Subversive Witness: Scripture's Call to Leverage Privilege by Dominique DuBois Gilliard (review)

Abstract

Labberton poses a question central to Gilliard's work: "How do we hold, deploy, or sacrifice what is ours for the justice and thriving of others?" (xv) In his introduction, Gilliard establishes a framework for the reader to "see privilege, address discrimination, and share power" in ways that "equally prioritize the Great Commission and the Greatest Commandment" (xviii;xxi). In this vein, as Gilliard's message is important for the world and the global Church, it will be appropriate to have translations of this book in multiple languages. Gilliard's experience as an ordained minister shines in this prophetic book: he not only exegetes these passages to reveal their biblical truths to a world hurting from abuse of privilege, social injustices, and the COVID-19 pandemic, but also, he reads current events into his interpretation of the biblical stories. [...]as Gilliard writes about biblical figures leveraging privilege to witness to God's salvific power, he exhorts readers to do the same and shows how by his example.