Know Your Place
Helping White, Southern Evangelicals Cope with the End of The(ir) World
Justin R. Phillips
Justin R. Phillips
Know Your Place: Helping White, Southern Evangelicals Cope with the End of The(ir) World by Justin R. Phillips
White evangelicals have struggled to understand or enter into modern conversations on race and racism, because their inherited and imagined world has not prepared them for this moment. American Southerners, in particular, carry additional obstacles to such conversations, because their regional identity is woven together with the values and histories of white evangelicalism. In Know Your Place, Justin Phillips examines the three community loyalties (white, southern, and evangelical) that shaped his racial imagination. Phillips examines how each community creates blind spots that overlap with the others, insulating the individual from alternative narratives, making it difficult to conceive of a world different than the dominant white evangelical world of the South. When their world is challenged or rejected outright, it can feel like nothing short of the end of the world. Blending together personal experiences with ethics and pastoral sensibilities, Phillips traces for white, southern evangelicals a line running from the past through the present, to help his beloved communities see how their loyalties--their stories, histories, and beliefs--have harmed their neighbors. In order to truly love, repair, and reconcile brokenness, you first have to know your place.
Listen to Justin at Theology on Tap Chattanooga: "The Saddest Stories Are Best Told Slowly: When White Supremacy Hits Home"
Interview with Pastor Mark Conforti and an introduction to Know Your Place
Interview on Disembodiment, Evangelicalism, and White Supremacy with Reclamation Faith Podcast - Listen Now
Interview with Brian Allain’s “Writing for Your Life” on Know Your Place
Interview with the Knoxville Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) - Watch Now
Schedule Justin for a book reading; or to speak, teach, or lead a discussion group. Contact Justin.
Knoxville, TN
Knoxville Common Place
May 5, 2022
Book Reading and Discussion