Becoming Human

Luke A. Powery

Description

Discussions of racial difference always embody a story. The dominant story told in our society about race has many components, but two stand out: (1) racial difference is an essential characteristic, fully determining individual and group identity; and (2) racial difference means that some bodies are less human than others.

The church knows another story, says Luke Powery, if it would remember it. That story says that the diversity of human bodies is one of the gifts of the Spirit. That story’s decisive chapter comes at Pentecost, when the Spirt embraces all bodies, all flesh, all tongues. In that story, different kinds of materiality and embodiment are strengths to be celebrated rather than inconvenient facts to be ignored or feared. In this book, Powery urges the church to live up to the inclusive story of Pentecost in its life of worship and ministry. He reviews ways that a theology and practice of preaching can more fully exemplify the diversity of gifts God gives to the church. He concludes by entering into a conversation with the work of Howard Thurman on doing ministry to and with humanity in the light of the work of the Spirit.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Preaching
• Christian Ministry
• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Presbyterian Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781646982875
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

“Luke Powery’s book Becoming Human is deeply testimonial, demonstrating how personal experiences are profoundly affected by the political and historical legacy of slavery and racism. Powery makes an original contribution by making connections between race issues and the theology of the Holy Spirit and homiletics. He makes a convincing case that racialization deprives humanity of the possibility of being human together, an approach to human life he views as a theological imperative and a spiritual discipline. This is an inspiring read and highly recommended!”
—HYERAN KIM-CRAGG, Principal and Timothy Eaton Memorial Church Professor of Preaching, Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto
“In this timely and essential book, Luke Powery boldly unmasks the dehumanizing reality of colonial racialization (including in the church and its practices) and envisions a turn to humanization in the power of the Spirit. Drawing on historical analysis, personal experience, and the story of Pentecost, Powery shows how the Spirit can move the church beyond the oppressive hierarchies and divisions of racism toward the celebration of a diverse and inclusive humanity. He also suggests concrete ways that preaching and ministry can enflesh this revolutionary Pentecostal fire. Powery’s impassioned ‘Spirit speech’ should be embraced by every pastor, seminary student, and congregation member.”
—CHARLES L. CAMPBELL, James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor Emeritus of Homiletics, Duke Divinity School
“In this age of division and factionalism, many have forgotten what it is to become human. There might not be any book that is more appropriate for this and every time for those who desire that our nation, church, and world be more humane.”
—FRANK A. THOMAS, Director of the PhD Program in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric, Christian Theological Seminary
“Pentecost is pedagogy for the human race. This is the grounding thesis of Luke Powery’s revolutionary work Becoming Human . Powery deconstructs nonsensical notions of color blindness and asks the church universal to reclaim her birthright and become her intended self—a multiethnic, multilingual, mosaic polyphony of holy fire and breath, bodies, and tongues, all proclaiming God—while naming as sin the dehumanizing effects of racialization and cultural erasure. Turning toward the Spirit, Powery makes clear, implies a turning toward an incarnational God who sees difference differently and invites human beings to embrace their creatureliness as a gift of the Spirit. Homiletics and cultural studies scholars will find here an academically robust, first-rate discussion on preaching and race, and religious practitioners will no doubt recognize that the wind of the Spirit has breathed on Powery’s pen.”
—KENYATTA R. GILBERT, Professor of Homiletics, Howard University School of Divinity
“Many titles, images, and roles exist for the Holy Spirit; Luke Powery lifts up another: the Spirit as humanizer. In this book, Powery suggests that the Spirit is the one who humanizes us in the face of one of the most destructively dehumanizing forces our society has known: racism. This ‘pneumatology of race’ is timely as the church and world are in need of having their racialized imaginations ‘troubled.’ For those who struggle to develop an ecclesial theological response to racism, Powery says, let us look to the Spirit of Pentecost for what we preach and how we practice the faith. A pneumatological response to racism is unfortunately rare to find in the theological academy, yet Powery’s meditation demonstrates both its fittingness and urgency. This work resounds with sobering conviction and expectant hope.”
—DANIEL CASTELO, William Kellon Quick Professor of Theology and Methodist Studies and Director of the Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke University Divinity School
“Luke Powery redefines what it means to preach in the power of the Spirit. This exciting volume lays out a vibrant pneumatology and pairs it with an illuminating analysis of Howard Thurman’s best teaching on the spiritual life. Ultimately, Powery’s prophetic vision upends the racist frameworks that hinder the church’s embrace of humanity and shows us how to dance with the Spirit. In a word: dynamic.”
—DONYELLE C. M C CRAY, Associate Professor of Homiletics, Yale Divinity School
“Two thousand years ago there were Arab, Cretan, and Roman (among other) tongues spoken on the streets of Jerusalem. It took a physician known as Luke to record these voices as declaring the wondrous and powerful works of God. In our fraught 2020s, we can thank another doctor (of divinity), Luke Powery, for translating the witnesses of (especially but not only) Black communities to all of us (including especially but not only white readers) so that we can appreciate how these experiences testify to and declare the prophetic words of God for our time.”
—AMOS YONG, Professor of Theology in Mission and Dean of the School of Mission and Theology, Fuller Seminary
Becoming Human
Becoming Human
The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race
Luke A. Powery
© 2022 Luke A. Powery
Foreword © 2022 Westminster John Knox Press
First edition
Published by Westminster John Knox Press
Louisville, Kentucky
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com .
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.
Book design by Drew Stevens
Cover design by Lisa Buckley Design
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Powery, Luke A., 1974- author.
Title: Becoming human : the Holy Spirit and the rhetoric of race / Luke A. Powery.
Description: First edition. | Louisville, Kentucky : Westminster John Knox Press, [2022] | Includes index. | Summary: “Urges the church to live up to the inclusive story of Pentecost in its worship life”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022030090 (print) | LCCN 2022030091 (ebook) | ISBN 9780664267223 (paperback) | ISBN 9781646982875 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Holy Spirit. | Theological anthropology—Christianity.
Classification: LCC BT121.3 P69 2022 (print) | LCC BT121.3 (ebook) | DDC 231/.3—dc23/eng/20220808
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022030090
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022030091
Most Westminster John Knox Press books are available at special quantity discounts when purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, and special-interest groups.
For more information, please e-mail [e-mail] .
For the Rev. Dr. William C. Turner Jr., a human gift of the Spirit
Contents
Foreword by Willie James Jennings
Prelude: Let Us Break Bread Together
Introduction: Wade in the Water
A Story of Being Raced
Inhabiting a Raced World and Church
Invoking the Spirit into This Race(d) Conversation
Overview of Content and Movement of the Book
Sighs of Hope beneath the Words
1. Many Thousand Gone: A (Perpetual) History of Inhumanity
Introduction
Historical Inhumanity
Institutional Inhumanity
Homiletical-Liturgical Inhumanity
Personal Inhumanity
2. Oh Freedom: A Biology of Race?
Introduction
Racialization of the Science of “Race”
Faulty Biology of Race
The Social Reality of Race
Race Involves Spirit
3. Every Time I Feel the Spirit: A Pneumatology for Particularity
Introduction
The Pentecost Narrative
Gift of Breath
Gift and Power to Speak and Understand
Affirmation of Diversity
God-Centered Community
Embrace of Human Bodies
Loosening of Human Tongues
Toward the “World House” of God
4. There’s Room for Many-a More: A Homiletic for Humanity
Introduction
Typical Approaches to Preaching and Race in Homiletical Literature
Toward a Human (Sermon) Form
Human Enfleshment of the Word
Human Message
5. There Is a Balm: A Ministry with Humanity
Introduction
Howard Thurman on the Human
Follow Jesus, the Human
Attend to Suffering Bodies
Strive for Community
Embrace Mortality
A Final Call to Togetherness
Deep River: A Coda on Humility, Mystery, and the Holy Spirit
Index
Foreword
“Where can I go from Your spirit, and where from before You flee?” So says the psalmist in Psalm 139, indicating an eternal truth: not simply that the Spirit of the living God is everywhere, but that the Spirit is inescapable. The scholastic designation that God is omnipresent is much too sterile a design to capture what is at stake in this declaration. God travels the journey with each individual creature. God is there at the beginning of the journey, God is in the journey’s middle, and God meets us where we arrive. God meets us where we run, where we hide, and where we believe we are hidden beyond sight. Divine presence is therefore not a noun but a verb—the constant being here and there with us. But the psalmist’s question must be placed alongside another question, more urgent and poignant: why do we resist the Spirit of the living God?
The fact that we resist the Spirit of the living God is the fundamental conundrum of human existence. That fact sits between the mystery of sin and the mystery of a God who cannot be thwarted in God’s willingness to be thwarted. We could speak of this as the thorns of human freedom that God feels, even as Jesus had them pressed down on his head. But the question of resistance is not a matter of the complexities of God’s providence. Our resisting God points to the s