Abstract
After the murder of George Floyd, “I can’t breathe” became the rallying cry for various social, environmental, economic, and political traumas that engulfed American society. The blatant violation by one person to take the breath of life from another sparked outrage nationwide. Rather than focusing on the response of those in power, as is typical throughout history, the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls Christians to turn their attention to minorities who feel the impacts of these traumas most acutely. According to Bonhoeffer, Christians must go beyond simply acknowledging the impact on those who suffer and take action to assist them, looking to Jesus as the ultimate example of solidarity.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bonhoeffer, D. (2005). Ethics. Fortress Press.
Bonhoeffer, D. (2008). Dietrich Bonhoeffer works (English ed.). Fortress Press.
Bonhoeffer, D. (2015a). Letters and papers from prison. Fortress Press.
Bonhoeffer, D. (2015b). The cost of Discipleship. SCM Press.
Cohn, D. V., & Passel, J. (2018, April 18). A record 64 million Americans live in multigenerational households. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/05/a-record-64-million-americans-live-in-multigenerational-households/
CNN. (2020, June 1). President Trump’s call with US Governors over protests. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/politics/wh-governors-call-protests/index.html
Duncan, C. (2020, June 3). Two evangelical leaders have very different reactions after Trump’s church photo-op. McClatchy Washington Bureau. https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article243228061.html
Ford, D. (Ed.). (1997). The modern theologians: An introduction to Christian theology in the twentieth century. Wiley-Blackwell.
Gould, E., & Shierholz, H. (2020, March 19). Not everybody can work from home: Black and Hispanic workers are much less likely to be able to telework. Economic Policy Center. https://www.epi.org/blog/black-and-hispanic-workers-are-much-less-likely-to-be-able-to-work-from-home/
Kardas-Nelson, M. (2020, September 21). Racial and economic divides extend to wildfire smoke, too. https://www.invw.org/2020/09/21/racial-and-economic-divides-extend-to-wildfire-smoke-too/
Keating, D., & Johnson, A. (2021, September 15). The pandemic marks another grim milestone: 1 in 500 Americans have died of covid-19. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/1-in-500-covid-deaths
Kilgore. (Ed.). (2020, June 2). Christian right leaders loved Trump’s Bible photo op. Intelligencer. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/christian-right-leaders-loved-trumps-bible-photo-op.html
Kuniholm, W. T. (2020, June 2). More than a symbol. American Bible Society News (blog). https://news.americanbible.org/blog/entry/corporate-blog/more-than-a-symbol
LeBlanc, P. (2020, June 2). Bishop at DC church outraged by Trump visit: ‘I just can’t believe what my eyes have seen.’ CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/politics/cnntv-bishop-trump-photo-op/index.html
Warren, M. (2020, June 3). Trump risks Backlash from Evangelicals with ‘tone-Deaf’ Bible photo-op. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/politics/trump-evangelicals-church-protests/index.html
Williams, R. L. (2014). Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem renaissance theology and an ethic of resistance. Baylor University Press.
Wu, D., & Nethery, R. (2020, April 27). Exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States: A nationwide cross-sectional study. MedRxiv preprint. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.05.20054502
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Herzfeld, N. (2022). “I Can’t Breathe”: The Bible and Bonhoeffer on Race and Suffering in America. In: Akande, A. (eds) Handbook of Racism, Xenophobia, and Populism. Springer Handbooks of Political Science and International Relations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13559-0_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13559-0_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-13558-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-13559-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)