Unmasking White Preaching: Racial Hegemony, Resistance, and Possibilities in Homiletics [Paperback]

This book examines the impact of white racialization in homiletics. The first section, Racial Hegemony, interrogates the white, colonial bias of Euro-American homiletical practice, pedagogy, and theory with particular attention to the intersection of preaching and racialization. The second section, Resistance and Possibilities, contributes diverse critical homiletical approaches emerging in conversation with racially-minoritized scholarship and racially subjugated knowledge and practice. By reading this book, preachers and professors of preaching will encounter alternative, non-dominant homiletical pathways toward a more just future for the church and the world.

Lis Valle-Ruiz is assistant professor of homiletics and worship and director of community worship life at McCormick Theological Seminary.
Andrew Wymer is assistant professor of liturgical studies at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

How can the United States be a Christian nation given its history of racism, sexism, homophobia, and its stunning tolerance of poverty? The answer to this perplexing question is found among the essays in this book. White preaching and white preachers are partially to blame. People in this country have been fed a diet of sermons that either vocally support or silently consent to a worldview that celebrates and seeks to preserve white supremacy and especially white male privilege. Rather than the sovereignty of God, these essays point us to a history of racial hegemony at home in the pulpit of far too many white churches. Marvin McMickle, Ashland Theological Seminary

This critically important collection of essays not only offers a bold critique of the white homiletical tradition, but also celebrates a dynamic, polyvocal approach to preaching. The essays provide valuable historical and theoretical analyses of white, colonial domination in homiletics, as well as practical guidance for resisting systemic racism. Including essays by both senior and emerglóZ