All that follows comes from a study group at Northpointe Community Church in Fresno, CA. The Very Good Gospel Book Study. The journey toward racial unity is not an easy process.

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As part of our ongoing Be The Bridge discussions, we are doing a book study this spring on the book The Very Good Gospel, by Lisa Sharon Harper. We will meet in May to discuss what we’ve read and how it applies to us as believers – as brothers and sisters in Christ. Many of us look around and see racial divides. Things feel stuck, and we want to do something. We have read the Scriptures and prayed for unity. But how do we, the body of Christ, actually become one? How do we become light in a dark world full of racial division? How do we become a witness and a voice for racial unity?

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• Book Summary:

  • God once declared everything in the world “very good. ”Can you imagine it? Through careful exploration of the biblical text, particularly the first three chapters of Genesis, Lisa Sharon Harper shows us what “very good” can look like today—in real time. Shalom is what God declared. Shalom is what the Kingdom of God looks like. Shalom is when all people are treated equitably and have enough. It’s when families are healed. It’s when churches, schools, and public policies protect human dignity. Shalom is when the image of God is recognized, protected, and cultivated in every single human. It is the vision God set forth in the Garden and the restoration God desires for every broken relationship. Shalom is the “very good” in the gospel. . . Because despite our anxious minds, despite divisions, and despite threats of violence, God’s vision remains: wholeness for a fragmented world. Peace for a hurting soul. Shalom.

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• John Hartigan

  • Odd Tribes: Toward a Cultural Analysis of White People. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005).

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• Harvey, Jennifer

  • Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014.

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• Jennifer Harvey

  • Raising White Kida: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust World. (Nashville , TN.: Abington Press, 2017).

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• Stephen R. Haynes

  • Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery (Religion in America) 1st Edition. (Oxford: Oxford University Press (2002).

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• Janet Helms, Editor

  • Black and White Racial Identity: Research, Theory and Practice (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1990).

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• Carolyn B. Helsel

  • Anxious to Talk About It: Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully about Racism (St. Louis, MO. Chalice Press, 2018).

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• Carolyn B. Helsel

  • Preaching About Racism: A Guide for Faith Leaders. St. Louis, Missouri: Chalice Press, 2018.

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• Daniel Hill

  • White Awake: An Honest Look At What It Means To Be White . (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017).

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• Lawrence Hill

  • The Book of Negroes. 2007). (Toronto: Harper Collins, 2007).

    • The Book of Negroes is a 2007 award-winning novel from Canadian writer Lawrence Hill. In the United States, Australia and New Zealand, the novel was published under the title Someone Knows My Name. He was inspired by the original Book of Negroes, a document created by Brigadier General Samuel Birch that records names and descriptions of 3,000 Black Loyalists, enslaved Africans who escaped to the British lines during the American Revolution and were evacuated to points in Nova Scotia as free people of colour. The document contains records on 3000 Africans; the former slaves recorded in the Book of Negroes were evacuated to British North America, where they were settled in the newly established Birchtown and other places in the colony. According to the Treaty of Paris (1783), the United States argued for the return of all property, including slaves, but the British refused. Review by Wikipedia.

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• Joy Hoffman and John Hoffman

  • “Summary of Stages of Racial Identity Development.” Racial Equity Tools, February 27, 2017. 

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• Axel Honneth.

  • The Struggle for Recognition (Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 1992).

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• Axel Honneth and Nancy Frasure

  • Redistribution or Recognition: A Political-Philosophical Exchange. (London, New York: Verso, 2003).

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• Bell Hooks, 

  • Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981). (Chicago: South End Press, 1999).

    • A groundbreaking work of feminist history and theory analyzing the complex relations between various forms of oppression. Ain't I a Woman examines the impact of sexism on black women during slavery, the historic devaluation of black womanhood, black male sexism, racism within the recent women's movement, and black women's involvement with feminism.

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• Zora Neale Hurston

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God.

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• Paula Gilding Ida

  • A Sword Among Lions and The Campaign Against Lynching (Amistad an Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2008).

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• Debby Irving

  • Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race. (Elephant Room Press, 2014).

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• Morgan Jerkins

  • Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots. (New York: Harper, 2020).

    • A personal exploration of the Great Migration, in which 6 million Black Americans left the South between 1916 and 1970 to take jobs in the North and West. Jerkins recreates her ancestors’ journeys across the country. Adapted from USA Today review.

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• Robert P. Jones

  • White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.

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• Ibram X Kendi

  • Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Published by Nation Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 2016).

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• Ibram X Kendi

  • How to Be An Antiracist. (New York: One World, 2019).

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• Ibram X Kendi

  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You. (New York: Little, Brown, and Co., 2020).

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• Ira Katznelson

  • When Affirmative Action was White: An untold history of racial inequality in twentieth century America (WW Norton & Company, Inc 2006).

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• Martin Luther King Jr.

  • Letter From A Birmingham Jail.

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• Kolb, Robert, and Timothy J. Wengert, eds.

  • The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Translated by Charles P. Arand. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000.

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• Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook

  • A House of Prayer for All Peoples: Congregations Building Multiracial Community. Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute, 2003.

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• Richard Kluger

  • Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975).

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• Eric Lincoln

  • “The Development of Black Religion in America” in Gayraud S. Wilmore, Editor. African American Religious Studies.

 

• James W. Loewen

  • ​Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism  (New Press, 2018).

    • The award-winning look at an ugly aspect of American racism by sociologist James W. Loewen, author of the classic bestseller Lies My Teacher Told Me, brings to light decades of hidden racial exclusion in America. In a provocative, sweeping analysis of American residential patterns, Loewen uncovers the thousands of "sundown towns"--almost exclusively white towns where it was an unspoken rule that blacks weren't welcome--that cropped up throughout the twentieth century, most of them located outside of the South.

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• Wesley Lowery

  • They Can’t Kill Us All

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• Martin Luther

  • Luther’s Small Catechism. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2016.

  • Luther's Small Catechism: With Additions, Including the Augsburg Confession. Tr. from the Original German. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1860.

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• Joel McDurmon.

  • The Problem of Slavery in Christian America: An Ethical-Judicial History of American Slavery and Racism.

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• Peggy McIntosh

  • On Privilege, Fraudulence, and Teaching As Learning: Selected Essays 1981--2019. (New York: Routledge, 2019).

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• Russell Means

  • Where White Men Fear to Tread. New York: Martin’s Press, 1995.

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• Eric Metaxas 

  • ​Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery.

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• Jürgen Moltmann

  • Sun of Righteousness Arise: God’s Future for Humanity and the Earth. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010.

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• Edmund S. Morgan

  • American Slavery, American Freedom.

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• Toni Morrison

  • The Bluest Eye

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• Craig L. Nessan,

  • “Orthopraxis.” In The Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology, edited by Ian McFarland, David A. S. Fergusson, Karen Kilby, and Iain R. Torrance, 361. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

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• Helen Neville (ed.), M.E. Gallardo  (ed.) and D.W. Sue

  •  The Myth of Racial Color Blindness: Manifestations, Dynamics, and Impact (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2016).

    • Our students and staff of color experience the sting and pain of racism routinely, and educators must acknowledge this. We must “see” them. Neville writes,  ”By noticing race and naming racism, one calls into question racial privilege and unequal treatment of people of color.” In Needham, our intent is not to inflame racial tensions but to acknowledge and respect the human differences among use and accept that students and staff of color often experience the world in a way unlike their white peers. Review by Daniel Gutekanst superintendent of Needham (Ma) Public Schools; quote from Neville et al. from School Administrator, August, 2020, p.12.

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• Reinhard Niehbuhr

  • Moral Man In Immoral Society. 

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• Charles James Ogletree Jr.

  • The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America (Palgrave-Macmillan 2010).

  • When Law Fails (Charles J. Ogletree & Austin Sarat eds.)

  • From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in America (ed. with Austin Sarat, New York University Press,  2006)

  • All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education (W.W. Norton & Company, 2004) 

  • ​Beyond the Rodney King Story: An Investigation of Police Conduct in Minority Communities (ed. with others, Northeastern University Press Boston, Massachusetts 1995). 

  • Brown at 50: The Unfinished Legacy (ed. with Deborah L. Rhode, American Bar Association, 2004)

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• Kelly Oliver

  • Witnessing Beyond Recognition. (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 2011).

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• Ijeoma Oluoi

  • ​So You Want to Talk About Race. (2019)

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• Imani Perry

  • Breathe: A Letter to My Sons (Beacon Press 2019).

  • ​More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States. (New York: New York University Press, 2011).​

  • May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem (Raleigh NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2018).

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• Anthony B. Pinn

  • When Colorblindness Isn’t the Answer: Humanism and the Challenge of Race. (Durham, NC: Pitchstone Press, 2015).

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• Sarah Posner

  • Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump.

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• Lee Ann Potter, and Wynell Schamel

  • “The Homestead Act of 1862.” Social Education 61, no. 6 (October 1997): 359-364.

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• Albert J. Raboteau

  • Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South.

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• Noel Rae

  • The Great Stain: Witnessing American Slavery.

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• Paul Ricoeur

  • The Course of Recognition. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).

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• Dorothy Roberts

  • Fatal Invention

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• Brandon Robertson

  • True Inclusion: Creating Communities of Radical Embrace. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2018.

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• E.W. Rodman and Katrina Browne

  • Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; See Faith Rogow Discussion Guide below.

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• Frank Rogers

  • Practicing Compassion. Nashville: Fresh Air Books, 2015.

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• Faith Rogow 

  • “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North P.O.V. Discussion Guide.” Tracing Center. November 8, 2011. http://www.tracingcenter.org/library/discussion_guide.pdf.

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• O. E. Rolvaag

  • Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1927).

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• Richard Rothstein

  • The Color Of Law: A Forgotten History Of How Our Government Segregated America (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2016).

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• Thomas M. Shapiro

  • The Hidden. Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality (Oxford University Press)2004

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• Glen E Singleton

  • Courageous Conversations About Race A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools, Second Edition. Published: October 2014

  • ​More Courageous Conversations About Race. Published: October 2012.

  • ​Curtis Linton Facilitator's Guide to Courageous Conversations About Race. Published: September 2006.

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• Rebecca Skloot

  • ​The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

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• Ted A. Smith

  • The New Measures: A Theological History of Democratic Practice. (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

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• Jean R. Soderlund

  • Quakers and Slavery: A Divided Spirit (Princeton Legacy Library). (1985).

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• Stephanie Spellers

  • Radical Welcome: Embracing God, the Other, and the Spirit of Transformation. New York: Church Publishing, 2006.

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• Stassen, Glen, and David Gushee

  • Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context. Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity Press, 2003.

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• Bryan Stevenson

  • ​Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. (New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2014).

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• William Styron

  • The Confession of Nat Turner (Open Road Medi,  2010).

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• Williard M. Swartley

  • Slavery, Sabbath, War, and Women

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• Beverly Daniel Tatum

  • Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race (New York: Basic Books, 1997).

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• Angie Thomas, 

  • The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1)

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• Howard Thurman

  • ​Jesus and the Disinherited.

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• Donna Walker Tileston

  • 10 Best Teaching Practices: How Brain Research and Learning Styles Define Teaching Competencies. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press, 2011.

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• Jemar Tisby

  • The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism. (Zondervan, 2019).

  • How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice. (Zondervan, (Forthcoming, Dec., 2020).

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• Mai-Anh Le Tran

  • Reset the Heart: Unlearning Violence, Relearning Hope. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2017.

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• Jim Wallis

  • America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2017).

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• Richard White

  • The Republic For Which It Stands: The United States During the Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford University Press, 2017).

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• Delores S. Williams

  • Sisters in the Wilderness: the Challenge of Womanist God-Talk. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993.

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• William Wilberforce

  • ​Real Christianity.  

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• Isabel Wilkerson

  • Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.(New York: Random House, 2020).

    • An instant classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far. Wilkerson’s book is about how brutal misperceptions about raced have disfigured the American experience. Wilkerson’s usages . . . . enable her to make comparisons between India’s treatment of its untouchables', Nazi Germany's treatment of Jews, and America’s treatment of African Americans. Each country “relied on stigmatizing those deemed inferior to justify the dehumanization necessary to keep the lowest-ranked  people at the bottom and to rationalize the protocols of enforcement.” She always has a prime example to stare at the particulars of lives under slavery and Jim Crow and recent American experience. She avoids the word “racism,” yet stares it down with more humanity than all but a few  books in our literature. Adapted from a New York Times review by Dwight Garner.

  • The Warmth Of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (New York: Random House, 2010 and Vintage Books, 2011).                             

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• Midge Wilson and Kathy Russell

  • Divided Sisters.     

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• Tim Wise

  • White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (Soft Skull Press, 2004).

  • Under the Affluence: Shaming the Poor, Praising the Rich, and Sacrificing the Future of America (San Francisco: City Lights Open Media, 2015).

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• Howard Zinn

  • ​A People's History of the United States. (New York: ‎Harper & Row‎; ‎Harper Collins, 1980, 2003, 2009).