Christian Resources about Racial Justice

These resources are ordered from more introductory books (1) to texts that rely on more experience or understanding (4 or 5). Books numbered 1-3 are primary recommendations for 101 level learners.

Biblical basis for racial reconciliation and racial justice

  1. Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming Our Ethnic Journey (Shin)
  2. Very Good Gospel (Harper)
  3. The Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change (McNeil and Richardson)
  4. The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (Jennings)

These books provide Scriptural foundations for why ethnicity matters and how it fits into the Christian redemption narrative.

  • Why should the Church care about race?
  • What does the Bible say about my ethnic identity?

Learning

  1. Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (Smith and Emerson)
  2. Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church (Rah)
  3. White Awake: An Honest Look at What it Looks Like to be White (Hill)
  4. The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Cone)
  5. Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart (Cleveland)

These books discuss historical and social implications of race through the lens of the Christian faith.

  • How does culture and race affect how people experience the Gospel?
  •  What is the Christian hope for racial reconciliation?

Responding

  1. Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How to Speak Up (Khang)
  2. Prophetic Lament (Rah)
  3. I’m Still Here (Brown)
  4. Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience (Rowe)
  5. Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World (Heltzel and Salvatierra)

These books give instruction for how faith informs individual, communal, and social/political response to racial injustice.

  • What do I do as a Christian convicted about racial injustice?
  • What does it look like to pursue social change with a Christian worldview?

Secular resources

  1. White Fragility (DiAngelo)
  2. Between the World and Me (Coates)
  3. So You Want To Talk About Race (Oluo)
  4. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Alexander)
  5. How To Be An Antiracist (Kendi)

While these resources are not rooted in the Christian tradition, they are useful for understanding race relations in America and how to engage with unjust structures in today’s society.  

Learning Path Recommendations

This list organizes resources to help Christians responding to racial injustice and organizes them by a “path” so that an individual or group can identify their current learning location and progress through a three-book recommended reading list.

“I don’t even know where to begin”

  1. Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming Our Ethnic Journey (Shin)
  2. White Awake: An Honest Look at What it Looks Like to be White (Hill)
  3. Prophetic Lament (Rah)

“I have concerns/questions about the relevance of social justice to the Christian Gospel”

  1. Very Good Gospel (Harper)
  2. Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (Smith and Emerson)
  3. Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart (Cleveland)

“I care about social justice, but don’t know how to integrate that value with my faith”

  1. The Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change (McNeil and Richardson)
  2. The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Cone)
  3. Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World (Heltzel and Salvatierra)

“I want to learn about how people who are culturally different from me experience God and the world”

  1. Between the World and Me (Coates)
  2. Prophetic Lament (Rah)
  3. I’m Still Here (Brown)

“I am ready to take a faithful risk to engage social/racial injustice”

  1. Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How to Speak Up (Khang)
  2. Roadmap to Reconciliation (McNeil)
  3. Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience (Rowe)

“I am interested in expanding my current paradigms of faith and justice. Challenge me!”

  1. Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery (Charles and Rah)
  2. The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (Jennings)
  3. “Can White People be Saved?”: Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission (Fuller)