Technically I abandoned this one as soon as I realized that we were hearing from two non-Black authors about why the Church should consider reparations to the Black community in a new light, I mean, we couldn't get a Black author to weigh in on this subject. No thanks.

We live in a culture that says, "Someone has to pay," and we exact an amount on just about everything. But just because we say it doesn't mean it's the truth.

My real problem with this book, as with literally every other book I have read by this publishing house, is that it doesn't even pretend to want to solve the issues it addresses. Rather, it wants to leverage them to keep everyone exactly where they're at and make us all feel better about ourselves because we're "doing something" and "Jesus would like that." Jesus doesn't want you to use your privilege to rail against privilege; He doesn't want you to use your wealth to show some kind of moral righteousness. It's not Jesus-pleasing to "give" your privilege to someone else or to offer your place of privilege to someone else to borrow to boost themselves up. This book, like so many others in the same vein, makes human beings into projects. It makes morality into a project. It pretends we can please God by what we do instead of who we are because this book doesn't address in the slightest the core of who we are as a people. All it does it try to make us feel bad about ourselves and get to a place where we're ready and willing to throw money at another problem that is, at its core, a heart problem. A soul problem.

Sorry - I just wasn't impressed with this book. That said, I am thankful for being able to read it. I always learn from the perspective of others, even if we have very different ideas. Perhaps especially if we do.

I loved the opening letter in this book written by a formerly enslaved person to the person who enslaved him. It calculates how much his labor was worth and asks for payment in response to a request for him to come back and work for this man.
This book is best read by people who are new to the idea of reparations. It gives a broad review of the history of systemic racism in the U.S. to people who have not been willing to notice it previously.

This is a well-researched, well-written, and persuasive argument that Christians should advocate for reparations to African Americans. The authors do a great job incorporating historical information and Scripture into their book. They also offer a well-rounded look at reparations and argue that it needs to include not only financial resources but also widespread change in how Black people are treated by the government and by individuals. A must-read for Christians who care about justice, as well as non-Christians who want to understand a Christian perspective (perhaps to help them convince Christians in their lives).

ARC/NetGalley

If you can get through the text of the catechism that some enslaved people were required to memorize (2nd slide) and not immediately understand the need for Christian accountability for our sins against Black Americans then I really don’t know how to convince you. Fortunately Duke Kwon and Gregory L. Thompson have written an entire book on the subject.
Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair is accessible and convicting. I encourage every Christian to read it with an open mind. While we should advocate for movement from our national government we also don’t have to wait to do what’s right.

A Call for Christians to Actually Live Out the Story of the Good Samaritan in Following Our Savior

This is one of the most difficult, most important, and most helpful books that I have read all year.

I commend Duke Kwon and Greg Thompson for courageously talking about some of the most difficult, controversial, and important issues in our culture today by looking at the issues of racism, white supremacy, and restorative justice, considering what role has the church played in the issues throughout the history of our country, and reflecting on how the Scriptures call us as believers to respond to these issues. The authors have done a phenomenal job of researching to present a moving, accurate, and well-documented history of and theological response to these issues. Whether or not you end up agreeing with their final conclusion, this is a book that all Christians who have a heart for living for Christ need to read if they are to healthily respond to the racial divide and inequities that exist today.

The book starts out with a revealing and compelling letter from a former slave writing in 1865 to his former slaveowner who is wanting him to come back to work for him, laying out the harm that has taken place and what sort of actions would genuinely speak of a desire for reconciliation (to really be inviting him back).

Ch 1 calls us as readers, and especially as believers, to see the problems of racism throughout the history of our country.
Ch 2 & 3 unpack this problem and lay out one of the clearest pictures of what White Supremacy and one of the most compelling cases of why White Supremacy is truly a problem for the American church both in the past with continuing effects for the present day.

Ch 4 offers a call for believers to own and to address the effects of these problems in response both to what the Bible teaches in the Old and New Testaments and to the model that Jesus gave us in redeeming us through His life and death.
Ch 5 looks at the Ethics of Restitution, especially from Luke 19 and the story of Zaccheaus. This chapter lacked the connections needed to create a compelling case for reparations as a function of restitution involving those not directly committing the offense.
Ch 6 looks at the Ethics of Restoration through the story of the Good Samaritan. This chapter is one of the strongest, as it presents a compelling case that we need to own the care of those who have been plundered and beaten up by racism and white supremacy if we are to own the mission of our Savior and to truly live as His people. If we do not, we are the very ones that Jesus was seeking to rebuke, as “Jesus’s purpose was to expose how bigotry treats certain plundered neighbors as unworthy of restorative love.”

Finally the authors in Ch 7 issue a call to repair, calling for reparations and looking at what African Americans have said regarding the need for reparations and its importance if reconciliation and healthy race relations are going to be able to move forward.

In the end, I’m not sure that this book makes the sort of persuasive, compelling case in order to move skeptics towards embracing reparations. But I believe that this book does something more important...it calls for the Church and Christians to see that racism and white supremacy exists and that they are a HUGE problem, it calls us to see our African American brothers and sisters and to be moved to genuine compassion and love towards them in light of the injustices that they have and continue to live under, and it calls us to care and to act to help these brothers and sisters to be restored in light of a Savior who has come to make right what is wrong and even to reconcile us to the Father by paying a price He didn’t even owe that we might be restored and healed and to create a people with that same heart for those who are needy and who have been wronged.

Reading this book made me care more about my black brothers and sisters, see and feel more clearly the great racial injustices that have taken place in our country and often by the church, and to reflect on and moved to act to address the inequities that I see in my local community as a function of representing the Good Samaritan (Jesus) better through my life.

(I received a free digital copy of this work in exchange for this my honest review of the book.)

Link here to full review: https://garrettvogele.medium.com/review-reparations-a-christian-call-for-repentance-and-repair-7141e3a3cbe6

"This book was great in many ways. For me the best part was the look at the history and stories surrounding chattel slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, and the role that American institutions and the church played throughout. It showed the bad, but also the stories of African American men and women that challenged the norms that were formed over hundreds of years.
The book showed that the story and ideas surrounding a topic like reparations is one that is not purely binary, but one that requires an open heart and a willingness to be vulnerable and honest. Sadly, I know that many will throw out the sum total of the book and the ideas within because of their issues with certain phrases, words, stories, examples, references, etc. For me, I would not say the book is perfect, nor would I want to say that any book or article like it is the solution to the problems discussed. Though I will argue that denial is, and never will be, the answer.
My biggest issue with the book is this. I finished it and wanted to hear more. I wanted to hear more stories from the past. I wanted to hear more of the thoughts of those in the final chapter that consulted with Kwon and Thompson. For some this was a reason to detract from the value of the book.
For some this was not enough, and for others it is too much. For me I think that it is a great introduction. It looked at history, at Scripture, and engage the arguements. My hope is that this is just the beginning. Not just for the readers, but also for the authors. I would love to see a follow up. Perhaps a companion guide from those they consulted with. If the readers agree and are challenged to do more, then a more prescriptive text would be something worth exploring.
This is something that is worth reading regardless of where you are at, and I plan on continuing to learn more and listen to those great voices that were given a venue through the work of Kwon and Thompson."

Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair by Duke L Kwon and Gregory Thompson is a call to the Church, in particular white Christians to be awakening to the legacy of racism in America. The public cry and conversations regarding the issues of racial division and inequalities have been in the forefront recently. The authors feel it is an overdue response. As Christianity has the view of reconciliation has its sole purpose but are at a loss as to offer a solution for their black neighbors, the authors offer a new perspective on the Church’s responsibility for the deep racism at the heart of American culture and what it can do to repair that brokenness. The book’s main goal is to make a compelling historical and theological case for the Church’s obligation to provide reparations for the oppression of blacks. The authors focus on the church’s responsibility for its promotion and preservation of white supremacy throughout history, the Bible’s call for repair, and offer a vision for the work that needs to be done at the local level. Are they successful?
For most of the book, the authors focus on how white supremacy was created in our system and the why it still persists. It wasn’t until about 57% into the book, do they talk about reparations. They focus more on community repair than just cutting a check and handing it over. They use the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37 as the Samaritan chose to help the injured Jew in love with his eyes, his heart, his hands and his resources. The authors do their best to make a compelling case for reparations; however, at times I felt like they were talking in circles. And while they make a case that white churches need to share the wealth to help repair balck churches and communities and add black voices to the conversation, they don’t really offer how with specifics. They talk about the obstacles that white supremacy has created for the black community, again without saying specifically what the obstacles are, just ways they can be overcome. Overall, I recommend Reparations is a place to start the conversation.

Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook.

There are few things less popular than the concept of reparations. According to two general polls, 26% of the US supports reparations. It is much less popular among White Evangelicals, around 4%, according to sociologist Samuel Perry. I do not think that Kwon and Thompson believe that this is going to be an easy case to make. And I want to commend Brazos Press for publishing the book because I can't imagine that an explicitly Christian case for reparations, something that is only supported by 4% of White Evangelicals, is going to become a best seller.

The center point of the claim for Reparations is that "White supremacy's most enduring effect, indeed its very essence is theft." They use white supremacy here and throughout the book in the sense of a racial hierarchy with a cultural belief in white racial superiority. The sense of theft here is also broad but nuanced, "...theft is best understood not merely in terms of wealth but also in the more comprehensive terms of truth and power."

One of the complaints about the book that I predict is that Kwon and Thompson frequently use language that is associated in the minds of many with Critical Race Theory and Social Justice. The complaints will be about the method of argument more than the content of the argument and the reality of the harm done, or the need theologically for repair because of that harm. One of the book's strengths is that Kwon and Thompson attempt to define what they mean all through the book clearly. It is hard for me to adequately evaluate how well they accomplish this for readers that are new to these concepts since I am not new to this discussion. But the concept of whiteness and the social construction of race do matter significantly to the case that Kwon and Thompson are trying to make.

The process of this expanded meaning of Whiteness mirrored the expanding of Blackness; as Blackness took on new meaning, Whiteness took on its opposite. Where Blackness signified inferior personal capacity, Whiteness signified superior personal capacity. Where Blackness signified inferior moral deficiency, Whiteness signified superior moral virtue. Where Blackness signified the margins of society, Whiteness signified a rightful claim to the center. To be White came to mean not only having lighter skin, but also possessing elevated personal capacity, inherent moral virtue, and an assumed place at the center of the social order. And, as with Blackness, by the middle of the nineteenth century, the presence of this newly invented notion of Whiteness was clearly visible in American cultural life."

Reparations are not a new concept, even if there has been renewed interested. John Hepburn, in 1715, wrote a pamphlet, The American Defence of the Christian Golden Rule, which called explicitly for reparation using Christian theology before the US was founded as a country.

"I am of Opinion, that such Sins cannot be repented of without Restitution made to them that they have wronged; for until the Cause be removed, I know not how the Effect should cease. But they that live and dye without making Restitution to them that they have wronged, how they can expect the Forgiveness of God..."

Reparations were also clearly known about and understood during and after the Civil War. Union slave owners and some confederate slave owners were given reparations for the loss of their 'property.' But the 40 acres and mule that General Sherman ordered in Field Order 15 were not given to most slaves. Those few who initially got 40 acres and a mule had the rule overturned and their land and property confiscated. (Note that in 1862 with the Homestead Act, the federal government gave land to any citizen that claimed it, but Freedmen before the end of slavery and former slaves after the Civil War were not eligible because they were not legally citizens until the 14th Amendment.)

In 1969, James Forman interrupted the 11 AM service at Riverside Church to read the Black Manifesto, a 2500 word statement calling for reparations. (Riverside Church was the same church Martin Luther King, Jr. announced his opposition to the Vietnam war less than two years earlier). The statement was specifically calling for Christian white churches and Jewish synagogues to give $500,000,000 in reparations, $15 per Black citizen at the time. Most notably today, HR 40 is a bill to create a study commission to investigate the feasibility of reparations. HR40 has been introduced every year since 1989.

The center of Kwon and Thompson's book explores the concepts of reparations in the bible, a broader look at justice, and an in-depth look at Zacchaeus and the parable of the Good Samaritan about reparations as biblical principles. It is here that there is real value to this book. Other books like From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century explore the economic impact and potential methods of reparations. While the last chapter explores some practical steps for reparations, the book's main point is the biblical basis for the concept and the need that gives rise to the discussion.

Reparations in a secular sense are about justice, rightness, or economics. But for Kwon and Thompson, reparations are primarily about the repair.

"Reparations as an actuarial calculations simply will not do. The work of restoration demands, in the end, the giving not of a check but of one's soul--the giving of one's very self."
And again,

"...the call of reparations is not merely for a check to be written or for a debt to be repaid but for a world to be repaired."

And even clearer,

"The parable of the good Samaritan, set againsts the backdrop of multigenerational cultural theft of White supremacy, make a crucial contribution to a Christian account of reparations. It reminds us that the work of restoring all that was unjustly taken from our neighbors is the calling not only of the culpable but of all who seek to live a life of love in the world. Because of this, the church in America, a community whose very purpose is love, must own the ethic of restoration and give itself to this work of healing. Indeed, it is the church's vocation both to dress wounds and to redress wrongs."

Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair offers some critical insight into the history of racism and white supremacy while offering solutions rooted in Scripture and the Christian tradition. However, the author's theological paradigms of the Church's mission are fundamentally flawed and weaken the Church and its spirituality. The authors fail to implicate the Christian in public policy based on their civil citizenship and resort to turning the Church into a civil institution with the responsibility of fixing the world (p. 17).

The authors spend almost half of the book walking through a historical account of racism and white supremacy in the United States. While this is important, it does not strengthen the book's thesis as a historical and theological call for reparations. Other Christian and secular authors have already provided this history and in more detail. Some might object that the historical account strengthens the thesis that racism and white supremacy are "a cultural order" within which we live, but without a clear definition of a cultural order or even culture at all, a historical account does nothing to strengthen the main ideas (p. 4). The book also seems to ignore precisely how this persists as a cultural order today. Statistics centered around the number of black Americans in jail are not enough to argue that this is a pervasive and enduring cultural order today (p. 26).

Within this arbitrarily defined cultural order of white supremacy, the Church lives and moves and has its being. And according to the authors, it's the Church's responsibility to "engage culture, transform cities, and bring the kingdom of God" (p. 6). It's easy to gloss over that line, but it is pregnant with a view of the Church that is foreign to Scripture and damaging to the Church's mission. One can see the heart of this paradigm when the authors go so far as to call the Church a "civil organization" differing from the federal government only in size and resources (p. 11). We should be clear, the end of a civil institution is civil, and the end of a spiritual institution is spiritual. God does not design means that lead to different ends. The end of the Church is eschatological glory. The end of civil institutions is preserving the world until the Judgment.

The bright spot of this book is the chapter on restitution in the Christian tradition. Removed from redefining the Church as a political arm and a cultural order of white supremacy that somehow permeates all of society, this chapter made a clear case for restitution, not only at the individual level but in circumstances where the individuals are deceased, or the heirs are unidentifiable (p. 127). The authors attempt to broadly apply the Mosaic law under the phrase "If you steal something, give it back" (p. 122). Still, it would've been more helpful to see the Mosaic law as a culturally specific natural law appropriation. On that basis, the authors could've easily claimed that these are broader moral ideas that are merely codified in the Mosaic economy.

Concerning restitution and restoration examples in the New Testament, the authors curiously give two examples from Scripture: Zacchaeus and the Good Samaritan. The authors do not show examples of the Church in the Old Testament or the New Testament giving restitution or some restorative act, as in the Good Samaritan case. Zacchaeus did this purely in response to receiving God's grace and mercy in the Gospel (p. 121). Nevertheless, this was an individual, not an institution. In the case of the Good Samaritan, this is even more complex. Did the Good Samaritan do this from a Christ-redeemed mind, or is the Good Samaritan a model of perfect obedience to the law? Since Christ uses this parable to illustrate that He is the true Good Samaritan, the latter seems more likely. This is only to say that this example does not make sense in the context of calling a spiritual institution to restitution.

It's important to note that the authors mention Kuyper's Church Institution/Organism paradigm and acknowledge that Christians are responsible as citizens of a common kingdom with unbelievers (p. 87). But they see this as an addition to calling the Church as a spiritual institution to the task. That leaves us with the following question: If Christians should advocate for restitution and reparations as common citizens, why does the Church as an institution need to be involved? The Church ought to seek after a better country, whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:14, 10). That's not to say that the Church doesn't engage with sin, even corporate sin. It may even be the case that Church's that have held slaves or participated in slavery should engage in the work of restitution and restoration. But to draw this out to engaging every church in social work and public policy is distracting and weakens the spiritual mission of the Church.


The most helpful and theologically informed chapters of this book were on restitution and restoration in the Christian tradition. It would've been more valuable and conducive to expand the latter half of the book and drop the initial chapters. While it's understandable that these initial chapters illustrate that racism and white supremacy are a cultural order, without defining what a cultural order is and how it works, historical accounts are not enough to prove this claim. To that end, reparations may be the answer. But this book does not verify or bolster the thesis in the civil sphere for Christians.

The authors begin with a challenge to readers to see and understand racism in the first chapter. They discuss various ways to see racism and offer that it isn't simply a matter of personal prejudice, relational division, or institutional injustice, but fundamental cultural disorder. There are many reasons we resist seeing the truth, but ultimately they are all fleeing from reality. We must not blind ourselves if we are to heal.

In the second chapter, they approach the topic of White supremacy. Two insights they highlight are that race is a modern invention and it has a social function. Over time, slavery became linked to Blackness, which led to the creation of its mirror opposite, Whiteness. These ideas eventually shifted from skin color to much deeper issues, that of inferiority and supremacy. Moreover, this White supremacy was pervasive throughout American history and endured through various eras and attempts to create equality.

Chapter 3 provides depictions of the effects of White supremacy. Beginning with the example of hiding of slave workers from view at the University of Virginia and the forgotten and unmarked cemetery of African Americans. The effect the authors are pointing out is not simply the difference between marked and unmarked cemetery, but one of pervasive theft, "a massive, and multigenerational project of cultural theft." This theft is one of truth, power, and wealth; it is also at the heart of their case for reparations. Identity, history, personal and political power, and extraction and obstruction of wealth are all areas in which White supremacy has stolen from African Americans.

Diving into the heart of the book, which is directed towards Christians, the authors examine the church's mission and history in chapter 4. They begin with the church's mission in a world of theft. At the heart of the church's identity is a call to love, which it has the capacity to do. The church has a missional responsibility to a particular work of love in its local context which means it has the obligation to confront White supremacy. Yet, there is also the contradictions in the church's history it must own. It has a history of at times and places being faithful, but also failing and being perpetrators, accomplices, or silent bystanders.

Our moral history and tradition, while sometimes filled with the failures previously mentioned, provides an ethic to deal with those guilty of stealing and the victim. It is in this fifth chapter that they address the biblical foundation of restitution. The authors start with the story of Zacchaeus before looking at three Old Testament passages supporting and providing principles for restitution. With the understanding that Scripture teaches what is stolen must be paid back, the authors cover both the past few generations' understanding of restitution and then as it relates specific to White supremacy.

Reparations are not about restitution alone, but also the work of restoration, returning and restoring your neighbor even if you aren't directly responsible or culpable. This argument is drawn of the parable of the good Samaritan. Restoration is a work of love; it can be left undone because of anxiety, casuistry, invisibility, and hostility. Ultimately, the Samaritan did not follow cultural norms, restored the person fully, showed the call of being a neighbor, and was a witness.

The last chapter offers some options for churches as they begin to step in the direction of reparations. Through listening to others, particularly African American voices the authors suggest that that the work of reparations should be comprehensive, local, and deeply spiritual.

I would encourage all Christians to read and engage with the call to reparation set forth in this book. As I recommend this book, there are two things I would make note of. First, I'm conflicted on my desire for the authors to have included more. Seeing more specific applications would have been nice. Being a more concrete minded person, I would like to see ways to follow through. At the same time, I recognize that this has been done in some ways by others (I'm also currently reading a book by John Perkins), and it is probably not the authors desire to go that far at this point. The book in incredibly readable and more time should be spent reflecting on the ideas. Secondly, I wonder who will read this book within Christian circles. My hope is people will read it thoughtfully, but I sadly expect people to balk at the title "Reparations" and to be generally averse to the idea.

Overall, the arguments set forth for reparations are at the level of introductory and I would like to see more discussion on this topic. No where is the more true than the idea of reparation involving restitution and restoration. This book would be a great topic for a group study and preamble to starting a local reconciliation group.

Reparations is something that I have never really known what to do with. I've heard the concept and largely found it uncomfortable. Seeing this book fueled my curiosity. Is their a Christian argument in favor of reparations? The authors not only say yes. But they believe that the church should be at the forefront of repairing the racial issues in our country. The chapters that explained the biblical and christian roots of reparations are worth the price of the book. This is impeccably written and very timely. Plenty will get angry and disagree from the title alone, but their work will not be easily dismissed. This is an important work that any Christian writing about reparations will be forced to acknowledge and wrestle with.

Duke L. Kwon and Gregory Thompson’s “Reparations,” is an extremely challenging yet necessary book for our current times. All Christians should read it and pay close attention to its prophetic and pastoral invitations.