Title: Race and Racism in the Sacred Texts and Human Contexts
Subject Classification:  Race and Racism, Religion and Faith, Society and Culture  
BIC Classification: HRC, JFFN
BISAC Classification: SOC053000, REL017000, SOC039000
Binding: Hardback, eBook
Publication date: 17 Aug 2026
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-83711-954-7
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-83711-955-4

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Description

While many studies explore the intersection of race and a single faith, *Race and Racism in the Sacred Texts and Human Contexts* offers a vital, comparative perspective. This edited collection brings together a diverse group of scholars to critically examine how various world religions have constructed, confronted, and been shaped by racial ideologies, analyzing sacred texts and traditions from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, alongside specific cultural contexts from Senegambia to the Korean Peninsula. Contributors explore the use and abuse of scripture in perpetuating racism, as well as its role as a source for liberation and resistance, addressing topics such as the scriptural roots of othering, theological conceptions of Blackness, the colonial invention of race, and the migration of racial hermeneutics. This interdisciplinary work is an indispensable resource for students and scholars in religious studies, theology, race and ethnic studies, sociology, and history, offering nuanced insights into the complex relationship between faith and racial identity in both historical and contemporary contexts.

Biography

Editor(s):  Dr. Muhammad Shafiq is a Professor and Executive Director of the Hickey Center and holds IIIT Interfaith Studies Chair at Nazareth University, USA. He holds an MA. PHD from Temple University, USA and an MA and a BA from the University of Peshawar, Pakistan. He has written more than 45 articles and several books.

Reviews

"With clarity, a global perspective, and depth, this volume allows us to understand if and how sacred texts communicate ideas of race. Surely, how the readers interpret sacred texts matters, and across these essays, we come to see how and why those interpretations matter for our world. This volume by experts on a topic affecting our globe is a vitally important work for our time."
- Michael O. Emerson, Chavanne Fellow in Religion and Public Policy, Co-Author of Divided by Faith and the Religion of Whiteness, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University

"These timely theological-historical-social conversations invite readers to examine and question the relationship of sacred texts, religion, and constructions of otherness."
- Angela D. Sims, President of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School and author of Lynched: The Power of Memory in a Culture of Terror

"This book is a vital resource in the ongoing interfaith dialogue. Its main purpose, in tracing social justice issues, is to investigate concepts and issues of race within religious traditions. Acknowledging that the term and concept of race itself is in itself a form of racism, the studies contained in this collection demonstrate how sacred texts express human diversity of cultural, social, and linguistic characteristics, thereby reorienting the reader toward analyses of ethnic diversity and away from othering brought about through standard compartmentalization of race. All teachers and scholars will find this work indispensable to clarify thought and raise important questions in the classroom."
- Dr. Daniel Maoz, Jewish Scholar in Residence, Professor of Hebrew Scriptures, Director of Judaism, Martin Luther University College, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada