Critiquing the Soul of White Supremacy and the Spiritualities of Whiteness: Narrative and Everyday Praxis

<p>This dissertation argues that whiteness and the oppressive structures it creates are maintained, managed, and justified by the religio-cultural tools of white Christians in greater Fort Wayne, IN. This dissertation studies the relationship among the repertoires of white Christians, racism, and white privilege by analyzing the life narratives of selfidentified white Christians. I have divided this work into two parts. Part one, comprising Chapters One and Two, outlines the frameworks, theories, and methods I use to analyze the life narratives of the white Christians that I interviewed. In Chapter One I focus on how my research builds on and contributes to the conversations started by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith in their trail-blazing book, <em>Divided By Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America</em> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). Chapter One outlines the significant conclusions made by these scholars, names the criticisms leveled against Emerson and Smith, and states the thesis and assumptions of my work. In Chapter Two I outline frameworks for understanding how cultural and religious tool kits influence interpersonal narratives. Here I’m concerned with the role of cultural and religious repertoires, especially narratives, in the construction of identity and religious beliefs as well as the use of narrative as a method of inquiry and analysis. In the first part of Chapter Two, I argue that dominant cultural and religious repertoires influence personal beliefs that in turn (re)construct cultural and religious repertoires. In the latter part of the chapter, I define narrative inquiry and argue for the legitimacy of its use as a methodology for collecting my research data. Against this background of arguments of narrative identity and cultural tools, Chapters Three and Four, part two, examines the life narratives of twenty research participants and names the religio-cultural tools articulated by these and many other white Christians.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year dc:date.available

2010

Author dc:creator

• Johnson, Dean J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• George Tinker, Ph.D.
• Nancy Wadsworth
• Edward Antonio

• Church
• Racism
• Whiteness
• White privilege
• Religion
• Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/322

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1321