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ii Copyright Christopher M. Driscoll 2014 iii ABSTRACT Twilight of the God-Idols: Race, Religion, and the Life and Death of Whiteness in Contemporary America by Christopher Driscoll White people die. Such a brash statement not only refers to an obvious physical death faced by humans across race, but is metaphoric commentary on literal shifting racial demographics in an increasingly diverse 21st Century U.S. society. This project suggests that certain concepts, such as whiteness or the category of god, what I refer to as “god-idols,” make acceptance of this real or imagined “death” difficult, as it is their function to ignore, deny or fight directly against recognition of human limit and uncertainty experienced through a confrontation with physical and social expressions of death. Though not limited to white Christians, historically, many white U.S. Christians have been unable and unwilling to accept a loss of social control and certainty—a loss that appears on the horizon. Responding to the fears of some and the hopes of others that such a “death” becomes reality, I make use of the trope of death as theme and ontological grounding so as to theorize a death-dealing system of adherence to these “god-idols,” followed by suggestions about how to respond to such a social arrangement. I offer the start of a program of response, calling for white Christians and white people more generally to fully exercise their limited human freedom through a radical embrace of their responsibility to learn to live in an uncertain social world where interdependence and equitable relationships are required in ever-complicated ways. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Since a very early age, many have fostered in me a passion for critically engaging a wide variety of social, theological and philosophical topics, giving me the space to ask probing questions and the tools and inspiration sustaining my inquiries and interest in such questions. I met some of these people at Kings Highway Christian Church in Shreveport, Louisiana, where I experienced some of the best and worst that humans muster in community. Of the best, Charles Ravenna, Jane Baudoin, Flo Camack, Dave Farmer, and Valerie Rockett continue to support me even in their deaths. These names mark, in my mind, the very best of white Christian commitment, in that those commitments were firstly to people, even if they thought otherwise themselves. I would not be here without them, and so I bear witness to them here. Of the worst, my work will likely always explore the weight of intellectual and ideological formations on social realities. Though I will never celebrate pain or tragedy as redemptive, I have tried here to give voice to some of the more pernicious aspects of what it means to grow up a white Christian, learning how to love from the same people who teach how to hate and fear difference. Though I could not possibly name everyone who has made a powerful, wonderful impact on me during my education, the following individuals stand out as having had an impact on the ideas presented within this dissertation, and/or on my ability to articulate them: Rodney Thomas, Rev. Shauna St. Clair, Rev. Rachel Gene May, Sha’Tika Brown, Linda Ceriello, Karen Rosenthal, Dr. April DeConick, Dr. Jeffrey Kripal, David Kline, Benji Rolsky, Dr. Blaine Hamilton, Dr. Daniel White Hodge; Aundrea Matthews, Rachel Vlachos, Sravana Varma, Darrius Hills, Terri Laws, Jessica Davenport, and Cleve Tinsley; Dr. Grant Adamson, Dr. Enoch Gbadegesin, Eliot Berger, Nathaniel Homewood, Dr. Derek Hicks, Dr. Margarita Simon- v Guillory, and Dr. Jonathan Chism. I love and appreciate everyone within the African American Religious Studies concentration at Rice University, past, present and future, and Rice’s Department of Religious Studies. Maya and Warren Reine, in both friendship and professional guidance, have been vital to my development. Also, Sylvia Louis has dealt with my questions, screw ups, and growth with charity and concern, and I thank her. Thanks also to the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning, for whom I worked for a number of years in various capacities, and thanks to Dr. Caroline Levander, Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Initiatives, Dr. Melissa Bailar, Lauren Kleinschmidt, and Carolyn Adams, for a variety of opportunities provided by the Humanities Research Center. Support from the HRC has been invaluable in learning how to articulate ideas across various domains. Also thanks to Prof. Dr. Jürgen Manemann, Dr. Eike Brock, Dominik Hammer, Anna Maria Hauk, and Dr. Yoko Arisaka of the Institute for Philosophical Research, Hannover, Germany, for space and conversation to work out final aspects of this project. And I owe thanks to the inimitable Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, whose momentary guidance allowed a major component of this project to fall into place, as well as Dr. Cornel West, whom I’ve only met twice, but the impact of his ideas on my intellectual formation have been tremendous. I would also like to thank the Department of Religion Studies at Lehigh University and the Africana Studies Program. In particular, Dr. Michael Raposa, Dr. Chava E. Weissler, Dr. James Peterson, and Marian Gaumer have supported and mentored me, even graciously offering me an intellectual home as this project comes to an end. I would also like to thank my superb dissertation committee, for whose time and energy I am indebted and grateful: Dr. James Faubion, Dr. Elias Bongmba, and Dr. Anthony B. Pinn. vi There are also those whose contributions to this project, or to my sanity as I wrote it, make them more co-authors than supporters. To my mentors—Dr. Juan Floyd-Thomas and Rev. Dr. Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas—thank you. To my very best friends on earth—Dr. Christopher Cefalu, Jonathan Scoggin, Biko Mandela Gray, and Jason Jeffries—thank you. To my closest family—Frances L. Davis, Alvin and Addie Pace, Charlotte Miller, and Nick Crews—thank you. To my sister—Rev. Kelli A. Driscoll, the most brilliant theologian I have ever known—thank you. To my mother—Rev. Barbara H. Driscoll—thank you. To my advisor—Dr. Anthony B. Pinn—thank you. I will spend the rest of my career trying to show, rather than simply tell, each of you how thankful I am for having existed in space and time with each of you. I attended my first American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in 2007 as a master’s student. It was there that I met someone who inspired and supported my decision to embark on a Ph.D. She was the most inspirational, energetic, brilliant and beautiful person I have ever met. It is even fair to say that had we not met, I might not have continued down the uncertain path of a scholar of religion. I wanted nothing more than to spend as much time as possible with her. The significance of that first meeting, and all that has transpired between that meeting and now, is such that to think too much on its varied dimensions would risk deconstructing many of the propositions laid out in this project. The greatest uncertainty of all, perhaps, is reckoning with the possibility of learning how to live life with the certainty experienced from a soul mate. I could not have imagined that the person I met then would see as much in me. Her inspiration I now experience daily, her brilliance constantly keeping me in check and uncertain of my ideas. This project, was, is, and remains a project, thanks to Dr. Monica R. Miller. I love you. I thank you. I smile at the thought that this is a beginning to a story that really has no end, no death. Is twilight even twilight if experienced with another? I’ll leave that question for another project. Seven. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................... vii DEDICATION PAGE ................................................................................................................ xi EPIGRAPHS .............................................................................................................................. xii INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................................1 Recognition of Twilight ..................................................................................................................5 Structure of the Argument and Chapter Layout ..............................................................................7 Blurring Theoretical and Methodological Distinctions ................................................................11 PART I: Learning to Die ................................................................................................13 CHAPTER ONE In the Shadows of Whiteness: An Existential and Functional Account of the Birth, Death and Twilight of a God-Idol ........................................................................14 Black Offerings .............................................................................................................................16 White ‘Rituals of Reference’ .............................................................................................17 First Visions of Whiteness .................................................................................................18 The Pervasiveness of Whiteness