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Advocating for Justice: An Evangelical Vision for Transforming Systems and Structures
Christians are increasingly interested in justice issues. Relief and development work are important, but beyond that is a need for advocacy. This book shows how transforming systems and structures results in lasting change, providing theological rationale and strategies of action for evangelicals passionate about justice. Each of the authors contributes both academic expertise and extensive practical experience to help readers debate, discuss, and discern more fully the call to evangelical advocacy. They also guide readers into prayerful, faithful, and wise processes of advocacy, especially in relation to addressing poverty.
- GenresJustice
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 19, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 30, 2025
My last book for class this summer. What a journey, hope you have enjoyed the journey as well friends!
Overall, this one gets more a 3.5 stars from me. The content of this book was so important, so don't let my rating communicate otherwise. Offutt leverages a pretty straightforward critique at the evangelical church for its willing avoidance of advocacy as an outworking of the Church's stewardship of its role in the world. As someone raised in the evangelical church and still within its sphere, his observations are accurate - dichotomies between private beliefs and public facts, insufficient explorations of how power is used and abused in society (both outside AND inside the church), a general anemic view of structural evil, and an inability to picture justice past the threshold of charitable contributions or donations. The evangelical church has a lot of power in our Western World - the question underlying Offutt's work, is HOW will the church use that power? Will the Church carry the Spirit of Jesus in the Temple, calling out the way systems seek to benefit those in power rather than care and uplift the poor? Or will the Church sit idly by, allowing it's power to pad its pews, make it more comfortable for its congregants, and be fine outsourcing justice by donating to an organization as a part of the monthly offering?
Offutt's theology of advocacy was something I found helpful, as he anchored the concept of participating in the work of advocacy as an expression of our imaging of the person of God, as well as a continuation of the incarnation, continuing the embodied work of Jesus in the world, using our voices, power and privilege to speak truth to systems that harm the poor and marginalized. Unfortunately, it felt disconnected from the greater tradition of theology around justice and reconciliation. He only briefly engages the Civil Rights Movement and its influence on advocacy, and also never mentions liberation theology as a modern expression of a form of advocacy in response to the evangelical churches failure to participate in advocacy.
I will say, the references lists in this book are long so Offutt has done his work to gather the content to inform this work. But what took this book down a few notches for me were the gaps in historical analysis I mention above, and what felt like repetitive sections and a need for better divisions of the content. This may be due to my attention being hard to give amidst the summer, but all the other books I have read this semester have kept my attention and engaged me as a reader, whereas this read felt drastically different.
Thanks for joining along for my summer course journey - hope you learned something GoodReads friends!
Overall, this one gets more a 3.5 stars from me. The content of this book was so important, so don't let my rating communicate otherwise. Offutt leverages a pretty straightforward critique at the evangelical church for its willing avoidance of advocacy as an outworking of the Church's stewardship of its role in the world. As someone raised in the evangelical church and still within its sphere, his observations are accurate - dichotomies between private beliefs and public facts, insufficient explorations of how power is used and abused in society (both outside AND inside the church), a general anemic view of structural evil, and an inability to picture justice past the threshold of charitable contributions or donations. The evangelical church has a lot of power in our Western World - the question underlying Offutt's work, is HOW will the church use that power? Will the Church carry the Spirit of Jesus in the Temple, calling out the way systems seek to benefit those in power rather than care and uplift the poor? Or will the Church sit idly by, allowing it's power to pad its pews, make it more comfortable for its congregants, and be fine outsourcing justice by donating to an organization as a part of the monthly offering?
Offutt's theology of advocacy was something I found helpful, as he anchored the concept of participating in the work of advocacy as an expression of our imaging of the person of God, as well as a continuation of the incarnation, continuing the embodied work of Jesus in the world, using our voices, power and privilege to speak truth to systems that harm the poor and marginalized. Unfortunately, it felt disconnected from the greater tradition of theology around justice and reconciliation. He only briefly engages the Civil Rights Movement and its influence on advocacy, and also never mentions liberation theology as a modern expression of a form of advocacy in response to the evangelical churches failure to participate in advocacy.
I will say, the references lists in this book are long so Offutt has done his work to gather the content to inform this work. But what took this book down a few notches for me were the gaps in historical analysis I mention above, and what felt like repetitive sections and a need for better divisions of the content. This may be due to my attention being hard to give amidst the summer, but all the other books I have read this semester have kept my attention and engaged me as a reader, whereas this read felt drastically different.
Thanks for joining along for my summer course journey - hope you learned something GoodReads friends!
October 13, 2018
This book covers an important concept that is often overlooked in global development as well as community development within the states: advocacy. I think that as American Christians we often get under the impression that we have enough tools and know-how to address the needs of our communities from the ground up. While this is an important component, the authors rightly address that without advocating to the powers of the world (especially governments) we have inadequately addressed the environment for human flourishing. I think that early on in the book, the authors go straight to this oversight by Christians by critiquing the "heavy hitters" in Christian development (Myers, Fikkert and Corbett). Their point is well stated and throughout the book, they point to the importance of thorough advocacy and mobilization of local and national church bodies. The writing can get a little dry at times, but overall the content is very important and well-stated. Definitely a must for anyone working in Christian relief, development and advocacy work.
October 26, 2017
A worthwhile read for those interested in an in-depth discussion of various evangelical responses to advocacy. not for your average pew-sitter.
August 13, 2016
The authors of this book are to be commended for seeking to add some theological depth and practical tools to the recent interest and involvement in social justice issues in evangelical Christian circles. Building on Corbett and Fikkert's three stage model of involvement in poverty issues -relief, rehabilitation, development - the authors add advocacy to process. They base their theological foundation for advocacy on the Trinity - the inter-relationships of the three person in the Trinity - even going so far as to call the Trinity "the first institution." They call upon their readers to consider Berkhof's and Wink's analysis of the principalities and powers as spiritual forces working in and thru societal institutions and systems. Drawing on a wide range of theological resources they build a strong case for Christian involvement in political advocacy issues. The book closes with several practical tools as well as tensions that might be experienced in the process of advocacy. They take a "faithfulness over effectiveness" perspective, stressing that advocacy work must be linked with discipleship, and that the process of working for social change is more important than the end result because it reflects on one's Christian witness.
While the book has many strengths, it also suffers from several glaring gaps and weaknesses.
First, in identifying the various theological traditions that inform their theological perspective, the authors fail to even mention the three most significant theological movements for social justice in the 20th century: The US Civil Rights Movement, the Latin American Liberation Theology movement and the Ubuntu Theology of South African Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu. These omissions are so striking one wonders if they purposely omitted these traditions or were just huge oversights. In many ways it is safe to say that these movements, which were embraced in varying degrees by "mainline" Christian groups, have pushed evangelicals to look at justice in the first place.
Second, following the first gap, the book is clearly only focusing on white Christians, and does not acknowledge the significant work that churches of color have done and are doing in the area of social justice concerns. These people of color groups re regarded as "other," when in fact churches of color generally are more theologically conservative than their white counterparts, though with out the hang up of separating "spiritual" and social justice concerns. Because evangelicals have never fully embraced churches of color, they come off as a bunch of white folks trying to do good without grappling with the underlying historical racial tensions that have exist and keep evangelicals from fully embracing racial justice concerns and churches of color.
Finally, while the authors note that advocacy can be done with the poor and oppressed, the focus of the book is clearly centered on an approach to advocacy separated from real relationships with the victims of injustice. Unless white folks are willing to enter into real relationships, giving priority to the views and perspectives of the oppressed, they will to be effective. As a result, the authors theologically justify a paternalistic approach to advocacy which many theologians of color and in the developing world have criticized.
While there are other concerns, these are major gaps I seen in this work. While I approached the book with high hopes that evangelicals could get depth in their theological analysis, I came away disappointed that the book made a start, but did not finish the race. My major critique is the evangelicals seem intent on separating themselves from the rest of the Christian family rather than seeing themselves as true brothers and sister with those who may not share their race, class, or theological orientation. Unless these barriers can be transcended, evangelicals will continue to be isolated from significant social justice work on behalf of the poor.
While the book has many strengths, it also suffers from several glaring gaps and weaknesses.
First, in identifying the various theological traditions that inform their theological perspective, the authors fail to even mention the three most significant theological movements for social justice in the 20th century: The US Civil Rights Movement, the Latin American Liberation Theology movement and the Ubuntu Theology of South African Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu. These omissions are so striking one wonders if they purposely omitted these traditions or were just huge oversights. In many ways it is safe to say that these movements, which were embraced in varying degrees by "mainline" Christian groups, have pushed evangelicals to look at justice in the first place.
Second, following the first gap, the book is clearly only focusing on white Christians, and does not acknowledge the significant work that churches of color have done and are doing in the area of social justice concerns. These people of color groups re regarded as "other," when in fact churches of color generally are more theologically conservative than their white counterparts, though with out the hang up of separating "spiritual" and social justice concerns. Because evangelicals have never fully embraced churches of color, they come off as a bunch of white folks trying to do good without grappling with the underlying historical racial tensions that have exist and keep evangelicals from fully embracing racial justice concerns and churches of color.
Finally, while the authors note that advocacy can be done with the poor and oppressed, the focus of the book is clearly centered on an approach to advocacy separated from real relationships with the victims of injustice. Unless white folks are willing to enter into real relationships, giving priority to the views and perspectives of the oppressed, they will to be effective. As a result, the authors theologically justify a paternalistic approach to advocacy which many theologians of color and in the developing world have criticized.
While there are other concerns, these are major gaps I seen in this work. While I approached the book with high hopes that evangelicals could get depth in their theological analysis, I came away disappointed that the book made a start, but did not finish the race. My major critique is the evangelicals seem intent on separating themselves from the rest of the Christian family rather than seeing themselves as true brothers and sister with those who may not share their race, class, or theological orientation. Unless these barriers can be transcended, evangelicals will continue to be isolated from significant social justice work on behalf of the poor.
July 6, 2016
I thought the definitions were excellent re. advocacy and theological references re. advocacy. The treatment of humans in positions of power juxtaposed against the Biblical uses of "powers" when talking about evil is something I hadn't considered. I was disappointed that there was scant treatment of the #1 objection I hear in churches: any advocacy effort will deteriorate into partisan politics. One of my favorite lines is "Christians often settle for easy solutions," and it made me substitute the words "food pantry" for "political advocacy" to remind myself how willing peeps are to do compassionate charity while ignoring systemic injustices. Another line worthy of discussion is "we identify a blind spot: evangelicals remain reluctant to acknowledge or address the role of power in poverty. Abuse or misuse of power is often the main cause of poverty in communities around the world." I recommend this book to pastor and other leaders, and especially to local church leaders to discuss it as a group and recommend more advocacy from their churches as a result.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews