Becoming Human

Becoming Human The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race Luke A. Powery; foreword by Willie James JenningsWestminster John Knox Press, 2022ISBN 9780664267223 Softcover, 160 pp.9.0 X 6.0 X 0.4 inches | 0.5 pounds Discussions of racial difference always embody a story. The dominant story told in our society about race has many components, but two stand out: (1) racial difference is an essential characteristic, fully determining individual and group identity; and (2) racial difference means that some bodies are less human than others. The church knows another story, says Luke Powery, if it would remember it. That story says that the diversity of human bodies is one of the gifts of the Spirit. That story's decisive chapter comes at Pentecost, when the Spirt embraces all bodies, all flesh, all tongues. In that story, different kinds of materiality and embodiment are strengths to be celebrated rather than inconvenient facts to be ignored or feared. In this book, Powery urges the church to liv