Theology and Race

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Theology and Race

The Centre for Lifelong Learning is curating this list of resources, many created by Carey people. They are intended to address and resource questions some churches and Christians are asking about theology and race. This list will grow as resources are gathered.

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Academic articles

The Christian settler imaginary: repentant remembrances of Christianity’s entanglement with settler colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Andrew Picard (Director, Carey Graduate School, Carey Baptist College) and Andrew Clark-Howard 2022.
This article explores settler racism, mission work, and Christian politics in Aotearoa throughout the nineteenth century alongside a reflection about how to repentantly re-tell these stories today.

Discerning the Missio Dei in a local church’s engagement with it’s community pre-publication version of article for Mission Studies (22-page PDF)
George Wieland (Director, Carey Centre for Mission Research and Training, Carey Baptist College) 2020
In this article the experience of Māngere Baptist Church is considered, asking whether a missio Dei (mission of God) perspective might be discerned in recent initiatives and developments in its engagement with its local community.

‘On the way’ and ‘in the fray’ in Aotearoa: a Pākehā’s covenantal reflections from the context of a treaty people from the Pacific Journal of Baptist Research (15-page PDF)
Andrew Picard (Director, Carey Graduate School, Carey Baptist College) 2014
This article examines the dynamic of Baptist covenantal relationships in conversation with a reading of Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a covenant to enrich an account of the politics of being in relationship.

Confessions of a recovering racist transcript of The Sutherland Lecture at the New Zealand Baptist National Assembly held in Waitangi (14-page PDF)
Andrew Picard (Director, Carey Graduate School, Carey Baptist College) 2014
This lecture combines both research and personal reflection from a Pākehā academic and public theologian.

Are we all New Zealanders now? A Māori response to the Pākehā quest for indigeneity, The Bruce Jesson Memorial Lecture
Ani Mikaere (Kaihautū of Te Whare Whakatupu Mātauranga at Te Wānanga o Raukawa) 2004
In this lecture, Ani Mikaere discusses questions of race, identity and indigeneity in Aotearoa and questions Pākehā quests for indigeneity.

Books and chapters

Anti-Asian racism in ‘white’ New Zealand
Chapter 4 from Shaping Godzone: public issues and church voices in New Zealand 1840-2000 (Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press), available from the Carey library.
Laurie Guy (retired Carey Lecturer) 2011
This book chapter takes a look at a century and a half of anti-Asian racism in New Zealand.

Racism and religion in Pukekohe, 1959
Chapter 14 from Shaping Godzone: public issues and church voices in New Zealand 1840-2000 (Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press), available from the Carey library.
Laurie Guy (retired Carey Lecturer) 2011
In 1959 Pukekohe, church leaders had a chance to express a large gospel, to gain the trust of Māori, and to change the attitudes of congregations and society, but instead they were silent.

From whiteness towards witness: Revelation and unbelonging to empire
Chapter from the book: The art of forgiveness (Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield), available from the Carey library.
Andrew Picard (Director, Carey Graduate School, Carey Baptist College) 2018
This chapter examines the church’s entanglement with racism and the privileges of whiteness in Aotearoa. Drawing from the book of Revelation it offers a theological argument for repentance and unbelonging to systemic racism for the sake of faithfulness to God. 

Opinion

Understanding racism in this country. Article from E Tangata (2018)
Moana Jackson (Lawyer with a Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Porou whakapapa).
Jackson discusses some of the history of racism in Aotearoa that remain sedimented in contemporary social structures. 

Whiteness is not the plumbline post on the blog of the Logos Institute for Analytic and Exegetical Theology at the University of St Andrews
Christa McKirland (Lecturer, Carey Baptist College) 2019
“Gender and race are arguably the most phenomenally salient aspects of how we are perceived in the world. Based merely on appearance, one is often negatively pre-judged by these identifiers. Ideally, we’d be able to address these biases head-on so that coping with them is not just a matter of avoidance but of true eradication. To move toward this ideal, those of us who hold power, influence, and privilege (whether we think we do or not), need to learn how to listen…”

Theses

‘Korero Tuku Iho’ Mission to merger: Exploring the stories of Māori-Baptist engagement in the lower Waikato (Master of Applied Theology thesis) (link to 98-page PDF)
Caleb Haurua (Pastoral Leader, Royal Oak Baptist Church) Carey Graduate School, 2017
This study focuses on the historical interactions between Māori and Baptists through the Lower Waikato Baptist Māori Mission in the mid-20th century in Aotearoa New Zealand. It was unique in that it was the first mission amongst Māori supported by the wider Baptist Union of Churches and would precipitate an outburst of multiple works across the country. However much of its progression, eventual conclusion and overall impact has been largely undocumented – forgotten except by those who experienced it directly. An attempt to fill the gap in the literature, this qualitative study positions mātauranga Māori at the centre of the research using oral narratives from Māori. Knowledge held in Māori communities about Māori-Baptist engagement in the Lower Waikato is explored, as is, the significance of these stories for the Baptist Movement generally. Utilising Kaupapa Māori methodology, the various phases of the mission and other significant events that followed are historically and theologically interpreted from Māori perspectives as a counterbalance to other forms of telling and writing history. By doing so, the study weaves together unique Māori Christian perspectives providing a timely contribution to local and national dialogue about Christian mission and ministry in Aotearoa New Zealand today.

Baptist Māori speak: ko ngā kōrero o ngāi Māori iriiri (Master of Applied Theology thesis) (link to 101-page PDF)
Rāwiri Auty (Pastor, Henderson Baptist Church), Carey Graduate School, 2018
This thesis provides a platform for Baptist Māori to speak into the history of Baptist and Māori engagement. Guided by kaupapa Māori theory and informed by Christian theology, it tells Māori stories and allows Māori voices to be heard. From the earliest days of Baptists in Aotearoa, through to the first decade of the 21st century, these stories tell of the colonising forces that have caused struggle, pain and loss for Māori in our engagement with Baptists, and as Baptists. The main sources of stories and information came from qualitative interviews (kōrero) conducted with a range of Baptist Māori, supplemented by written historical records.

Watch

George Floyd’s memorial service
Service led by Al Sharpton, Baptist minister.

Fuller denounces unjust rhythms of racialised violence Fuller Theological Seminary, United States of America
Responding to the killing of George Floyd and the protests around the violence against black and brown bodies, Dwight Radcliff, assistant provost for the William E. Pannell Center for African American Church Studies, joins Mark Labberton for a special episode of Conversing. Radcliff speaks about the systems of oppression and generational trauma that plague black communities in the United States, and challenges the church to own a theology that responds rightly to suffering rather than dismissing it.

Sir John graham lecture, Maxim Institute (YouTube video)
Pita Sharples, 2015
Sir Pita Sharples delivers the 2015 Sir John Graham lecture at Maxim Institute. In this video, he brings his understanding of Aotearoa New Zealand, a Māori leader, academic, advisor, and politician, to his vision of how we might connect our ways of living and offer each other the best of what we have. 

The Negotiators (Māori Television)
A behind-the-scenes look through the eyes of those who steered their tribes through a minefield of claims and complex settlements. This program has been made with the support of NZ on Air.

NZ Wars (Radio New Zealand)
Chapter 1: The Stories of Ruapekapeka, a documentary highlighting Northland’s most infamous armed conflict. Chapter 2: The Stories of Waitara. Hosted by RNZ’s Māori Issues Correspondent Mihingarangi Forbes, and was made alongside Great Southern Television with funding from NZ on Air.

Land of the Long White Cloud (Radio New Zealand) 
A documentary series that tells the stories of white New Zealanders who are confronting our colonial past and present, 250 years after Cook’s arrival. Made with the support of NZ On Air.

I, too, am Auckland
A student-based initiative at The University of Auckland. This video explores experiences and perspective provided by Māori and Pasifika students across a variety of academic disciplines, discussing their experiences with everyday colonialism and racism. 

Fuller dialogues: Race and identity Fuller Theological Seminary, United States of America
Videos from a conference on Race and Identity (2018)
Topics include: Can “White” People be Saved: Reflections on Missions and Whiteness (Willie Jennings). Indigenizing Salvation (Andrea Smith). The End of “Mission”: Christian Witness and the Decentering of Whiteness (Andrew T. Draper). Pressing Past Racialization in the De-Colonial Missionary Context (Jonathan Tran). Siempre Lo Mismo: Theology, Rhetoric, and Broken Praxis (Elizabeth Conde-Frazier).

Listen

Lessons from the crossroads of history (1:04 audio recording)
Judge David Ambler, Baptist Research Sutherland Lecture, NZ Baptist Hui, 2015.

Other Resources

Andrew Clark-Howard provides a comprehensive list of resources on Race, Christianity, and Aotearoa on the Metanoia website.

Coming up

Knowing the story that you are part of: Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the role of the church with Caleb Haurua.

In this online series we will explore the significance of Te Tiriti O Waitangi, The Treaty of Waitangi, and how we can journey as Treaty people within our local church contexts. We will look back into the past, and explore present-day applications. The Baptist movement in Aotearoa has made a strong bicultural commitment and it is our hope that this webinar will inspire, challenge, and equip you to do the same in your ministry with your people.

Webinar 1: Wednesday 27th April, 1pm

Webinar 2: Wednesday 25th May, 1pm

Webinar 3: Wednesday 22nd June, 1pm

Webinar 4: Wednesday 27th July, 1pm