Christian Theology, Affirmative Action, and Reframing a different Human Future (Part 1)

In light of the recent reversal of Affirmative Action by the US Supreme Court, I have been thinking about the role of Christian theology to assist us to move forward post-racially as a nation and a people. As a Christian theologian, I must first confess that theology is fundamentally a human invention, and theological doctrines are the product of human imagination and coordination. By articulating this perspective, I am also affirming the epistemological limits of the discipline of theology itself, and the many ways it may not contribute fully to improve social relations, political arrangements, and human dynamics in society. Secondly, I am also attesting to the intellectual constraints of theology to break certain barriers in society, including economic, political, cultural, gender, educational, or ethnic. In other words, I do not believe theology or theological thinking is adequate or has all the resources to help us solve all the mysteries and complexities in contemporary societies—especially those in the polarized contemporary American society. However, I believe that we should investigate the theological resources that are available to us to assist us in imagining and conceptualizing the possibility of a post-racial society and in reframing a different human future?

By stating that theology has both epistemological and intellectual limits, I am simply pointing out that every theological system or tradition (Liberal theology, Liberation theology, Feminist theology, Openness theology, Constructive theology, Black theology, Reformed theology) is grounded in a specific cultural tradition and geography that shapes its language, contents, and ways of expression. If geography and culture support the numerous ways we think and live theologically in the world and in communion with others, our theological tradition also reflects our respective culture and geography; thus, the temptation to rise above our own theological tradition to engage transculturally and globally calls for both intellectual modesty and theological humility.

Most Christian theologians believe that there is a revelatory aspect to Christian theology. The idea that God has voluntarily revealed his nature and perfect attributes, both communicable and incommunicable, transcendent and immanent, in the sacred pages of Scripture testify to this position. The belief that the Scriptures also have a revelatory character of the Divine provides the resource to think theologically both about the Scripture and God himself. A third proposition most Christian theologians embrace is that the moral qualities of God point us to the moral life we should aim for in this world, and that divine perfections are adequate to help humans create government, the arrangements of society and culture, the institution of laws, and the distribution of justice and equity in society. Finally, most Christian theologians maintain that the way of Jesus is a model for human living and relations, and that in the character of Jesus humanity finds the best available resources to foster the deeply-formed life in a tragically-fractured world.

Yet we must bear in mind everything that I said above about the virtues and merits of Christian theology is a form of hermeneutical exercise, but it is a form of intellectual gymnastics that has some consensual value among theologians, universally and globally. The theological vision of the Bible includes certain emancipatory concepts and ideas promising us there’s another way to live together in this world and correspondingly, there’s another way to (re-)organize human societies. The revelatory nature of Biblical theology provides a good orientation to explore the possibility to live, think, act, and govern post-racially in our contemporary moments.

Given that we already affirmed the revelatory character of both Biblical theology and Theological anthropology, we have adequate resources available to point us to the right direction, that is, to think anew and reimagine creatively a present and future that are not based on racial identities and categories in modernity. If the revelation of God provides enlightenment to the dark world and if divine revelation is the antithesis to anything that defers human flourishing and life together, then Biblical theology is an empowering enterprise we can lean on to progress toward personal growth and the collective realization of God’s original intent for human societies and governments.

I would like to close the first part of this conversation with this question: Could Christian theology provide us with a different language to undo the race concept and get rid of racial categories in society that are often deployed to describe certain human relationships, demonize certain populations, grant privileges and advantages to certain groups, and delay the common good in society?