The Challenge of Slavery and the the Religious Imagination October 21, 2011

The Old and the New Testaments took shape in a world in which enslavement was taken absolutely for granted. Scripture is littered with pedestrian references to enslaved people. Apart from one passage in Deuteronomy, there is no explicit condemnation of the practice. Jesus remained mute on this subject and the Apostolic writers defined "slavery" as an unredeemed spiritual condition, not as the exploitation of fellow human beings. How, then, did it transpire starting in the 18th century, that Bible-centered Christian "conscience" began inspiring abolitionist movements. What were the implications of this unprecedented assault on slavery for Bible-believing Christians in the United States before the Civil War? What are the legacies for us today of this spiritual struggle, particularly since new forms of slavery are multiplying all over the world?

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