The Habits of Race and Faith in a Religiously Diverse World

by Mara Brecht

Overview

Religious diversity, cultural pluralism, and interreligious encounter are widely viewed in modern life as socially—and for many people of faith, spiritually—enriching. One of the most significant but frequently overlooked benefits of interreligious encounter is that it empowers us to see ourselves, and particularly our racialized identities, in new and revealing ways. In The Habits of Race and Faith in a Religiously Diverse World, Mara Brecht places whiteness under particular scrutiny—its tangled and entwined relationship with religious identity, as well as strategic associations with dominance and privilege. The analysis of whiteness gives way to fresh perspectives on Christian ideas about salvation, both in connection to religious faith and racial embodiment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498559058
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/11/2024
Series:	Religion and Race
Pages:	238
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Mara Brecht is associate professor of theology at Loyola University Chicago.

Table of Contents

Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Privileged Stories
Part I: Interreligious Encounter and Ways of Being Human
Chapter 1: Reflections on Encounter
Chapter 2: The Habits of Being Human
Chapter 3: Encountering “Race” and “Religion”
Chapter 4: The Manufacture of Race and Religion
Part II: A Deep Dive into Whiteness
Chapter 5: On Whiteness
Chapter 6: Whiteness within the “Space” of Christianity
Chapter 7: Privileged Habits
Chapter 8: The Habits of Bodying as White
Chapter 9: The Theologic of Whiteness
Part III: Theologies of Interreligious Encounter
Chapter 10: Universalist Theologies—A Priority for Religion over Race
Chapter 11: Liberationist Theologies—A Priority for “Race” over Religion
Chapter 12: Soteriological Privilege
Chapter 13 An Irresolution: Encountering Privilege, Privileged Encounters
Bibliography
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Mara Brecht does not just provide a cogent analysis of how white racial privilege plays out in interreligious encounter. This book also draws its readers into a multi-layered process of interreligious self-reflectiveness—a process born out of the author’s own well-honed classroom pedagogy. Trenchant yet devoid of rhetorical bombast, Dr. Brecht’s critique of Christian soteriological superiority is a must read for scholars and students alike.” —Margaret D. Kamitsuka, Oberlin College, Ohio

“The Habits of Race and Faith in a Religiously Diverse World is a balanced, integral work of Christian theology that challenges every reader to think about race, privilege and interreligious learning as necessarily interrelated concerns. Well-grounded in Catholic tradition and alert to the too-often hidden vice of white privilege, Mara Brecht brings to this highly readable volume vivid classroom examples, a distinctive personal voice, and candor about the challenges facing real-world interreligious learning of the mid-21st century and beyond.” —Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Harvard Divinity School

“Mara Brecht's analysis of the entanglements of racialization and Christian attitudes about religious diversity reaches far beyond the US Catholic context from which she writes. As a teacher, she is methodical, philosophically precise, and attentive to embodied experience at every step. Emphasizing habit formation rather than inevitability or blame, she issues a challenge that provides grounds for hope and change.” —Michelle Voss, Emmanuel College, Toronto School of Theology

From the Publisher

The Habits of Race and Faith in a Religiously Diverse World is a balanced, integral work of Christian theology that challenges every reader to think about race, privilege and interreligious learning as necessarily interrelated concerns. Well-grounded in Catholic tradition and alert to the too-often hidden vice of white privilege, Mara Brecht brings to this highly readable volume vivid classroom examples, a distinctive personal voice, and candor about the challenges facing real-world interreligious learning of the mid-21st century and beyond.

Francis X. Clooney

Mara Brecht's analysis of the entanglements of racialization and Christian attitudes about religious diversity reaches far beyond the US Catholic context from which she writes. As a teacher, she is methodical, philosophically precise, and attentive to embodied experience at every step. Emphasizing habit formation rather than inevitability or blame, she issues a challenge that provides grounds for hope and change.

Michelle Voss

Mara Brecht does not just provide a cogent analysis of how white racial privilege plays out in interreligious encounter. This book also draws its readers into a multi-layered process of interreligious self-reflectiveness—a process born out of the author’s own well-honed classroom pedagogy. Trenchant yet devoid of rhetorical bombast, Dr. Brecht’s critique of Christian soteriological superiority is a must read for scholars and students alike.

Margaret D. Kamitsuka