Religion, Racecraft, and the “Tyranny of Convention”

How do theological and philosophical understandings of language adequately meet the challenge of human difference and unfreedom in the modern world?  In grappling with this question, this paper will introduce a religious and theological reading of Stanley Cavell and show its explanatory power in critiquing and analyzing racial unfreedom in America. By putting Cavellian reflections on the “tyranny of convention” in conversation with Barbara and Karen Fields’ account of racial ideology, I argue that racial unfreedom can be best understood within ordinary language philosophy and its theological and religious inflections. By doing so, I will highlight, why, in the pursuit of liberation and freedom, the language of race has persisting significance for practitioners of religion in and outside of Christianity.