A Cry to Defeat White Jesus

Author(s)

Kari J. FlatnessFollow

Course

RELG-313: Race, Ethnicity, & Religion

Document Type

Student Paper

Publication Date

Spring 5-20-2020

Disciplines

Religion

Description, Abstract, or Artist's Statement

This paper argues that whiteness and white fragility promote docile bystanders during racially charged campus incidents; however, a womanist, liberationist theology can effectively redress the misuse of Christian theology to advance white-supremacy in Lutheran institutions. First, I will leverage womanist ethicist Emilie Townes' concept of the fantastic hegemonic imagination to debunk stereotypes about Black students and analyze a recent racist incident at Augustana College. Next, utilizing Townes' concept of counter memory and Black liberation James Cone's insights in combination with Martin Luther and Dorothy Soelle's work, I will articulate a distinctly Lutheran theology that is oppositional to racist campus climates.

Augustana Digital Commons Citation

Flatness, Kari J.. "A Cry to Defeat White Jesus" (2020). Race, Ethnicity, & Religion.
https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/relgrace/4

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.