Embodied Cohesion: A Framework for Fostering Race-Ethnic Unity in Local Churches

Social and political contexts, from nations to neighborhoods, are changing at an ever-increasing rate. A consistent societal challenge across these contexts is division along the lines of racial and ethnic differences. Conflicts, violence, and injustice often emerge from the social and political structures of race and ethnicity and impact the local churches that exist amidst these realities. This project addresses challenges faced by Christian communities in racially and ethnically diverse contexts by providing a practical theological framework for fostering racial and ethnic unity within local churches.

The research begins by analyzing the conceptual history of race and ethnicity within the social sciences where these concepts are widely regarded as social constructions. This analysis explores nuanced aspects of social constructionist theories that offer insights for a theological evaluation of racial and ethnic identities and the pursuit of cohesion in local churches. Specifically, it describes why and how race and ethnicity are embodied narratives.

The project then compares this social-scientific theory of race and ethnicity to James K.A. Smith's theological account of identity and culture. Smith provides a logic and grammar for discussing race and ethnicity in terms of discipleship. The embodied narratives that shape race and ethnicity are always intertwined with, and influence, the lived theologies of racial and ethnic actors and their communities. This reality is demonstrated through an examination of the historical relationship of the Western church to race and racism which includes the concept of "whiteness." The impact of race, ethnicity, and whiteness on the lived theology of Christian individuals and churches is then explored in dialogue with African American theologians Willie James Jennings, J. Kameron Carter, and Brian Bantum.

The project also describes the results of a Theological Action Research (TAR) process conducted at Oase voor Nieuw-West, an ethnically and racially diverse church in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. TAR involves the community in a qualitative research process; the project's author led an insider team from Oase in collecting data to assess cohesion within the community. The data collected and conclusions reached through the TAR process are compared to the social-scientific and theological theories presented in earlier chapters. The project concludes by incorporating insights from the TAR process into a proposed framework for fostering cohesion in racially and ethnically diverse congregations.