Beyond a theology of good intentions: Whiteness, patronage and bourgeois respectability in the Methodist Church

ABSTRACT In a contribution developed from an address with British Methodists – the church to which the author belongs – this article probes problematic dynamics of patronage in a tradition that at its best has affirmed equity and social justice. Through exploration of Willie James Jennings’ emphasis on the ubiquity of Whiteness, and revisiting the author’s own earlier critique of ‘a theology of good intentions,’ as well as through case studies in theological education, committee work, and processes of stationing and supervision, the article finds exceptionalism and ‘unreflective Whiteness’ still at play in the Methodist Church. With ‘liberative, prophetic hope’, the article calls for better norms.