Toward a Counternarrative Theology of Race and Whiteness: Studies in Philosophy of Race, Science Fiction Cinema, and Superhero Stories [Hardcover]

This book argues that race and whiteness are central to the construction of the modern world. Constructive Theology needs to take them seriously as primary theological problems. In doing so, Constructive Theology must fundamentally change its approach, and draw from the emerging field of Philosophy of Race. Christopher M. Baker develops a genealogy of race that understands whiteness as a kind secular soteriology, and develops a counternarrative theological method informed by resources from Philosophy of Race. He then deploys that method to read science fiction cinema and superhero stories as cultural, racial, and theological documents that can be critically engaged and redeployed as counternarratives to dominant racial narratives.

1. Introduction.- 2. Constructive Theology and Philosophy of Race, Part I.- 3. Constructive Theology and Philosophy of Race, Part II.- 4. Race, Whiteness, and Science Fiction Cinema.- 5. Race, Whiteness, and Superhero Stories.- 6. Conclusion.

            

Christopher M. Baker holds a PhD in Theology from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, USA and teaches Philosophy and Religious Studies at College of DuPage, USA

Our time shows the ways white supremacy continues to hold fast to its growing weapons of destruction, including in the theological realm. Unless the theological work does the work of breaking whiteness as a project of death, we will continue to see theology as a neutral project at worst, and a mild process of transformation at best. In this book, Christopher M. Baker invites us to go deeper than that, tackling the almost innate relation of whiteness and race and breaking it down.