The topic of this book is closer to hearts in Louisville than most other cities. During the pandemic, it was a “ground zero,” of sorts, for marches and demonstrations. People cried in the streets “Black Lives Matter” and “Justice for Breonna.” This was hardly an isolated incident however, as people across the world join together in marching over the apparent murder of George Floyd. Not all voices were joined together though over the injustice against black people. The demonstrations, marches—and the occasional riot—were polarizing many in the states. Especially for those in church pews. For those that contended that the God of reconciliation breaks down “the dividing wall of hostility” between multiple, different parties, fewer things seem to continue dividing the church in America more than race-and-ethnically-related issues.
Jarvis Williams’ helpful book, Redemptive Kingdom Diversity: A Biblical Theology of the People of God ,is a sound voice that cuts through the hurt and confusion by offering a way forward. Williams’ aim is to first provide “an introductory biblical and theological survey of God’s multiethnic and cosmic redemptive kingdom vision for the diverse people of God scattered throughout the world and for the cosmos” (7). To what end? “…The book serves to motivate the ethnically diverse people of God to live in intentional pursuit of God’s vision for redemptive kingdom diversity” (8).
Williams accomplished his goal throughout seven chapters. Chapter one focuses on the people of God in the Pentateuch. This starts off with the very beginning of creation, Adam as the vice-regent of creation, and stretches along passed the patriarchs. He ends the section with examining the people of Israel as God’s covenant community. Chapter two looks at Israel through the historical, wisdom, poetic and prophetic books. Williams then pivots to the New Testament in chapter three. The fourth chapter highlights Paul’s letters. Chapter five takes a look at the people of God throughout the general epistles and Revelation. Williams synthesis the data in chapter six. And finally, chapter seven seeks a way forward with the collected data. The following sections will a critical—but, brief—examination of the book.
Praise and Commendations
First, Williams provides a survey through the biblical corpus, combing it for virtually any and every reference pertaining to God’s people. To Williams’ credit, he summed up the storyline of the Bible well. On top of that, he presented a fantastic primer to the discipline of biblical theology through a timely issue in our own day—kingdom diversity.
From a theological point, as well, Williams grounds redemptive kingdom diversity in Christ’s redemptive work. Too often in Christian circles, the work of Christ is truncated solely to the individual spiritual state of a singular person. Christianity is only to be experienced at one time, by a single person. This could be caricatured in the old trope “asking Jesus into your heart.” The challenge is, there is much more to being a Christian than asking a grown man in your heart; you would die if this happened. Though belief and initial repentance might have been one event in one’s life, those that belong to Christ are also believing again and again, and repenting again and again.
And just as the scope of rescue, forgiveness, and transformation is so much more than “easy believism” on the micro scale, so too is the matter of redemption on a macro scale. That is, Jesus Christ came to reconcile—heal—the cosmos (Col 1:20). Note well, that humanity is a part of the cosmos. Jesus came to knock down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and gentile (Eph 2:14-18). Jesus equipped the saints to preach to all who will hear us to be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20). We could go on. The point here is to note how thorough Williams’ research on the matter was, and how clearly he presented his finding through the first few chapters.
Even more, Williams’ own experience is priceless towards the end of the book. Williams writes, “…There are progressive Blacks and progressive Whites who have taken away my Black card…On the other hand, there are ethnically diverse evangelical conservatives who foolishly call me silly names like liberal or Marxist…” (179). Readers do not get the sense that he makes himself out to be the hero throughout the book. Rather, as a faithful Bible scholar should, he is giving us information to help the reader make sense of his own social setting so that we can rightly understand what he is trying to communicate. It also helps the reader understand why he might be so misunderstood, as well.
This connects so nicely to another plus about this book. There is nary a scent of Critical Race Theory throughout these pages. Conservative evangelical circles have some trigger-happy brothers and sisters that are happy to castigate anything that is remotely—or unhelpfully assumed to be—worldly. For Williams, the ultimate reason why there are racial and ethnic-related problems is because of sin. A book like this pushes back against the assumption that Hegel, Marx, or later Derrick Bell and Kimberle Crenshaw had the best answer for alleviating the racial and ethnic ills of our time. “Equal opportunities will not necessarily provide an equality of outcome if those with opportunities make poor choices, live in an underserviced or disadvantaged community, or…have different gifts and abilities. One should not blame all Black disparities on racism when there are many stories of Black flourishing in the country” (165, italics mine).
Next, as readers in a fallen world, the greatest threat that we have is not opposing political parties. It is that sin still has incredible power over people. And though God’s people are redeemed, we are still susceptible to its sway. This includes the sins of partiality and racism. The only way forward is spiritual in nature. He says, “Redemptive kingdom diversity happens when the people of God pray for and in the power of the Spirit work towards God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven in pursuit of the vertical, horizontal, and cosmic redemption vision for which Jesus died and rose again” (173). To win against the pervasive sins of racism and partiality is only accomplished as Christians are connected to the vine.
Williams also practices what he preaches throughout the book. What do I mean? There are over 50 different works cited throughout his book. Names that I recognized came from multiple denominations, multiple ethnicity backgrounds, multiple social settings. This could very well be a picture of what he was working to communicate throughout Redemptive Kingdom Diversity. Just as the picture of the church is hardly homogenous, neither is Williams’ book.
Questions and Critique
That is not to say that there were not challenges in the book. This section will briefly detail just a couple of challenges. First, while Williams’ work in the previous six section was incredibly clear, I was left wanting more in chapter seven, The People of God and Orthopraxy. Why? Some of the language used as describing the way forward is not as concrete as I would have hoped. For example, in thinking about a better way forward for God’s people, Williams shares this, “One way Christians can do [redemptive kingdom diversity] is by thinking creatively of intentional ways faithfully to love God and neighbor in the power of the Spirit where we live, work, and play” (171). This utopic vision is beautiful, but could potentially be difficult to conceptualize. This kind of work is going to be very new for some people. The war in their heart about “if they need to treat men and women of other ethnicities as ‘human’” might be over, but one or two stories about how to move well through the eventual awkward story.
Second, and admittedly, this might be out of the field of vision of the book. There were a few passages that I was hoping to see engagement with, but it never came. What about the passages used by white slaveholders in the Southern States? How would Williams have interacted with passages like Genesis 9 and the curse of Ham? Could there have been some interaction with the slave passages of Ephesians 6, Colossians 3, and 1 Peter 2? What do we do with one of the patriarchs owning slaves, like Abraham in Genesis 21? What is a helpful response to Paul returning a slave to his master, like that of Philemon 12? The book was not a polemic against slavery, sure. These passages should not be targeted merely because of slavery, but because slavery is such a blight upon our nation and convention. Large enough to need to answer how the South, and even some heroes of the faith (like Jonathan Edwards) lost their way by holding black slaves. Perhaps this would require a secondary work or an appendix to a second edition?
Conclusion
Who should read this book? First, those that are newer to reading the Bible in a systematic way. Williams’ work will help you get acquainted with the discipline of biblical theology as he traces the thread of God’s elected people in Christ throughout the entire Bible. Even more, as Christ’s cross must be seen healing all the cosmos, this includes the racial and ethnic dividing lines that would normally keep people apart from one another. A book like this will teach you just how much more stable the Lord is to him.
Second, those that are looking for a way forward in mending the divide between different ethnicities. Despite some brief questions of clarity, Williams paints a compelling picture for what the future could look like. There were moments where I was left wanting more description, more “how-to” in making this redemptive kingdom diversity a reality in our midst, he still gets his point across to his readers. In short, I wholeheartedly commend this book to virtually anyone.
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