Written by the US-based pastor and author Tony Evans, Kingdom Race Theology attempts to biblically examine our ethnic identities alongside our Christ-centred identity. However, this is as deep as his theology goes. There is little consideration of the roles that experience, tradition and reason could contribute. The inclusion of “God’s answer” in the book’s title is overly simplistic and betrays the book’s assumptions, over-generalisations and subjective thinking.
Evans’ practical suggestions for overcoming racism separate black and white people into neat boxes that have an easy three-step fix. His thinking is also old-school. He continually uses the language of ‘race’ rather than ‘ethnicity’, seemingly undermining his own theology. Little scope is given beyond the US, making it largely inapplicable to other countries. His writing is also male centred, and several times he belittles gay Christians, despite writing how in-fighting and marginalisation sets a bad example to people outside of the Church.
There are some wonderful books on tackling racism (including The New Reformation by Shai Linne). Unfortunately, this isn’t one.
