Slave Trade by John Raphael Smith
Providence, Race, and Formation: Reflections on the Christian Imagination
To imagine the horrors of slavery is inevitably to ask “how?” How did this happen? How was this ruthless system of exploitation and oppression justified? How could human beings inflict on other human beings the brutalities of kidnapping, separation from family, forced march, the inhumanity of the slave ship and auction block, serial rape, and a life of brutal, backbreaking work? How?
In his book, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, Willie James Jennings argues that one important answer to the question “how?” is theology. According to Jennings, theology in the west was taken up by the forces of political and economic expansion, the forces of imperialism and colonialism, and turned into an ideological foundation for a racialized imagination that justified the institution of slavery. This is not to say that theology is the only answer to “how?”, nor that every impulse of western theology was intended to create racism. But it is to say that theology was consistently folded into the project of expansion and so either 1) explicitly justified slavery or 2) was blinded to the forces that allowed racial segregation and the system of slavery to thrive. Jennings’ book explores the inner movement of theology that shaped the Christian imagination and that was unable to stop, and all too often was used to promote, the exploitation of fellow human beings based on supposed inferiorities.
My purpose in this essay is to reflect on Jennings’ exploration of the theological tradition in the colonial and imperial era and how it formed the Christian imagination. Given the scope of this essay I am unable to fully engage Jennings’ arguments; instead, I will focus on one theme that Jennings develops in his work: The way that a mutated version of the doctrine of providence was utilized to justify racism. Following my explorations of Jennings’ argument, I will then reflect on the continuing dangers of a mutated doctrine of providence for the formation of our ecclesial imagination today. When this danger is identified, we will be more able to be communities of reconciliation and mutual submission, communities that live together under the rule of Christ and that overcome the impulses of a mutated vision of Divine providence.
From Providence to Slavery
As the title of Jennings’ book indicates, his concern is how the Christian imagination was captured by a racialized anthropology. Jennings explores the development of this imagination by interacting with important, but lesser known, theologians of the imperial era, using each as a case study in theological formation. One of the key themes that emerges in Jennings’ description of these theologians is the doctrine of providence. The doctrine of providence is a critically important doctrine, one that orthodox Christianity has rightly affirmed as essential to our understanding of God, who is the Lord of all and ultimate authority, and who is at work to restore his creation under his loving care. However, according to Jennings, the doctrine of providence was transformed into a doctrine that justified slavery through imperial expansion. How did this mutation happen?
For Jennings, the danger lurking within the doctrine of providence, a danger that explodes with devastating consequences in the construction of the Atlantic slave trade, is the justification of human power rooted in a particular vision of God’s movement in history. This theological understanding of God’s providence connects such themes as divine blessing, human political power, supercessionism, imperialism, and nationalism. According to Jennings, these categories combined to create racial categorization in service of the supposedly providential work of God in history through the European nations.
Jennings describes the theological move as going something like this: God is the providential Lord of history. Through Christ, God has established his rule, a rule he is working out through the lords of the earth, who are the elect instruments of God’s ruling power in history. This imperial vision of providence is rooted in supercessionism, in which the mission of Israel is replaced by European nations, who become the inheritors of the mission of God (Jennings exemplifies this move through an analysis of Isaac Watts’ recasting of the Psalms to place Britain at the center of God’s work in history, a project that both symbolized and motivated Britain’s imperial ambitions). The Divine blessing of these elect rulers is interpreted in political and economic terms: Those in whom God is well-pleased are blessed with economic and military prosperity. This blessing carries with it the impulse to expand markets in order to increase the blessing. However, to achieve this increase, nation-states must ensure access to the commodities that will serve their elect citizenry, and so the project of the colonial expansion of national power is undertaken. In securing the commodities and markets, cheap (free) labor is required to work the fields and farms. To accomplish this need, black and brown people are kidnapped, bound, bought and sold, becoming property of those who are the self-declared elect instruments of Divine providence.
And so we come to why Jennings believes that the question “how?” must be answered theology: The Christian imagination was too readily formed by a supercessionist and nationalistic vision of God’s providential election of earthly nations as those he blesses and uses for His Kingdom rule in history. This imagination creates an “us” and “them” structure: We, the object of God’s providential favor, are justified in our treatment of them. As such, black and brown humans are categorized as those whom God has providentially appointed to be instruments of his providential rule, those fated to be subservient tools in the historical mission of the elect nations. This providential-nationalist reading of history becomes the justification for the brutal mistreatment of human beings that is necessary for the continued expansion of divine blessing for those whom he has chosen. Providence has undergone a malignant mutation, becoming the theological justification for economic exploitation, the racialized imagination, and, ultimately, slavery.
Providence and the Formation of the Ecclesial Imagination
This mutation may seem a long way off from our ecclesial vocation in the 21st century. We rightly recoil at the horrors of slavery and would not imagine that our theology would lead us to justify those horrors. However, we need to be careful not to assume that we are free from the dynamics of a false doctrine of providence. Jennings calls us to explore the deeper operations of our theological imagination, which may very well be operating in contrast to our stated theology. The often-hidden power of our theological imagination forms us in ways that we can’t fully grasp apart from the deep work of reflection and challenge. As I read Jennings’ book, I could not help but ask myself: Might we be carrying a mutated doctrine of providence in our own theological imaginations? As pastors, we are called to shape the theological vision of our congregations, to form them to see the world through the lens of the gospel, and to do the hard work of exploring the formation of our ecclesial imagination, both for ourselves and our congregation. So how might this mutation be infecting the Body of Christ today?
I propose that the mutation that occurs in the doctrine of providence and turns it malignant is the move from viewing God as the subject of providence to viewing human rulers as the subject. To do this is to turn the proper application of providence as a description of the Divine rule of the cosmos to an improper justification of human rule in history, and all too easily covers the abuses of that rule. This move creates a vision of the church that is triumphalist, assuming a vision of history in which the church, and the nations and leaders it supports, are the terrible, swift sword of the Lord, bearing his authority, and receiving His blessing, even as races of other human beings are deemed to be outside that blessing, indeed deemed to be less than human. This move fundamentally changes the purpose of the doctrine of providence, leading to ecclesial expectations of our role in history, and a temptation to nationalism, that is at odds with the proper purpose of the doctrine.
The doctrine of providence, as seen in the of the early church, is intended to comfort and guide the church in her mission of proclaiming that Christ is the Lord, and there is no other. This doctrine gave consolation to the early church as they suffered trials and persecution, knowing that self-proclaimed lords of history would not rule forever, that the One True Lord would again enter history in triumph to establish his righteous rule. Providence proclaimed the eternal triumph of Christ and so gave the church an anchor in eternity that rooted their proclamation of Christ, a proclamation that was anything but triumphalist. The imagination of the early church was formed by the vision of the resurrected Christ as seen by John the Revelator on Patmos, whose vision called the church to persevere in their witness to Jesus, not giving themselves to the pursuits of the kingdoms of earthly power. Rightly understood, the doctrine of providence does not justify the fallen will to power and cannot become a cover for human pursuits, but instead provides a freedom to proclaim Christ, knowing that he is the Lord of history no matter how history treats the church. Therefore, providence rightly understood forms the Christian imagination to understand ourselves as sojourners on the earth. As such, it can in no way justify the abuse of fellow human beings, or the racialized categorization that comes from a self-proclaimed election to blessing that would be seen in earthly power and rule. The providential rule of Christ does not divide believers into castes but unites all who would bow to Christ as the one Body of Christ, and calls us to transcend visions of nationalism, being called as we are to be a trans-national community of followers of Christ who don’t allow our imagination to be shaped by the visions of nation states.
The theological imagination of the church must be freed from any vision of providence that would justify a hierarchy of the elect that creates structures of power in which blessing is claimed by some at the expense of others. To do this is to fail to understand the nature of blessing, and to turn it into a continuing justification for using human power to divide the Body of Christ and the mistreatment of others based on that division. As we explore the ways our imagination may be captured by a mutated vision of providence, we can be freed in new ways as pastors and congregations to repent of the ways our own imaginations have been shaped by the desire for power, a desire that is the root of the racial sin that has so scarred the church for the last 500 years. As we do this, may we invite the Spirit of God to expose and renew our imaginations, that we might be His instruments of peace and reconciliation in Christ.
The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race
Willie James Jennings
Yale University Press (2011). 384 pp.
This resource is part of the series More than Imago Dei: Theological Explorations on Race. Click here to explore more resources from this series.
Joel Lawrence is the Executive Director of the Center for Pastor Theologians. He previously served as the Senior Pastor of Central Baptist Church in St. Paul, MN and as a Professor of Theology at Bethel Seminary. He holds a PhD in Systematic Theology from the University of Cambridge. He is a member of the St. Anselm Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
