Customer Reviews

From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race (New Studies in Biblical Theology)

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I praise God for Hayes' work! As an African American Pastor it is difficult to adequately express how breath taking I found Hayes' book. From Every People and Nation is a work that speaks powerfully and eloquently on what I judge to be the most important ecclesiastical issue of our generation! Is that an overstatemenet? I would argue that to have that reaction is to prove that it isn't. The evangelical Church on American soil will never amaze anyone and will hardly rise to the level of a city set on a hill, unless it confronts its racism on both sides of the black white divide.

From Every People and Nation is todate the finest work I've encountered on the subject. It is well written, evincing compelling exegesis of the relevant biblical texts and moves along redemptive historical lines. The conclusions Hayes draws are sober, sane, and sagacious. From Every People and Nation will long stand as in invaluable resource to any preacher, missionary, or Christian worker struggling for ways to formulate a thoughtful, relevant, theology of race in the postmodern era. It is a shot in the arm and invaluable suppliment to the many woefully inadequate biblical anthropologies and ecclesiologies of our day.

Oh, how I wish that this book would come to enjoy a wide circulation. It should be required reading in every seminary and bible college in the country!

This book will make you think. It may make some people angry, but when reading it, it is worth asking yourself if it is disturbing because the author is challenging the message of the bible, or challenging the way you have always understood what the bible says about race.

Some people may not like it because they want the bible to be racist.

Hays writes from personal expeirence of race issues, and has carefully researched the biblical corpus on this topic.

The New Studies in Biblical Theology series, edited by Don Carson, contains many terrific books, of which this is one of the most interesting that I have read, though I eagerly await the opportunity to delve into more of them.

At the tiem of writing there are 21 in the series, including several beauties from fair dinkum Aussie authors.

Another book that complements this one is Yamauchi's Africa and the Bible.

This is a book about race and racism in the Church, particularly the American Church. Hayes finds that churches in the USA are racist and finds it a problem that churches are so segregated. I agree this should trouble us. I pastor a church in Georgia and we have no black people who attend our church. I once preached a sermon stating that all races will be worshiping together around God's throne and was, to my suprise, rebuked by a man (one who considers himself a Christian) who said that we do not want to get this race stuff started and that he did not want his white grand daughters marrying or dating any black guys who might come to the church.

The author primarily focuses on the black race and shows how they are mentioned and have a part in Biblical history. This study focuses on three words that we need so see as black people and they are Ethopians, Nubians, and Cushites. Hays clearly shows Cushites having a role in Scripture that is not often recognized. The point of this work is to show that a blended church that worships together should be our goal, because this is the worship of God's future.

Finally, someone has written a book that is unbiased about race. As Hays points out, as a white person, its not uncommon to hear the belief that there is not a race problem. Ask a black person that same question and he will say there is a problem. Well, if one side says there isn't a problem and the other side says there is a problem...then there is a problem in fact. Hay presents a clear biblical, archeological, and historical proof of blacks role in the Bible--which is bigger than some want to know which is sad. This is a must read for all people, black or white (or any other color). This book will encourage you and help you to move past seeing people's colors and to start seeing them as God sees them.

Hay's From Every People and Nation is a great introductory text on race and ethnicity in the Bible. His exposition on the Genesis chapters are great, useful, and relevant for today.

However in reading through it, I realized that Hays' focus is a quite limited in that he seems to be working from a primarily an American point of view, more specifically regarding racial tensions between Blacks and Whites. Many of his chapters thus focus on the Black African race in the Bible e.g. Cushites, Ethiopians, Nigerians. But soon it left me wondering if there's more to a "theology of race" than a biblical commentary on Blacks-Whites history in America.

That racial tension is very important; I don't want to downplay that. But there's much more to racial theology than blacks or whites.

How about theological implications for...Latinos? or Asians? How about the Sudanese civil war? Or ethnocentrism? Ethnic issues to stage a book on a theology of race extend far beyond black/whites. Starting with a base of more global concerns would seem to be a better (by better, I mean broader) context to talk about race as they are as much players in global Christianity today and in the future as Whites or Blacks.

Sure, covering these issues might have ranged beyond a foundational text on race, or at least the author's intention on it... I just think it's limiting to read a book on theology of race being primarily focused on Black-White tensions.

An appropriate subtitle should have been "A biblical theology of American racial tensions". And for a reader interested in racial tensions and issues that affect the Global Church and not just the American church (because race is not just our concern), this book was less than satisfying.