Title

The Gods of Nation and Blood: Henri de Lubac and the Heresy of Racism

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Commonweal

Publication Date

2018

School

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Theology

Abstract

Theologically understood, racism is more than a sin. It constitutes a heresy that undermines the very identity of the church. Taking form in ideology and systemic exclusion, racism threatens to co-opt Christianity because it offers a powerful anti-Christian narrative about who we are as human beings while invoking Europe’s “Christian heritage.” We should be alarmed not only at the physical violence racism provokes, but also at the signs of the re-animated gods of nation and blood. As de Lubac recognized in the 1940s, unless the church embodies visibly what its doctrine proclaims it to be—the visible site of the reunification of a humanity divided by sin—it fails to be authentically catholic.

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