The Entangled Histories of Christianity, Atheism, and Racism
Brad speaks to Dr. Nathan Alexander about his new book on the entangled histories of Christianity, atheism, and racism in the 19th and 20th centuries. They try to answer some compelling questions: Are non-religious people more or less susceptible than Christians to supporting racism and racist policies? What can history tell us about this subject? They explore Darwin, early irreligious reformers, and 20th/21st century problems.
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My name is Brad Onishi, and I am Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Skidmore College.
And just one announcement today, folks.
As I mentioned last week, we are going to continue to post on a regular basis Tuesdays and Fridays, as we have been for the last couple of months.
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For now, I'll say I am joined by a great guest who's written a great book.
I'm talking to Nathan Alexander, who's a historian from Canada.
Dr. Alexander received a PhD from the, or a doctorate from University of St.
Andrews, which is in Scotland, and was most recently a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Weber Institute in Germany.
And so, Nathan, thanks for being here.
Yeah, thanks so much for having me on.
We're gonna talk today about your brand new book, which is fascinating and much needed, and that book is called Race in a Godless World.
Atheism, Race, and Civilization, 1850 to 1914.
And one of the things that I've really enjoyed just reading your book is that it really draws together the entangled histories of Christianity, Atheism, and Racism.
And, you know, you draw a very sort of nice balance in the book By sort of showing us the histories of atheism and how atheists in many ways were, in many cases, on the forefront of working against racist ideologies and policies and structures.
But it was not of, you know, the story that you give us is not one that simply says, well, Christianity was sort of buttressing racism.
Atheists were working against it.
And that's the story.
Let me tell you how it unfolded.
It's much more complex than that.
And so we kind of have a lot of work to do to kind of understand that.
So let me start here, Nathan, by just asking, you know, your book really begins in the 19th century.
And you begin in the decades right before Charles Darwin's theory of evolution really hit the scene.
And there was a kind of intellectual division at that point.
Of course, in Western Europe and in the United States and Canada, North America, Christianity was a stalwart, a cultural sort of force, in many ways hegemonically.
And most Christians at that time really held what's a view that's called monogenesis.
So I just want to start there and get some terms right out the gate.
I want to get some terms straight.
So the first thing I want to talk about is monogenesis.
What is monogenesis and why would Christians in say 1850, 1860, why would they be in favor of thinking or holding the position of monogenesis?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so there's these two competing theories.
So the one is called monogenesis, and one is polygenesis.
And this is about the origin of human races.
So monogenesis says that there's a single origin, and polygenesis says that there's multiple origins for these different races.
So the predominant Christian view is monogenesis that says all humans descend from Adam and Eve about 6,000 years ago or so.
And so this is sort of the Christian view and I mean I think Many people hold this view just because it seems to be what the Bible says, that we've all come from Adam and Eve.
And some historians seem to say that monogenesis provides a bulwark against racism.
I think that's true to some extent because it says all humans, even if they look different or something like this, we're all part of the same family, we're all related.
Um, we're all, uh, equally, um, you know, created in the image of God and, um, equally, uh, able to be saved by, by, by Jesus.
So many, yeah, many Christians hold this view, and it, theoretically, it does, uh, work against racism, although I think it's, it's also sort of, And more a theoretical check against racism, because certainly, you know, many Christians nonetheless, you know, engage in slavery and imperialism and things like this, despite their monogenist beliefs.
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