This Bible study resource is designed to help churches and Christians delve into the discussion of reparations on biblical terms. Of course, personal politics and experience will always emerge in conversation – after all, doing theology is always contextual! Acknowledging this, We Will Repay takes up the challenge of helping Christians discern God’s heart on this matter as it is revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
For clarity, this resource concerns the responsibility of particular churches to enact reparative justice and is not a call to individual responsibility. The churches in question are those historical churches that engaged in and/or profited – or even continue to do so – from enslaving people of African descent. Complicity in this horrific historical episode includes the Christianising of African peoples to subjugate and manipulate their wills – entwined within biblical Christian mission lay a colonial and supremacist way of thinking, knowing and doing which for centuries was part of the inner workings of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
This resource is designed for Christians and active members of local churches to study, discuss and consider the biblical case for reparations. I hope churches will be empowered and inspired to lead society (so far as they will be led) to engage in reparative justice. However, despite my personal hopes, the resource has been designed so that each study group or individual can be thoroughly informed and challenged yet given the room to discern for themselves – hopefully with humility, love and spiritual conviction.
Dr Eleasah Louis
Produced by Baptists Together, The Racial Justice Advocacy Forum and Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI).
Download
We Will Repay – Bible study (PDF)
Updated links
Over time web links invariably get out of date. We will list here any updates to the links in the Bible study:
- P56, footnote 56: Timothy Keller on Justice in the Bible – Gospel in Life
Background material
These articles by Richard Reddie, Director of Justice and Inclusion at Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) provide useful information about the transatlantic slave trade:
The Church and African chattel enslavement (Docx)
The Transatlantic Slave Trade – facts and figures (Docx)
