McKnight previews Joash Thomas's book The Justice of Jesus, which criticizes white North American evangelicals for resisting social justice. He agrees with Thomas's definition of justice and his point that much of the Western church has put souls ahead of bodies, but thinks Thomas overstates that point. He accepts Thomas's claim that a colonizer's gospel shapes many churches, ties it to racism and slavery, and links the decline of social justice to MAGA-aligned churches and Project 2025. He also argues that injustice harms oppressors as well as the oppressed and that the charge of "woke" is a power grab.
Reviewed
Its text teaches none of the positions Doxa lists.
Much of American evangelicalism has a history of lacking social justice.
Churches stained by MAGA and Project 2025 politics have diminished social justice, and social justice initiatives and laws in the USA are being undone.
- Adopts· Joash P. Thomas, drawing on Augustine
Justice is giving to each person their due, meaning the good things God intended for them: healing and restoration for survivors of violence and accountability for perpetrators.
- Rejects· Joash P. Thomas
Justice is not the natural disposition of the contemporary Western church as a whole.
- Adopts· Joash P. Thomas
Much of the Western church was shaped by a theology that prioritizes saving souls at the cost of the dignity and liberation of human bodies.
- Adopts· Joash P. Thomas
The gospel of many white evangelical churches is a colonizer's gospel, tied to colonialism and racism: it says Jesus came primarily to save souls, that evangelism outranks justice, that social hierarchies are God's design, and that unity demands uniformity.
The churches sided with those who practiced slavery in the New World, and many still do.
Freedom comes when both the subjugated and the dominating recognize the truth, because injustice harms oppressors as well as the oppressed.
Calling someone "woke" is itself a power grab.
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