The Church and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism
Wednesday, November 8th at 7:00pm EST
Over the past five years, few subjects have divided Americans more than race. In his recent book Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism, Baylor professor Jonathan Tran challenges us to look beyond prevailing accounts of racial identity. What are the strengths and weaknesses of how Americans think about race—and what role should the church play in bringing us together? Join us as three leading theological figures consider these questions and more, and help us chart a path toward a more common life together.
This event will be held in-person at the National Press Club (529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor Washington, DC 20045). Seats are limited, so please register as soon as possible to attend this panel event. For any questions, contact Beth_Butler1@Baylor.edu.
We are proud to partner with Villanova University's Center for Political Theology, Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes, and the Asian American Christian Collaborative to make this event possible.
Speakers
Jonathan Tran is a Christian theologian based at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, holding the position of Associate Dean for Faculty in the Honors College and serving as an Associate Professor for Theology within the Great Texts program. His research is centered on exploring the human experience through language and how this experience sheds light on God and the divine world. Recently, his scholarly pursuits have led him to delve into the realm of race and racism. His book, Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism, endeavors to present racism as a theological dilemma, a distortion of the divine economy within the realm of political economics, and a challenge that calls for the church's intervention to restore God's original revolution.
Sarah Coakley is an Anglican systematic theologian and philosopher of religion with wide interdisciplinary interests. Coakley received her PhD on Ernst Troeltsch from the University of Cambridge. She has taught at Lancaster University (1976–1991); Oriel College, Oxford (1991-3); Harvard University, in the Divinity School (1993–2007; Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity, 1995–2007); and has been a visiting professor of religion at Princeton University (2003-4). In 2006, she was elected the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge (the first woman appointed to this chair) and took up the position in 2007. In 2011 she became deputy chair of the School of Arts and Humanities with a four-year appointment on the General Board of the university. She is the Emeritus Norris-Hulse Professor and Emeritus Fellow at Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge.
Vincent Lloyd is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University, where he directs the Villanova Political Theology Project. He is an authoritative voice on current issues and trends related to religion in politics as well as religion and race. He can comment on how religion influences these two areas to affect social change. Lloyd’s research focuses on religion and mass incarceration from various perspectives including religious thought regarding crime and punishment and religious movements in prisons. Lloyd’s publications include five monographs, including Black Natural Law (2016), written during his NDIAS fellowship, as well as five edited books, including Race and Secularism in America (co-edited with Jonathon Kahn, 2016), begun during his NDIAS fellowship. His most recent book, Black Dignity, was published by Yale University Press in November of 2022. He is the recipient of several grants from institutions that include the American Academy of Religion, the Louisville Institute, and the American Council of Learned Societies. He has also served as a Visiting Scholar at the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference at Emory University (2010-2011) and as a Kingdon Fellow at the University of Wisconsin's Institute for Research in the Humanities (2015-2016).
Moderator
Dr. Matthew Lee Anderson is an Assistant Research Professor of Ethics and Theology at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and the Associate Director of Baylor in Washington, and an Associate Fellow at the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at Oxford University, where he completed a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics. He is the founder of the web magazine Mere Orthodoxy, the author of Earthen Vessels: Why Our Bodies Matter to our Faith and The End of our Exploring, and has written for Christianity Today, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. He is also the founder of 100 Days of Dante, the world’s largest online reading group for The Divine Comedy.