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Race & Place: How Urban Geography Shapes the Journey to Reconciliation
Geography matters. We long for diverse, thriving neighborhoods and churches, yet racial injustices persist. Why? Because geographic structures and systems create barriers to reconciliation and prevent the flourishing of our communities. Race and Place reveals the profound ways in which these geographic forces and structures sustain the divisions among us. Urban missiologist David Leong, who resides in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country, unpacks the systemic challenges that are rarely addressed in the conversation about racial justice. The evening news may deliver story after story that causes us to despair. But Leong envisions a future of belonging and hope in our streets, towns, cities, and churches. A discussion about race needs to go hand in hand with a discussion about place. This book is a welcome addition to a conversation that needs to include both.
208 pages, Paperback
Published January 7, 2017
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October 29, 2025plotting and scheming a way to get my parents to read this
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3 stars = “good”
This book makes a helpful contribution when it comes to the vexing and persistent barriers to racial reconciliation. Leong focuses on the crucial importance of place— how our lives are significantly impacted simply by our geographic locations. Clearly people growing up in different neighborhoods within the same city will have widely varying opportunities and resultant outcomes in terms of financial stability, employment prospects, education, social status, overall health, and personal safety.
Leong explains how these vast differences came into existence. Trigger warning: it’s systemic racism. Or perhaps more accurately, the residual effects of previous generations of systemic racism. If a reader is still reluctant to accept this conclusion after Leong’s reasonably effective explanation, I would humbly recommend the following reading list (humbly, because they were eye-opening for me):
The Color of Law
American Apartheid
The Color of Money
So given this dire reality, what is the church to do? Leong urges Christians to go live in the places where there is suffering and become a part of the community. Or at least work to make the place you live a true community:
“But once again, when the church adopts a parish-oriented posture toward the world, its immediate physical context provides some natural geographic guidance as the people of God discern their neighborly calling. Compassion for our neighbors grows not out of some forced, artificial sense of guilt or charity, but instead from the common experience of shared space, place, and life together. Drawing again on the basic affirmations of Christian Community Development, when the people of God locate their lives among hurting people there is no them when it comes to pain or injustice. There is just us and our collective sense of shared tragedy or triumph.
“Thus, compassion grows naturally out of loving our neighbors as ourselves instead of loving acquaintances just because Christians are supposed to.”
This book makes a helpful contribution when it comes to the vexing and persistent barriers to racial reconciliation. Leong focuses on the crucial importance of place— how our lives are significantly impacted simply by our geographic locations. Clearly people growing up in different neighborhoods within the same city will have widely varying opportunities and resultant outcomes in terms of financial stability, employment prospects, education, social status, overall health, and personal safety.
Leong explains how these vast differences came into existence. Trigger warning: it’s systemic racism. Or perhaps more accurately, the residual effects of previous generations of systemic racism. If a reader is still reluctant to accept this conclusion after Leong’s reasonably effective explanation, I would humbly recommend the following reading list (humbly, because they were eye-opening for me):
The Color of Law
American Apartheid
The Color of Money
So given this dire reality, what is the church to do? Leong urges Christians to go live in the places where there is suffering and become a part of the community. Or at least work to make the place you live a true community:
“But once again, when the church adopts a parish-oriented posture toward the world, its immediate physical context provides some natural geographic guidance as the people of God discern their neighborly calling. Compassion for our neighbors grows not out of some forced, artificial sense of guilt or charity, but instead from the common experience of shared space, place, and life together. Drawing again on the basic affirmations of Christian Community Development, when the people of God locate their lives among hurting people there is no them when it comes to pain or injustice. There is just us and our collective sense of shared tragedy or triumph.
“Thus, compassion grows naturally out of loving our neighbors as ourselves instead of loving acquaintances just because Christians are supposed to.”
October 8, 2017
Summary: Looks at how geography and place serve to perpetuate racial divisions and injustice and how the church may begin to address itself to these geographic forces and structures.
In many discussions about the continuing legacy of racial divisions and injustices in our country we focus on structural problems in our justice system, our political life, and in our economic life that perpetuate divisions. What is often less obvious is that place and geography places an important role in these structural divisions and in the perpetuation of racial discord in our society.
David P. Leong writes this book to open our eyes to the ways that our geography, particularly our urban geography helps perpetuate structures of racial division. The book is divided into three parts. In the first, Leong lays out terms, including a discussion of place and colorblindness. What I find him arguing here as much as anything is that we are “place blind” and we do not see how place and race interact. He traces this in part to a docetic theology that spiritualizes life and doesn’t recognize physical places as an essential aspect of life–that our embodied existence is lived in a place.
Part two looks at how patterns of exclusion work in our geography and how this plays out in education, housing, and our transportation patterns. He talks about our freeway systems as facilitating a suburban exodus. I was surprised that he did not talk about how freeways changed our urban landscapes, isolated neighborhoods and reinforced racial separation in many cities. This was surprising to me because he writes about Detroit, including the wall at Eight Mile Road, yet does not talk about how freeways also changed the urban geography of the city. He also addresses what he calls “return flight” and the resulting phenomenon of gentrification which perpetuates geographic isolation as poorer (and often racially distinct) populations are often displaced when an urban area gentrifies.
Part three addresses the phenomenon of relocation often advocated by the Christian Community Development Association. The author is part of one such community in the Rainier Valley area of Seattle. He explores the postures and practices involved in avoiding a kind of imperialism by sinking roots into a community, by practicing radical hospitality, and engaging in neighborhood renewal through a ministry of presence.
I think the strengths of this book are its analysis of the ways place and geography perpetuate racial divisions and inequities, and in the author’s story of the hard work of nurturing a racially diverse church community in urban Seattle. At the same time it seems that its primary solution to these problems of place is relocation and incarnational ministry. Perhaps in the very long term such communities can transform an urban environment. Yet I wonder if this is only a very small part of addressing the structural problems that sustain racism, even in terms of urban geography. It seems that there are issues related to law enforcement and the justice system, banking and financial services, business and commerce, the location of employment opportunities, fostering quality educational opportunities and more that this book leaves unaddressed, apart from acknowledging them.
Perhaps this calls for a much longer book, but even more an aware presence in these communities. It seems that this is what the author wants as he writes:
“As you witness these oppressive systems at work in your own neighborhood and reflect on these personal tendencies in your own life, I hope you’ll never look at another freeway, public school, or suburban home the same way again. Beyond those new ways of seeing, I also pray that you’ll be disturbed with our complicity in these problematic walls of hostility, to the point of further study, research, and lament.”
Leong’s book does this and something more. It shares the story of a community that has started looking at these things, not clinically from the outside, but as a hospitable and learning community from the inside. Over time, that may be far more significant than one more grandiose solution imposed from the outside.
In many discussions about the continuing legacy of racial divisions and injustices in our country we focus on structural problems in our justice system, our political life, and in our economic life that perpetuate divisions. What is often less obvious is that place and geography places an important role in these structural divisions and in the perpetuation of racial discord in our society.
David P. Leong writes this book to open our eyes to the ways that our geography, particularly our urban geography helps perpetuate structures of racial division. The book is divided into three parts. In the first, Leong lays out terms, including a discussion of place and colorblindness. What I find him arguing here as much as anything is that we are “place blind” and we do not see how place and race interact. He traces this in part to a docetic theology that spiritualizes life and doesn’t recognize physical places as an essential aspect of life–that our embodied existence is lived in a place.
Part two looks at how patterns of exclusion work in our geography and how this plays out in education, housing, and our transportation patterns. He talks about our freeway systems as facilitating a suburban exodus. I was surprised that he did not talk about how freeways changed our urban landscapes, isolated neighborhoods and reinforced racial separation in many cities. This was surprising to me because he writes about Detroit, including the wall at Eight Mile Road, yet does not talk about how freeways also changed the urban geography of the city. He also addresses what he calls “return flight” and the resulting phenomenon of gentrification which perpetuates geographic isolation as poorer (and often racially distinct) populations are often displaced when an urban area gentrifies.
Part three addresses the phenomenon of relocation often advocated by the Christian Community Development Association. The author is part of one such community in the Rainier Valley area of Seattle. He explores the postures and practices involved in avoiding a kind of imperialism by sinking roots into a community, by practicing radical hospitality, and engaging in neighborhood renewal through a ministry of presence.
I think the strengths of this book are its analysis of the ways place and geography perpetuate racial divisions and inequities, and in the author’s story of the hard work of nurturing a racially diverse church community in urban Seattle. At the same time it seems that its primary solution to these problems of place is relocation and incarnational ministry. Perhaps in the very long term such communities can transform an urban environment. Yet I wonder if this is only a very small part of addressing the structural problems that sustain racism, even in terms of urban geography. It seems that there are issues related to law enforcement and the justice system, banking and financial services, business and commerce, the location of employment opportunities, fostering quality educational opportunities and more that this book leaves unaddressed, apart from acknowledging them.
Perhaps this calls for a much longer book, but even more an aware presence in these communities. It seems that this is what the author wants as he writes:
“As you witness these oppressive systems at work in your own neighborhood and reflect on these personal tendencies in your own life, I hope you’ll never look at another freeway, public school, or suburban home the same way again. Beyond those new ways of seeing, I also pray that you’ll be disturbed with our complicity in these problematic walls of hostility, to the point of further study, research, and lament.”
Leong’s book does this and something more. It shares the story of a community that has started looking at these things, not clinically from the outside, but as a hospitable and learning community from the inside. Over time, that may be far more significant than one more grandiose solution imposed from the outside.
June 12, 2020
“...loving diversity as individuals without accounting for the systemic nature of our neighborhood’s structural inequalities is not only unhelpful. Ironically, it is also a form of colorblindness.”
“...one of the most basic tasks of Christian discipleship, the call to love of neighbor, is obscured when we simply bloom where we are planted without asking why we’re planted where we are. The flow of capital—both social and monetary—streams toward accumulation and security, not poverty and need.”
Ministry of Presence & “Rereading at the margins is a practice of shifting horizons; it is an intentional move toward the marginal space that most often remains on the periphery of our vision. These forgotten and ignored places—communities of incarceration, deportation, transience, and addiction—are kept invisible to soothe our public conscience and maintain perceived moral boundaries between so-called mainstream and marginal people.”
“...one of the most basic tasks of Christian discipleship, the call to love of neighbor, is obscured when we simply bloom where we are planted without asking why we’re planted where we are. The flow of capital—both social and monetary—streams toward accumulation and security, not poverty and need.”
Ministry of Presence & “Rereading at the margins is a practice of shifting horizons; it is an intentional move toward the marginal space that most often remains on the periphery of our vision. These forgotten and ignored places—communities of incarceration, deportation, transience, and addiction—are kept invisible to soothe our public conscience and maintain perceived moral boundaries between so-called mainstream and marginal people.”
November 26, 2017
This is a very informative and clear read on an important social topic. I would recommend it highly.
August 1, 2018
This book is important for understanding how geography contributes to continuing systemic racism and makes it hard for us to make genuine relationships across racial and ethnic lines. I learned a lot of the history of urban planning and public policy and how we've gotten to where we are now. I also am thinking more deeply about how we seek justice and reconciliation in this environment. I thought the chapter on gentrification was particularly helpful. That's an intractable problem that I've been thinking about a lot. Leong offers a nuanced understanding of the issue and some practical ideas. This book has good theological underpinnings, and is a helpful guide for Christians trying to understand this issue.
October 10, 2017
David Leong, a Chinese American theologian living in the Ranier section of Seattle, WA offers a clear and well researched reflection on how one's geographic location (place) is often connected to race. He unpacks this simple observation with an in-depth analysis of the ways in which housing, educational and other policies are laced through with unexamined racialized assumptions. As a Chinese-American, he adds a helpful perspective to a discussion that is all too often limited to black and white. I will use this book for some time to come
June 16, 2020
I found Dr. David P. Leong’s book Race & Place helpful and informative on several points. I appreciate the attention he gave to the division of the development of the city and the suburbs. I did not realize how the building of the suburbs of who could receive home loans was based on race where the white families were seen as safer financial risks as opposed to unstable financial risks for minority families. Even though the practice of redlining has been outlawed, the damage has still been done.Â
Consider, the places where we live shape the way we approach this issue. For those who live in predominantly white communities as I do, the only opinion we hear are those who look like us and think like us. However, for those who live in more diverse communities, everyone does not look the same or think the same either. Those who live in a culturally diverse community, there seems to be a greater willingness to listen and lament and engage in Christian reconciliation.Â
This is another aspect that I appreciate about Dr. Leong’s book. He highlights three helpful responses: listen, lament, and engage in reconciliation. As I listen to the dialogue on racial injustice in our land, I repeatedly hear these three responses given as recommended ways how to think about the role of race and place in our nation.Â
There are a couple of aspects I wish Dr. Leong would have developed better. First, I wish he would have developed more fully systemic injustice. In the end, the reader is left wondering whether systemic injustice actually occurs or just an opinion. Second, I wish he would have given some thought to the role of race and place in rural settings. I realize that he was using a rough structure of garden to city with a heavy emphasis on the city. But as a rural church pastor, I would have found such thoughts helpful for my context. Overall, the book is worth a read.
Consider, the places where we live shape the way we approach this issue. For those who live in predominantly white communities as I do, the only opinion we hear are those who look like us and think like us. However, for those who live in more diverse communities, everyone does not look the same or think the same either. Those who live in a culturally diverse community, there seems to be a greater willingness to listen and lament and engage in Christian reconciliation.Â
This is another aspect that I appreciate about Dr. Leong’s book. He highlights three helpful responses: listen, lament, and engage in reconciliation. As I listen to the dialogue on racial injustice in our land, I repeatedly hear these three responses given as recommended ways how to think about the role of race and place in our nation.Â
There are a couple of aspects I wish Dr. Leong would have developed better. First, I wish he would have developed more fully systemic injustice. In the end, the reader is left wondering whether systemic injustice actually occurs or just an opinion. Second, I wish he would have given some thought to the role of race and place in rural settings. I realize that he was using a rough structure of garden to city with a heavy emphasis on the city. But as a rural church pastor, I would have found such thoughts helpful for my context. Overall, the book is worth a read.
May 30, 2020
On the first day of starting this book, I read half of it - and for GOOD reason. This is hands down the best book I have read in AGES. I truly believe every Christian should read it. It offers a gentle introduction and foundation to such an important topic in our world. I found myself literally mouth open at some of the gold Leong said.
One of the greatest takeaways from this book was the debunking of the idea of 'belonging'. Christians and non-Christians alike have subscribed to this idea that homogeneity is the way to go. Leong challenges this idea and instead encourages diversity in belonging. This is honestly such a refreshing perspective, especially in a Christian environment where we believe that love covers all. Love DOES cover all but what is love and how can we love our neighbours? I believe this book offers a great introduction to discovering this.
This book does not shy away from issues such as colourblindness and it confronts the ideals that we have adopted from our society. If we are to be kingdom minded we cannot shy away from these issues. Especially at a time like this where racial discrimination is extreme I believe this is a conversation we should ALL be having.
It is definitely an America focused perspective but the narrative is universal. Issues of race and geography is a universal issue. I also keep referring to this book as a good introduction, by this I mean that after this, please continue to have conversations and continue to research.
My only down point is that the cover is kinda ugly lol.
One of the greatest takeaways from this book was the debunking of the idea of 'belonging'. Christians and non-Christians alike have subscribed to this idea that homogeneity is the way to go. Leong challenges this idea and instead encourages diversity in belonging. This is honestly such a refreshing perspective, especially in a Christian environment where we believe that love covers all. Love DOES cover all but what is love and how can we love our neighbours? I believe this book offers a great introduction to discovering this.
This book does not shy away from issues such as colourblindness and it confronts the ideals that we have adopted from our society. If we are to be kingdom minded we cannot shy away from these issues. Especially at a time like this where racial discrimination is extreme I believe this is a conversation we should ALL be having.
It is definitely an America focused perspective but the narrative is universal. Issues of race and geography is a universal issue. I also keep referring to this book as a good introduction, by this I mean that after this, please continue to have conversations and continue to research.
My only down point is that the cover is kinda ugly lol.
June 24, 2020
4.5! Leong radically and surgically analyzes how our geography (from the individual level to the societal) exposes our priorities and values. Unsurprisingly and tragically, those priorities are ones of racial and cultural homogeneity, characterized by convenience, comfort, and upward mobility.
Leong spends his time in this book unpacking this reality, as well as taking time to inform it with a Christian lens: Jesus’ proximity to the margins of society was not simply incidental, and his life and the entirety of Scripture unequivocally confirms God’s design for a community of belonging (across lines of race, class, and gender) in a society characterized by the hierarchies of power and exclusion.
Leong challenges Christians and churches at large to consider their alignment with a culture of exclusion and power, and he uses this text to open the doors to challenging and necessary conversation & action.
Leong spends his time in this book unpacking this reality, as well as taking time to inform it with a Christian lens: Jesus’ proximity to the margins of society was not simply incidental, and his life and the entirety of Scripture unequivocally confirms God’s design for a community of belonging (across lines of race, class, and gender) in a society characterized by the hierarchies of power and exclusion.
Leong challenges Christians and churches at large to consider their alignment with a culture of exclusion and power, and he uses this text to open the doors to challenging and necessary conversation & action.
August 17, 2022
Very helpful for cultivating your heart in community ministry. Does talk some about how the US became so segregated racially and socioeconomically but he addresses some of the culture behind the choices to segregate. By talking about place, segregation becomes something we choose very clearly. Whereas we often assume we can do nothing about it, Leong challenges Christians to think differently than hipster culture.
One provocative idea I’m turning over in my head is whether church planting should be replaced with people joining in with existing churches in struggling neighborhoods where ministry has been established and understanding of neighborhood struggles are deep. There are also some really helpful thoughts about gentrification in this book. It’s not inevitable and the church is called to think differently. Check out the Willie Jennings quote about how God might call us to “transgress the boundaries of real estate, by buying where we should not live…”
One provocative idea I’m turning over in my head is whether church planting should be replaced with people joining in with existing churches in struggling neighborhoods where ministry has been established and understanding of neighborhood struggles are deep. There are also some really helpful thoughts about gentrification in this book. It’s not inevitable and the church is called to think differently. Check out the Willie Jennings quote about how God might call us to “transgress the boundaries of real estate, by buying where we should not live…”
December 15, 2017
Race and Place offers some much needed corrective to the common misconception that our geography and place don't really matter. The major problem with this book is the lack of solid theological foundation. There is too much of an emphasis on the incarnation at the exclusion of the crucifixion. This ultimately tends to skew things toward a heavy social justice perspective with little room left for true Gospel transformation.
Social justice is not what will bring in the kingdom of God. It is a part of it while on this earth, but it is the spreading and proclamation of the Gospel that takes dead sinners and makes them alive together in Christ.
Nonetheless, Race and Place has some helpful correctives on how we should understand our place in the world, specifically where we live and why we live there.
Social justice is not what will bring in the kingdom of God. It is a part of it while on this earth, but it is the spreading and proclamation of the Gospel that takes dead sinners and makes them alive together in Christ.
Nonetheless, Race and Place has some helpful correctives on how we should understand our place in the world, specifically where we live and why we live there.
January 2, 2019
In the run up to, and after, the 2018 Society of Vineyard Scholars Conference, I’ve been reflecting a little on what it means for Christians to think theologically and seriously about ‘place’. This book, Race and Place: How Urban Geography Shapes the Journey to Reconciliation by David P. Leong, deals seriously with that concern. Our culture is a racially polarised one, as well, and Leong’s book seeks to engage some of those challenges in the discussion too. Finally, and interestingly as I’ve recently started working for London City Mission, this book is particularly focused on urban geography – but that shouldn’t put off those of you interested in the book but ministering or living in rural or less-urban contexts.
https://www.thomascreedy.co.uk/book-r...
https://www.thomascreedy.co.uk/book-r...
October 15, 2019
I think a theology of place is one of the oft missed pieces of the conversation on race and gentrification, and Leong brings that piece of the equation into the conversation here in a wonderful way. That being said, I felt like much of this book was rehashing previous books just to include the sections on place. It could be that the intended audience was people new to this conversation, but the academic language used suggests otherwise.
June 6, 2021
I found this book to be so insightful! Leong speaks to the cyclical, intertwined dynamics of geography and race, and how the Church can become a bridge-builder in urban communities across racial, societal, and class differences. I appreciated the way he addressed gentrification, as well as the white savior complex. Leong invites readers into active contemplation as well as contemplative action. A very solid read, and one of my favorites of the year.
January 1, 2018
Great reading for undergrads, but also good for an introduction to the systemic issues of the urban environment and its impact on race. For those more familiar with the ideas of how space has been used as a racial divide, it is a starting place for conversation, but doesn't go deep into the issues of spatial politics.
July 31, 2019
Anyone who considers themself a follower of Christ needs to read this book. Leong gives an insightful look at how race and place have shaped feelings related to belonging in the culture of Christianity in the urban West. His personal perspective as a faith practitioner in Seattle adds much.
I found this short read to be a challenging case against the status quo.
I found this short read to be a challenging case against the status quo.
October 29, 2021
This book is a must read for those who want to grow in their work and understanding of becoming better reconcilers in their respective neighborhood communities! It's chalk full of important ante dotes that play such a critical role in how urban geography influences and affects the journey of reconciliation!
July 4, 2020
Very Pentecostal... but some good points on working actively to be anti=racist and become a strong ally. I especially agree with compassionately lamenting to create a strong foundation for the important work.
June 16, 2021
Definitely not a bad book by any stretch. A good primer for those who have never considered the intersections of race, place, and faith. Just didn't have a lot of new information for me.
February 28, 2017
A consideration of matters of racial division in Christianity primarily in terms of who lives where and how that influences how the faith is practices.
The author speaks of his own experiences and story as a person of color. As might be expected he speaks regarding the segregation of churches and understands it in terms of its geographical expression. He attempts to establish a theology of place as well as a desire to understand a local context so as to minister within it. He then explores the various issues which come up in an urban context and how Christians and the church can respond: divisions, gentrification, a sense of calling in the city, etc. He then points the way forward in terms of how Christians and churches can reconcile with each other as well as with their communities. He often focuses on the practical side of things.
There is much good here. It is important for anyone who wishes to work in a given environment to understand that environment, how it got to be where it is, and to find a way to minister within that environment so as to reflect its diversity in a way which honors the Lord Jesus.
The author is a bit too high on the strength of cities; the Scriptures have special commendation for the pastoral life and looks a bit askance at the city and "civilization." The book likely has too many buzzwords and buzz concepts for the liking of some people. Nevertheless, if you are at all interested in ministry in an urban context, or regarding racial reconciliation in the church, a book worth exploring.
**--galley received as part of early review program
The author speaks of his own experiences and story as a person of color. As might be expected he speaks regarding the segregation of churches and understands it in terms of its geographical expression. He attempts to establish a theology of place as well as a desire to understand a local context so as to minister within it. He then explores the various issues which come up in an urban context and how Christians and the church can respond: divisions, gentrification, a sense of calling in the city, etc. He then points the way forward in terms of how Christians and churches can reconcile with each other as well as with their communities. He often focuses on the practical side of things.
There is much good here. It is important for anyone who wishes to work in a given environment to understand that environment, how it got to be where it is, and to find a way to minister within that environment so as to reflect its diversity in a way which honors the Lord Jesus.
The author is a bit too high on the strength of cities; the Scriptures have special commendation for the pastoral life and looks a bit askance at the city and "civilization." The book likely has too many buzzwords and buzz concepts for the liking of some people. Nevertheless, if you are at all interested in ministry in an urban context, or regarding racial reconciliation in the church, a book worth exploring.
**--galley received as part of early review program
February 20, 2021
This book is truly one of the best introductions to a progressive Christian thought around race and reconciliation. Leong incorporates fundamental biblical principles into a deep understanding of the socio-economic dynamics of America’s urban landscape. A must read for anyone doing ministry in urban contexts, as well as Christians who are eager to learn about the complexity of race in America.
April 22, 2017
The Civil Rights Movement made great strides in overcoming many expressions of systemic racism, but fifty years later, racism remains with us. In fact, there is significant racial/ethnic unrest in our country. As a white male living in America, I know that I have privileges that that others do not have due to the color of my skin, and that these privileges are deeply embedded in our society. Living as I do in metro-Detroit, a region that has been the epicenter of racial segregation and tension (it is the fiftieth anniversary of the Detroit Riots), I have witnessed the ongoing challenges of white flight and fear of the other.
It is important that we attend to voices that can help us understand these realities, so that bridges can be built and reconciliation occur. At the same time, as we pursue these ends, we must remember that it will take much work and a lot of time to move toward full reconciliation. One of those voices that speak to these concerns David Leong, an associate professor of missiology at Seatle Pacific University and Seminary. David is Chinese-American, the grandchild of immigrants to this country, his grandparents migrating to Detroit, where his grandfather opened a laundry business, one of the few occupations open to Chinese. Being Chinese, David has come to experience what has been termed the "perpetual foreign." The one place he found safety growing up was the Chinese church, where his appearance and cultural experience melded with that of everyone else in the church. He writes that they didn't talk about race in church, "perhaps because being Asian American was simply assumed to be normal, just like being white was the cultural norm at my public school" (p. 16). That sentence is telling, isn't it?
The focus of the book is on what Leong sees as the convergence between place and race, espcially in urban contexts. He wants to focus most especially on the "intersection of theology and geography" (p. 17). He wants us to pay attention to place, to the role geography plays in forming our lives. One of those places that plays a role in this book is Detroit, a place Leong's grandparents planted themselves and where his parents grew up. He tells the story of visiting Detroit in 2010 for the funeral of his grandfather. He took note of the racial makeup of the city and the suburbs that surround it, noting the divide that is marked by 8 Mile Road. Looking at these realities theologically, from a perspective that is informed by the incarnation and the Trinity, he asks the question of our tendency toward homogeneity. There is a place for cultural familiarity and shared values, but "when we only or even primarily experience belonging in homogeneity --- racial, cultural, religious, or otherwise -- then ai believe we are tragically missing out and falling short of the deeply transformative divine community that must accompany authentic Christian discipleship" (p. 36).
The book is divided into three parts. Part I focuses, as we've seen on "Race and Place. H etalks about the relationship of theology and geography, the question of color blindness, and the move from garden to city, and what that means. He is concerned about the tendency among some to want to move to the city, for good reasons, but then become discouraged when change doesn't happen quickly.
Part II of the book is titled "Patterns of Exclusion." In this section, Leong introduces us to the structures in socieity that divide, often intentionally (take deed covenants that specifically limited occupancy to whites) and redlining. Too often we fail to notice them, because on the surface they can be hidden. The walls of division and hostility can be physical and invisible. The invisible walls can be just as damaging as the physical ones. We often see this invisible wall present in suburban life, which has often been rooted in efforts to exclude the other. Thus, we have 8 Mile Road in Detroit, and red-lining (including official government policies that favored whites over others). He reminds us of FHA rules that favored white borrowers who built homes in the suburbs. The legacy of these policies is seen to this very day in the disparity between white and black home ownership, and this financial equity. That is our reality, but as Christians he calls on us to "transgress the boundaries that divide us" (p. 96). That is, we need to break through what he calls "racial logic." But, at the same time we must beware of moving too quickly toward reconciliation, which requires that we wrestle with the consequences of reconciliation. He writes: "Before we begin the fixing, perhaps it would be helpful to really consider the ugliness and brutality of the walls we've constructed and our own complicity in building and sustaining these walls" (p. 102). One of the issues we need to wrestle with is the challenge of gentrification, a process that is complex and requires deep understanding, for "gentrification has many faces and stories, and its outcomes cannot be easily condemned or celebrated in a singular fashion" (p. 131). I appreciate his willingness to wrestle with the complexity of the issue, because too often the conversation is one-sided, one way or the other. Part of the conversation deals with the "allure of urban 'cool.'" Here he speaks of the urban aesthetic that has proven attractive to many, whom he refers to as "hipsters." If Detroit is the example of urban decay and segregation, Portland, Oregon is a good example of the "urban cool." He writes that "cool Christianity is a piece of the gentrification conversation." The reality here is both a fleeing from the city (white flight) and fleeing to the city (gentrification), and the implications of both for the church. He notes that gentrification will occur when neighborhoods experience a renaissance, but the church, he believes, has a responsibility to help mitigate the problems posed by these efforts, for too often communities of color bear the brunt of these changes.
With these issues laid out for us, he turns in Part III to "Communities of Belonging." Here is where we get to the question of reconciliation, but notice that he spends much of the book exploring the question of racial and economic disparity and the role that the city plays in all of this, keeping in mind all along the theological questions. He has reminded us that we can't move too quickly to reconciliation. To move toward reconciliation requires building relationships, and that requires patience and perseverance. He points to the Eucharistic Table as a symbol of community that honors our diversity, but he writes that we should not "confuse the radical hospitality of the Table for a sentimental moment of inclusivity, the inked we see so carefully manicured in diverse marketing materials and feel-good entertainment. Christians must remember that the story of reconciliation we are striving to inhabit is truly beautiful and entirely disruptive at the same time" (p. 174). Only after he speaks of the challenges of moving toward rconciliation does he finally offer us guidance about getting practical. This will involve the ministry of presence, but presence requires intentionality and reading social locations from a new and different vantage point. That is, reading the center from the periphery, rather than always trying to read the periphery from the center, especially, if you, like me, are white. Then, perhaps we're ready to work for change.
This is a most important book, because it lays out issues of great importance for our time, and does so with theology as an important lens. It reminds us that location geography play an important role in forming us. The geography of the city is central to the important questions of our day, for it is int he cities that we have seen the dangers of segregation and gentrification play out. The church has been complicit in creating walls of hostility. It can now participate in building bridges of reconciliation, but we mustn't move too quickly, lest we overlook the causes of the problems we face. It is good that the author of the book is Asian, for as I've learned of late, this voice, the voice often spoken of as the "model minority" can easily get pushed to the side and discounted. But here is another vantage point through whom we can get a new perspective on the realities of the day. This is an excellent book, which I recommend highly.
It is important that we attend to voices that can help us understand these realities, so that bridges can be built and reconciliation occur. At the same time, as we pursue these ends, we must remember that it will take much work and a lot of time to move toward full reconciliation. One of those voices that speak to these concerns David Leong, an associate professor of missiology at Seatle Pacific University and Seminary. David is Chinese-American, the grandchild of immigrants to this country, his grandparents migrating to Detroit, where his grandfather opened a laundry business, one of the few occupations open to Chinese. Being Chinese, David has come to experience what has been termed the "perpetual foreign." The one place he found safety growing up was the Chinese church, where his appearance and cultural experience melded with that of everyone else in the church. He writes that they didn't talk about race in church, "perhaps because being Asian American was simply assumed to be normal, just like being white was the cultural norm at my public school" (p. 16). That sentence is telling, isn't it?
The focus of the book is on what Leong sees as the convergence between place and race, espcially in urban contexts. He wants to focus most especially on the "intersection of theology and geography" (p. 17). He wants us to pay attention to place, to the role geography plays in forming our lives. One of those places that plays a role in this book is Detroit, a place Leong's grandparents planted themselves and where his parents grew up. He tells the story of visiting Detroit in 2010 for the funeral of his grandfather. He took note of the racial makeup of the city and the suburbs that surround it, noting the divide that is marked by 8 Mile Road. Looking at these realities theologically, from a perspective that is informed by the incarnation and the Trinity, he asks the question of our tendency toward homogeneity. There is a place for cultural familiarity and shared values, but "when we only or even primarily experience belonging in homogeneity --- racial, cultural, religious, or otherwise -- then ai believe we are tragically missing out and falling short of the deeply transformative divine community that must accompany authentic Christian discipleship" (p. 36).
The book is divided into three parts. Part I focuses, as we've seen on "Race and Place. H etalks about the relationship of theology and geography, the question of color blindness, and the move from garden to city, and what that means. He is concerned about the tendency among some to want to move to the city, for good reasons, but then become discouraged when change doesn't happen quickly.
Part II of the book is titled "Patterns of Exclusion." In this section, Leong introduces us to the structures in socieity that divide, often intentionally (take deed covenants that specifically limited occupancy to whites) and redlining. Too often we fail to notice them, because on the surface they can be hidden. The walls of division and hostility can be physical and invisible. The invisible walls can be just as damaging as the physical ones. We often see this invisible wall present in suburban life, which has often been rooted in efforts to exclude the other. Thus, we have 8 Mile Road in Detroit, and red-lining (including official government policies that favored whites over others). He reminds us of FHA rules that favored white borrowers who built homes in the suburbs. The legacy of these policies is seen to this very day in the disparity between white and black home ownership, and this financial equity. That is our reality, but as Christians he calls on us to "transgress the boundaries that divide us" (p. 96). That is, we need to break through what he calls "racial logic." But, at the same time we must beware of moving too quickly toward reconciliation, which requires that we wrestle with the consequences of reconciliation. He writes: "Before we begin the fixing, perhaps it would be helpful to really consider the ugliness and brutality of the walls we've constructed and our own complicity in building and sustaining these walls" (p. 102). One of the issues we need to wrestle with is the challenge of gentrification, a process that is complex and requires deep understanding, for "gentrification has many faces and stories, and its outcomes cannot be easily condemned or celebrated in a singular fashion" (p. 131). I appreciate his willingness to wrestle with the complexity of the issue, because too often the conversation is one-sided, one way or the other. Part of the conversation deals with the "allure of urban 'cool.'" Here he speaks of the urban aesthetic that has proven attractive to many, whom he refers to as "hipsters." If Detroit is the example of urban decay and segregation, Portland, Oregon is a good example of the "urban cool." He writes that "cool Christianity is a piece of the gentrification conversation." The reality here is both a fleeing from the city (white flight) and fleeing to the city (gentrification), and the implications of both for the church. He notes that gentrification will occur when neighborhoods experience a renaissance, but the church, he believes, has a responsibility to help mitigate the problems posed by these efforts, for too often communities of color bear the brunt of these changes.
With these issues laid out for us, he turns in Part III to "Communities of Belonging." Here is where we get to the question of reconciliation, but notice that he spends much of the book exploring the question of racial and economic disparity and the role that the city plays in all of this, keeping in mind all along the theological questions. He has reminded us that we can't move too quickly to reconciliation. To move toward reconciliation requires building relationships, and that requires patience and perseverance. He points to the Eucharistic Table as a symbol of community that honors our diversity, but he writes that we should not "confuse the radical hospitality of the Table for a sentimental moment of inclusivity, the inked we see so carefully manicured in diverse marketing materials and feel-good entertainment. Christians must remember that the story of reconciliation we are striving to inhabit is truly beautiful and entirely disruptive at the same time" (p. 174). Only after he speaks of the challenges of moving toward rconciliation does he finally offer us guidance about getting practical. This will involve the ministry of presence, but presence requires intentionality and reading social locations from a new and different vantage point. That is, reading the center from the periphery, rather than always trying to read the periphery from the center, especially, if you, like me, are white. Then, perhaps we're ready to work for change.
This is a most important book, because it lays out issues of great importance for our time, and does so with theology as an important lens. It reminds us that location geography play an important role in forming us. The geography of the city is central to the important questions of our day, for it is int he cities that we have seen the dangers of segregation and gentrification play out. The church has been complicit in creating walls of hostility. It can now participate in building bridges of reconciliation, but we mustn't move too quickly, lest we overlook the causes of the problems we face. It is good that the author of the book is Asian, for as I've learned of late, this voice, the voice often spoken of as the "model minority" can easily get pushed to the side and discounted. But here is another vantage point through whom we can get a new perspective on the realities of the day. This is an excellent book, which I recommend highly.
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