The Politics of Redemption

This work of Christian political theology argues that the redemption offered by Christianity cannot be separated from the political and social realities of human oppression and injustice. According to M. Shawn Copeland, redemption cannot be understood solely as an abstract theological concept; redemption is a lived political act tied to the personal and communal transformation that works to turn church and society towards justice, dignity, the common good, and human flourishing. Theologizing from the perspective of the historical and transgenerational Black experience of social and cultural oppression in the United States, Copeland reinterprets the Christian doctrine of redemption as necessarily political and urges all Christians to confront the structures of power which continue to dehumanize Black and all oppressed people.

The Politics of Redemption begins by reviewing various biblical and theological meanings of redemption, then considers the notion of redemption as a crucial, but often contradictory theme in American culture and politics. Moving to the specific context of African Americans, this work shows how God is portrayed as responding to the pain of the enslaved with a message of hope, liberation, and redemption.

Redemption, Copeland argues, is properly understood as God’s work of love through Christ and the Holy Spirit aimed at the restoration of humanity to unity with God and the transformation of relationships, of society, and of the cosmos. If such transformations are to take place, individually and collectively Christians must resist the temptation to forgetfulness regarding the historical and ongoing effects of chattel slavery on all Americans, acknowledge the humanity of Black people, and respond to divine grace through redemptive acts of solidarity, hope, and love.