The Anti-Greed Gospel
Why the Love of Money Is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create a New Way Forward
by Malcolm Foley
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Pub Date 11 Feb 2025 | Archive Date 28 Feb 2025
Baker Academic & Brazos Press | Brazos Press
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Description
Racism is not about hate and ignorance. It's about greed. And it always has been.
Black Christian historian Malcolm Foley explores this idea in The Anti-Greed Gospel, showing how the desire for power and money--what some call "racial capitalism"--causes violence and exploitation.
Foley reviews the history of racial violence in the United States and connects the killings of modern-day Black Americans to the history of lynching in America. He helps the contemporary church wrestle with the questions racial violence brings up: How can we become communities that show generosity and resist greed? What is the next step in the journey for racial justice?
Readers will walk away with a better understanding of how they can resist greed that exploits others, love their neighbor more completely, and build communities of deep solidarity, anti-violence, and truth telling.
Advance Praise
“In this bracing cri de coeur, Malcolm Foley cuts through lies and obfuscations to locate greed at the root of race and racism. Marshaling compelling historical and theological evidence, The Anti-Greed Gospel presents a searing critique of the status quo and points Christians to a redemptive path forward. A must-read book for the American church.”—Kristin Kobes Du Mez, New York Times bestselling author of Jesus and John Wayne
“Many people say that the original sin of the United States was racism; in reality, racism was a symptom of the original sin of greed. The Anti-Greed Gospel dismantles deficient definitions of racism and reminds us that greed is what generates, animates, and sustains racial prejudice—both past and present. This book, properly understood and applied, has the potential to topple our monuments to Mammon and make room for real racial justice in both church and society.”—Jemar Tisby, New York Times bestselling author of The Color of Compromise and The Spirit of Justice; professor of history, Simmons College of Kentucky
“The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, including racism. Malcolm Foley is a thinker who makes you think. In his debut work, Foley unpacks the theological and sociological layers of racism. He rightly identifies the center of American racism, which is greed—greed that costs human lives. Foley’s book builds a strong case for what’s really fueling the lie of race and the horrors of racism, but he doesn’t leave us hopeless. This book offers us a necessary antidote to racism if we put down the delusions and temptations of greed.”—Christina Edmondson, coauthor of Faithful Antiracism: Moving Past Talk to Systemic Change and Truth’s Table: Black Women’s Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation
“The Anti-Greed Gospel is both seriously convicting and saturated with hope—real hope that is both disruptive and full of wonder. I learned. I lamented. I leapt. Malcolm Foley points us to the alternative society that the church has always been, calling us to economic solidarity, creative anti-violence, and prophetic truth-telling. In this, we are a people that isn’t striving to redeem the world but rather revealing that the world has already been changed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. May churches read this book together and practice living in the reality of the kingdom and the love for our Lord and for our neighbor.”—Aimee Byrd, author of Saving Face and The Hope in Our Scars
“Malcolm Foley continues the radical tradition by showing us how greed produces racism. He calls us away from anti-racist virtue signaling and brings us to the feet of Jesus, where we can either beg God’s mercy for our racist greed or justify ourselves into condemnation. He reminds us that the church’s fight against anti-Black lynching and its struggle for economic justice and solidarity are the same fight.”—Jonathan Tran, associate professor of theology in great texts, Baylor University; author of Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781587436307 |
| PRICE | US$21.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 192 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Librarian 789836
A convicting book for Christians to examine how wealth and racism are connected. Definitely will make you rethink your views on money and greed.
Richard P, Reviewer
"The Anti-Greed Gospel: Why the Love of Money is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create a New Way Forward" by Malcolm Foley isn't an easy read.
In fact, at times it's a pretty horrific read. At times, I can't even lie, I wanted to stop reading it.
Stopping wasn't an option.
Pastor at Mosaic Waco and Special Advisor to the President for Equity and Campus Engagement at Baylor University (I love the idea of Foley and Beth Allison Barr on the same campus), Foley has crafted what Publishers Weekly calls "A Forceful call to recognize the roots of American inequality and a solid starting point for Christians who want to help fix them."
The assertion is quite simple really. Racism is not about hate and ignorance, though this is often the lens that we use. It's about greed. According to Foley, it always has been.
Note by note and scripture by scripture, Foley sets out to show how how "racial capitalism" causes violence and exploitation. For anyone who cares, and all Christians should, "The Anti-Greed Gospel" is an often difficult read as Foley takes us through the history of racial violence in the United States including paying absolutely necessary to the history of lynching.
"The Anti-Greed Gospel" begins boldly as Foley establishes that we're in for a different sort of discussion. While acknowledging traditional views of racism, Foley makes it clear that what we're about to read is about Mammon, which Christians will know is preached against throughout Scripture. Foley dives in quickly to explain how race/racism has been created to justify exploitation and domination. To a painful extent, and for those particularly sensitive I'll note somewhat graphic one, Foley repeatedly visits the history of lynching as a post-slavery means by which control over African-Americans was inflicted.
Much of the first half of "The Anti-Greed Gospel" deals specifically with the history of greed, race, and racial capitalism. The second half, is a necessary and pointed call to action. Foley introduces us to key figures throughout, from Francis Grimke to Atticus Haygood to James B. Cone to the vastly underappreciated Ida B. Wells.
"The Anti-Greed Gospel" accomplished many things for me.
First, of course, Foley powerfully captures the truth that greed is at the very root of racism and without addressing it we are failing to not just eliminate racism but actually replace it.
Secondly, Foley brings forth an effective argument about the necessity of anti-violence rather than non-violence or any number of other familiar phrases or terms.
Thirdly, Foley constructs more convincingly than nearly any writer I've read an argument against violence. As someone who spent several years within the Anabaptist tradition, my leanings have often been toward peace but with those usual red flag discussions. Foley addresses the vast majority of those discussions with precision, discipline, Scripture, and remarkable insight.
Finally, I must acknowledge that even before I was done with reading "The Anti-Greed Gospel" I could feel Foley's words becoming actionable. As a longtime activist, I could feel Foley's words influencing my giving, my philanthropy, and my desire to ensure my giving is devoid of "superior/inferior" in favor of equity and community. I may have cried (Okay, I did) as I thought about this last year as I traveled in my wheelchair 160 miles to eliminate medical debt for Hoosiers.
If anything, I wish I'd read this book before that effort.
As an adult with disabilities, I saw kernels of truth that I could also apply to my own existence and to the way I live in my world and the world around me.
In short, I didn't just learn a lot from Malcolm Foley's "The Anti-Greed Gospel." I learned how I could apply it all to my own life.
Weaving together powerful theological truths and insights with historical evidence and lived realities, "The Anti-Greed Gospel" refuses to accept the path we've been living far too often as Christians but then, with stunning compassion, points toward a Christ-like path forward.
