| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation is a three-year ethnographic exploration of the Episcopal movement for racial healing and justice. I argue that this movement is best understood through the concept of sacred antiracism—a theological understanding of antiracism as fundamental component of the Episcopal faith and Christian spiritual formation. I draw on social movement literature, community psychology studies, and critical race theory to analyze why and how this movement emerged, why it matters for the work of racial justice, and how a local chapter of the movement in the South concretizes sacred antiracism in their context. I first consider how participants in my study understand racism to be a spiritual sin, not just political and social problem, and how this theology leads them to frame antiracism as mandate of their faith and evidence of spiritual maturity. I secondly discuss how this community operationalizes their vision of sacred antiracism through community events that connect faith, place, and history (such as a pilgrimage to the Peace and Justice Memorial). I thirdly outline how the community institutionalizes sacred antiracism in their diocesan polity by presenting race-based resolutions at their annual convention. In closing, I critique how the sacred antiracism approach struggles to engage concrete political realities, and how the movement must engage political contestation if they want to make meaningful change in the system of racism. I argue that sacred antiracism is an important contribution to both scholarly and public settings, as it connect religious goals to political change (Yukich, 2013), articulates a scared frame for social justice work (Todd, Suffrin, McConnell, Odahl-Ruan, 2015), and intervenes in the ontological sphere of racism (powell, 2012) | |
