Loving through Enmity responds to the failure of US Christian antiracist work to translate love of the enemy into meaningful societal transformation. Beginning with an analysis of the racial enmity that is fundamental to white supremacy, Wickware clarifies an oft-elided distinction between private and structural enmity. While systemic opposition of interests between white and BIPOC Christians is the core enmity at play in white supremacy, Christian antiracist work too often centers individual slights, struggles, and forgiveness. Centering structural enmity, Wickware explores how white supremacy produces and circulates a distorted love that takes as its goal the happiness of white people and demands sacrifice from those who challenge white happiness through the pursuit of mutuality. As a step toward articulating a more faithful love, he offers an account of Black love as a transformative, politically powerful emotion directed toward mutual care. Building on that account of Black love, Wickware reimagines divine power and love in terms of God's power to sustain connection, holy need for relationship with creation, and desire for creaturely thriving. Ultimately, faithful love of the enemy mirrors God's love and involves embracing our need for those whose interests are structurally opposed to ours under the conditions of white supremacy, engaging in mutual aid, and committing to accountability toward one another's need for self-love. Scholars and ministers alike will benefit from Wickware's insightful conclusions.
Marvin E. Wickware, Jr. is assistant professor of Church and Society and Ethics at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, where he has taught since earning his PhD in religion from Duke University in 2018. Wickware is a Black theologian whose research addresses the intersections of identity, emotions, politics, and theology.
The deepest flaw in our anti-racist efforts is our constant failure to understand what a racial enemy is. In this groundbreaking and beautifully written book, Wickware offers a sophisticated account of racial enmity and how to address it. There is nothing like this book, and there will be nothing to surpass it for generations to come. --Willie James Jennings, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies, Yale University Divinity School Wickware's Loving through Enmity is a brilliant, subversive tome that tests the perimeters of Christian anti-racist engagement by exploring how genuine love for our "enemies" can drive meaningful societal transformation. Wickware's intuitive grappling with structural enmity calls readers to confront accountable benevolence and forge deeper connections even with those whose interests oppose their own. This consequential read offers a solid approach for anyone dedicated to breaking down white supremacy and fostering change with love at its core. --Linda E. Thomas, professor of theology and anthropology, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago Dr. Wickware is brilliant. This is a much-needed contribution to the work of anti-racism at a critical time in our nation's history. What makes this project so powerful is that it is derived from lived experience, by a scholar who is able to do the sort of deep analysis that makes it all legible. This is a must-read for everyone. --Reggie L. Williams, associate professor of Black Theology, Saint Louis University
