Can we be reconciled to God without being reconciled to one another?

While there are times when the culture has to catch up with the church, it seems that the reverse is now true. Like the encouraging shouts from the crowd heard by a slowing marathon runner, Jay Augustine’s new book calls out to the church: Set the pace!

Augustine’s message to the American church is that we have been fooled into thinking the United States is a melting pot when we are actually gumbo. “Good gumbo,” he explains, “incorporates difference” without trying to disguise it. This requires addressing our social problems “with honesty, by diverse groups coming together to create something new.” The roux in Augustine’s gumbo recipe is the recognition that reconciliation is possible only if America owns its past and present truth.

Called to Reconciliation is situated within the long tradition of work done by Black pastors outside the White gaze. Augustine taps into the pulpit-based theological and ethical work of pastors like Edward W. Blyden, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry McNeal Turner, and Benjamin Tucker Tanner, situating questions of faith in the social context of race relations. Like Karl Barth’s work, which emerged from the nationalist constructs of his day, Augustine’s articulation of current social and civil realities against the backdrop of salvation is universally applicable. Although many Christians are unaware of the Black pulpit tradition (or choose to ignore it as niche Christianity), Augustine is clearly speaking to the whole church.