The social construction of the criminal other has long served as a justification for subjugation. Pope Francis has stated that the people of God can smell holiness, and perhaps there is also a greater need for the olfactory discernment of evil in our midst. Despite the risk of too literal an interpretation of this metaphor, deeper reflection is warranted of the ways in which evil must be resisted.
The new issue of Political Theology includes a guest editorial from Joshua Ralston, essays by Christopher Trigg, Michelle Wolff, and Kyle Lambelet, and a roundtable on political theology and literature
The recent criminalization of Latinx people has led to a “zero tolerance” deportation policy and consequent separation of children from their families. Can we shift the public discourse in order to preserve the basic dignity of all people?
Is public theology a worthy aim politically? Is public theology necessarily political? Is “the public” of public theology a unitary entity? Who are some paradigms of the public theologian? Can public theology speak in a milieu of deep pluralism? What are the publics of political theology?
The first half of our conversation about how white teaching and preaching how white preaching and teaching can change, have changed, and/or must still change in the face of #BlackLivesMatter (the moment and the movement).
