Paula L. McGee, Brand® New Theology: The Wal-Martization of T. D. Jakes and the New Black Churc

Abstract

one thing but many things organized around attention, affection, and resistance, each aiming, each navigating—each a design that designs” (p. 49). He asks the reader to consider the work of formation and what captivates their attention, moves them toward affection, and calls them to resistance. Chapter 3 focuses on the work of building educational institutions. Jennings uses a rendering of African American worship on a plantation as an image of Western education, writing, “All theological education in the Western world is haunted by this illustration: a plantation at worship and an enslaved preacher” (p. 82). He argues that Western educational institutions, including theological ones, have not dealt with issues of race because much of the bias is unconscious. He goes on to raise difficult but vital questions aimed at enabling readers to rethink the purpose of institutional life together. In chapter 4, Jennings addresses what shared institutional life could look like “by reframing the daily operations of a school inside a new vision of edification” (p. 105). In the final chapter, Jennings notes, “Theological education is in the midst of an epic struggle” (p. 153). He writes that this struggle, however, is not about institutional survival, stainable financial models, or best pedagogical practices. Jennings insists that, while all of these issues are important, “They are not where the struggle meets us or from where the vision of our futures will come” (p. 154). Jennings goes on to ask, “What would it mean to be a professor who thinks the gathering differently in a school that thinks it differently?” (p. 139). And here is the hope. Jennings writes that Jesus called the crowd so that through his life and teachings, they might be formed into seeing themselves, others, and their world differently. And just as those in the crowd were offered the good news of new life together, those in theological education today “can start again. The ‘again’ being a gift from the God who raised Jesus from the dead. Theological education exists in the ‘again’” (p. 151). While this book is written most directly for those involved in theological education, Jennings’ critique importantly extends more broadly to Western education in general. The United States is in the midst of a racial reckoning, with Black and Brown bodies dying while some continue to argue that systemic racism does not exist. Anyone involved in the work of Christian formation can benefit from Jennings’ writing because it questions the very reason and goal of formation itself: is it to further belief in the power and control of white, masculine self-sufficiency or is it to cultivate a desire for community and a diversity of voices, each one sharing their fragments and open to receiving the gift of the fragments that others have to offer, “a treasure that would move us toward a true maturity that is a way of life together, a way that forms new life together” (p. 152).