(The Witness, organization led by Jamar Tisby)

What’s going on here?

What’s happening in
Evangelical Christianity?
 ROOTS STALK SHOOTS FRUITS

(Karl Marx ) CONFLICT THEORY

 All humans divided by social classes
 Classes compete for limited resources
(Antonio Gramsci ) HEGEMONY
 Dominant group imposes not only its
will on all others in a society, but also its
ideology
 “...social control is achieved through
conditioning rather than physical force.”
 Domination & control are achieved
through force, but also through consent
of the oppressed.
CONTEMPORARY CRITICAL THEORY
 THE KNOWLEDGE PRINCIPLE: Radical
scepticism about whether objective
knowledge is obtainable; commitment to
social constructivism
 THE POLITICAL PRINCIPLE: Society is
formed of systems of power and hierar-
chy, which decide what can be known and
how
Themes & methods
 The blurring of boundaries
 Postcolonial theory PROS
 Queer theory  Some institutions do pro-
 Critical Race Theory mote and enforce oppression
 Intersectionality  People can, and often are,
blind to some of their assump-
 Feminism & gender studies
tions and biases
 Disability & fat studies
 The bible is tremendously
 Grievance studies
concerned with justice—it can
correctly be called a central
Collectively, often pejoratively known as: theme of the Kingdom of God
 Social justice Cons

 The power of language  Woke  See next page

(Frankfurt School ) CRITICAL THEORY
 Social/cultural relativism  Cultural Marxism
 Modification & expansion of Marx’s
 The loss of the individual & universal  Progressive
conflict theory
 All social activity and relations are
 Sought to identify & address structural
viewed as power dynamics: there is al-
issues causing inequality
ways an oppressor and an oppressed
 Wanted to make real change and so
 ‘Individual’ identity is found in demo-
sought people and institutions that could
graphic markers: race, ethnicity, gender,
bring about that change
sexual orientation, class

(French Postmodernists ) THEORY  The fundamental duty of all humans—

our call— is to seek the liberation of op-
 Rejection of modernism — indeed all
pressed groups: virtually any means are
worldviews (or ‘metanarratives’)
permissible for this goal
 Relativism of all morality: any claims to
 Equivocation, hyperbole, & problemati-
right or wrong are socially constructed
zation
 Scepticism about ever knowing any
objective truths  Deconstruction
 No individual or universal
 A Competing Religion
Cosmology Original Sin Law Gospel Means of New Birth Liturgy Theologians Anthropology Salvation
Atonement
Critical Theory CT/CRT Racism Anti-racism Racial Reparations Wokeness Lament DiAngelo; Ken- Intersectionality None...
Reconciliation di, Crenshaw,...
Christianity

[Most of the content of this chart is taken from Vodie

Baucham Jr, Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement,
and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe]
Key Competing Themes
 Identity
 Sin
 Redemption
 Power
 Liberation
 Justice
 Truth
 Community