years trying to get my predominately white church to more directly address racial issues more and have small groups and training on race. (I have been leading a small group that started as a Be the Bridge Group and continued for several years.) I have read books and articles by Derrick Bell, Richard Delgado, Kimberle Crenshaw, and others.I think many will not come with my background in Christianity and Critical Race Theory, and I can't read the book as if I did not have the background that I do. Christianity and Critical Race Theory's authors are particularly well positioned to write this book. Robert Chao Romero and Jeff Liou are both pastors. Both of them have an academic background that is relevant to the book. Romero has a Law degree and Ph.D. and is a Chicano/a and Central American Studies professor at UCLA. Jeff Liou is the director of theological formation for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and is a professor of Christian Ethics with a background in political theology, race, and justice. These authors are Christian Evangelical insiders with academic backgrounds involved in Critical Race Theory long before the recent interest. Romero has a good history of Latino Theology published by Intervarsity. And Liou's position with Intervarsity also shows his insider status.The format of the book is a traditional reformed structure. The four main chapters examine how Critical Race Theory looks at Creation, Fall (sin), Redemption, and Consummation (Eschatology). There is a significant introduction and conclusion as well. But this is a brief book. As complicated as Critical Race Theory is, this is a good introduction in only 180 pages of the main text.Like the authors, I think the real strength of Critical Race Theory, in its relationship to Christianity, is in identifying wrong (sin). Of course, CRT does not identify everything Christianity does as sin and vice versa. But that would be asking more than any one sociological approach could accomplish. But the fact that sin is identified, I think, is one of the most directly Christian things about CRT.The first chapter (creation) is oriented toward diversity as a created reality of God, which will also be part of an eschatological reality. The main point of this first chapter is that all cultures and ethnicities have honor and, in some (limited) sense, reflect God's glory because they are made up of people who are created in the image of God. What is being pushed back against here is a hierarchy of culture as being part of the created order. CRT suggests that race is not a biological but a sociological reality. The creation of race was partly about creating cultural hierarchy, and the church largely embraced that understanding of culture. CRT can help see why that understanding is harmful and theologically wrong.Chapter three, Redemption, is mainly about how as Christians, we need to see institutions as part of the created order. The authors do not phrase it this way, but Curtis Chang of the Good Faith Podcast regularly talks about institutions being made in the image of God, not just individuals. And I think CRT, because it is oriented toward institutions and systems, not individuals, fits in with Chang's description. This chapter mainly discusses Christian colleges and other Christian institutions and how they can help and harm. But, again, CRT is primarily a diagnostic tool and can help identify how our Christian institutions harm people of color, women, and other minority groups.The final main chapter is about escatology and the Beloved Community. This is when the authors think CRT has the least to offer Christianity because they view it as lacking hope. This reminds me of Thabiti Anyabwile and Ta-Nehisi Coates's conversation about the role of hope back in 2015. I came away from that conversation thinking that while I theologically mostly agree with Thabiti, I think Ta-Nehisi Coates won the day because he suggests that he does not think that race relations in the US will fundamentally change in either his or his son's lifetime. However, he still works toward change even though he does not think the change will happen. Working toward change that you think will not happen in a hundred years is a type of hope that I think is undervalued. I believe theoretically in the eschatological end where Christ makes everything right. But similar to how I came away from the linked conversation, this chapter feels like it places too much value on the expectation of a future as being a particularly Christian ideal. In many ways, secular and religious people that are not Christians also have hope, even if it is not expressed in the same eschatological language.I was on board before I started reading Christianity and Critical Race Theory. This book primarily reflects what I believe. I think the message should be read widely, especially by those who are overtly for a Christian view of social justice but have been influenced by the anti-CRT discussion. I have quibbles, but I think this is a book that does well reflecting orthodox Christian belief and an excellent academic understanding of Critical Race Theory.The publisher provided me with an advance (PDF) copy of the book for purposes of review.

here has been a lot of discussion about Critical Race Theory (CRT) recently, and much of it starts with an inaccurate understanding of what it actually is and how it is used. Having just finished a course on Catholic Social Teaching, I was very much interested in a book that talks of the intersection of Christianity and CRT. This book begins with an introduction where the two authors share a little of their experience as BIPOC with regard to racism in the US and the church. It is important to note that as a member of the current majority, I do not share anything close to their experiences and recognize that most of what they talk about is very nearly invisible to me without closer examination. Ultimately that is where CRT comes it … to highlight those areas where our laws and institutions facilitate (sometimes unintentionally) the disparate socio-economic conditions between the dominant majority and the disadvantaged minorities. Simply put, CRT is a useful tool, that has of late been abused by critics and proponents a like to avoid having what amounts to a painful discussion on both sides. Here is how the authors define CRT:

"Critical race theory examines the intersection of race, racism, and US law and policy. In other words, it looks at how US laws and public policy have been manipulated and constructed over the years to preserve privilege for those considered “white” at the expense of those who are people of color. […] That being said, CRT represents a diverse body of theory and reflection, and I do not agree with it all. For that matter, not all CRT theorists and practitioners agree with one another. “

The book only has four (4) chapters; each starting with an introduction, discussion and conclusion. The chapters are well organized and generally written in easy to understand everyday language, avoiding the specialized vocabulary that I have typically found in philosophical/theological text. The points are clear and well supported and amazingly non-judgmental for the most part … highlighting trends and [hidden] bias without directly attacking any individual or group. Most of the discussion ties to help the reader understand their specific experience, and both authors do a very good job of this.

"Chapter 1 explains how community cultural wealth, a CRT concept deployed in educational scholarship, resonates with the theology of creation in the image of God. Instead of a “deficit view,” which has been used to paint student populations in a negative light, educators—and Christians—can look at God’s children as bearers of the image of God.”

“Chapter 2 wades into the contentious discussion of CRT in the media and in the pews. Somewhere near the center of the ideological disagreement is the doctrine of sin. How one understands the nature and scope of sin, it is argued, has a direct impact on one’s view of the nature and scope of racism.”

“Chapter 3 uses institutions of Christian higher education as an example of the ways in which the tools of CRT can make a redemptive difference. The voice of color thesis encourages students and faculty of color that they are in the best position to understand their own racialized experiences and needs on campus.”

Chapter 4 “explores the difference that Christian hope in the consummation of all things makes for the ethics of the pursuing racial justice.”

Over all I found a lot to like in each chapter, with good balance of bulleted lists summarizing basic principles, personal vignettes highlighting example experiences, scriptural references to support general concepts and solid discussion tying them all together. In particular, I found the last chapter to be particularly hard hitting and poignant. Strongly recommended.

Introduction: Critical Race Theory in Christianity

1. Creation: Community Cultural Wealth and the Glory and Honor of the Nations
2. Fall: Sin and Racism — the Ordinary Business of Society
3. Redemption: Critical Race Theory in Institutions
4. Consummation: The Beloved Community

Conclusion: Made to Be Image Bearers

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#ChristianityandCriticalRaceTheory #NetGalley

I want to start this review off by saying thank you to Robert Chao Romero and Jeff Liou for writing this book. It has become not just another book for me but a resource that I can use to help in my own writings on different topics regarding race and the “whiteness” of Christianity in America. This book stands as a powerful testimony of not only the authors’ lives as BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) Christians but includes stories of people that the authors know very well - some students, some professors, some family members.

Although the book is written by two very intellectual men, it is not hard to read and understand. Romero and Liou do a great job at breaking down the term Critical Race Theory very early on in the book and continue to reiterate the importance of it throughout the text. I was hesitant that this book would read more like an academic text without too much biblical context included but I was proven wrong very early in my reading. I spent a lot of time highlighting different lines in the book that discuss racism and the excuses people use for it.

After reading this book I realize that, as a country, America has come a long way from where we once stood but we still have a LONG way to go. Romero and Liou provide some insight as to how we can continue to move toward a nation in which Christian people claim their BIPOC brothers and sisters in Christ as just that - brothers and sisters in Christ - and not look at them as any “different” than their white counterparts. After all, God created all men and women in His image. Whenever we look at our fellow Christians, we should see Christ and not the color of the skin they’re in.