David K. Ryden’s research while affiliated with Hope College and other places

The pervasive reach of the U.S. Supreme Court into virtually every corner of American life by necessity renders a justice’s job heavily multi-disciplinary in nature. Unfortunately, judges tend not to be very good at applying those extra-legal disciplines that may nevertheless be essential to arriving at genuinely informed and sound decisions, whether they implicate history, the natural or social sciences, philosophy, or religion. Luke Sheahan’s book on Why Associations Matter is a careful exploration of the Court’s theoretical and sociological shortcomings in its right of association jurisprudence, a right largely erased by the Court’s 2010 CLS v. Martinez decision. Operating from the premise that social connectedness is indispensable to human flourishing, Sheahan sets out to resurrect associational freedom by putting voluntary social groups at the center of an associational rights jurisprudence that heretofore has been understood only in terms of the individual and the state. In the midst of pandemic induced stay-at-home quarantines that have stripped us of our ability to gather, this extended reflection on the central importance of our collective life is especially salient.

Race relations have long been a blind spot among white evangelical Christians. Yet in the past 15 years, there has been an explicit acknowledgement among white evangelicals of the need for racial reconciliation with minorities who share their evangelical faith. That acknowledgement has been accompanied by tangible efforts to work toward that end, albeit with modest success. This essay examines evangelical attitudes on race among white and minority evangelicals. It explores the unique potential that exists within evangelical churches for genuine racial reconciliation, as well as the significant obstacles rooted both in the nature of the evangelical faith tradition and in the broader contemporary political culture. Finally, the paper outlines a theologically derived public policy agenda around which racial reconciliation might be advanced, within evangelical churches and in society at large.

Abstract will be provided by author.