Skip to main content

Bloomsbury Home

Theologies Against White Supremacy

Bonhoeffer and the Below

Theologies Against White Supremacy cover

Theologies Against White Supremacy

Bonhoeffer and the Below

Quantity
Pre-order. Available 19 Feb 2026
$122.41 RRP $153.01 Website price saving $30.60 (20%)

Payment for this pre-order will be taken when the item becomes available

Description

In this sensitive work, Whyte examines issues and ambiguities within Bonhoeffer's writing-as well as complexities in his biography-that imply gaps in his understanding of the full theological implications of Christ's solidarity with suffering.

Whyte explores how, whilst Bonhoeffer ardently opposed white supremacist oppression enacted by the National Socialists, he also evidenced persistent entanglement with white supremacist logics and primary longings. Bonhoeffer scholars who ignore, miss, or dismiss these entanglements display vulnerability to those same logics.

This book engages with a wide range of thinkers, including: Reggie Williams, Lisa Dahill, Michael Mawson, Katie Cannon, Gustavo Gutiérrez, and Keri Day. It also considers the distinct responses to white supremacy offered in the early 20th Century by Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., Pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church, and the leadership of the Azusa Street Revival as evidence that Bonhoeffer's view was not the only theological 'view from below'.

Ultimately, Whyte offers a constructive theological ethical method for repentance away from white supremacy that builds on, critiques, and moves beyond Bonhoeffer. This method seeks to overcome the primary longings at the root of white supremacy to better resist the manifestations of white supremacist in our day. This work honors Bonhoeffer whilst seeking to go further along the paths of repentance he walked by addressing issues he did not consider.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Strange Grace

Part I - May Christ Take Form Among Us?

1. Ethics as Formation, Responsibility, and Resistance
2. Finding Bonhoeffer at the Intersection of Postliberalism and Liberation

Part II - Who is Jesus Christ for Us Today?

3. Church | Bonhoeffer's Political Ecclesiology
4. Pluralism | Formation for Public life
5. Politics | Two Kingdoms and Two Words
6. Pacifism | Violence, Lutheranism, and the Sermon on the Mount

Part III

7. Masculinity | Power and the Ethics of Friendship
8. Race | To See Responsibility from Below
9. Organizing | Political Theology, Responsibility, & Community Organization

Bibliography
Index

Product details

Published 19 Feb 2026
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 208
ISBN 9780567724434
Imprint T&T Clark
Series T&T Clark New Studies in Bonhoeffer’s Theology and Ethics
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Christopher Whyte

Christopher Whyte is an Associate of the St. Leona…

Related Titles

Get 30% off in the May sale - for one week only

Environment: Staging