Abstract
Newson breaks his argument into five chapters, all of which wrestle with the temporal collapse of past, present, and future that is intimately tied to how Confederate statues perform. Beginning with the historical contexts in which statues were erected, he highlights the shifting meanings, designs, and locations of Confederate statues across time. While the earliest statues tended to be obelisks erected on battlefields or in cemeteries to express grief and a sense of lost honor, Confederate statuary soon shifted to serve the purposes of the Lost Cause narrative. The majority of generals and common soldiers that then dominated statue design were placed in public and often politically prominent locales in order to memorialize the Christian virtues and sacrifices of Confederate men. As Newson asserts, the aesthetic reification of the White, Anglo male in stone coupled with a notable erasure of slavery’s role in the Civil War, has allowed Confederate statues to do the insidious work of upholding White supremacy in numerous places throughout the country.
What makes Newson’s book such an important intervention is that it not only takes seriously the Christian theological narrative that undergirds the statues and White supremacy more generally, but also argues that such a narrative can only be disrupted through counter-theologies. Across the book, he offers examples of what such disruption might look like. He suggests using the memory of Christ to remind Americans, and in particular American Christians, to “face and confess wounds from the past” rather than allowing statuary to dominate which narratives are visible (p. 42). Newson reminds his readers that the past is not comprised of neutral facts, but that certain facts are used to build communal memories of the past, even as other facts are obscured. He continues in this line, suggesting that “remembering Christologically” (that is, through the eucharistic memorialization of Christ’s sacrifice) unmasks the misuse of sacrificial language found on Confederate statues (p. 55). And beyond misuse, the statues elevate the ideology of White supremacy to an idolatrous civic religion of the White South.
Building on his careful analysis, Newson reconsiders the two main approaches to Confederate statues: shifting the uptake (or “reading”) of statues by recontextualization, or destroying the statues completely. He notes that the pitfall of destroying statues is that some may assume justice has been served even as the White supremacist ideology that undergirds the statues remains intact. And while he sees more promise in recontextualization, he is quick to remind his readers of less effectual examples. He notes that token statues like that of tennis legend Arthur Ashe do little to change the reading of Confederate general statues on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. Rather, the Ashe memorial’s presence leads to the false suggestion of progress even while White supremacy yet remains. Newson likewise dismisses the addition of small placards of re-narration, as they do nothing to undo the visual dominance of the Confederate men on the surrounding landscape.
I strongly recommend this book to Christian teachers, pastors, and lay members, as well as to non-Christians interested in wrestling with Confederate statues and their power. Throughout this nuanced and challenging book, the author invites Christians in particular to reckon actively with their past, their desired-for futures, and their present complicity in the continued existence of Confederate statues and, therefore, of White supremacy. He presses his Christian readers to begin a process of faithful reckoning through public rituals of lament and repentance. To do so would be to embrace the “apocalyptic moment” constituted by the debate around Confederate statues (p. 164). Most refreshingly, the author makes clear that his book is just a beginning, an invitation to other theological reimaginings that resist the linking of Christianity and White supremacy. Newson calls all to address the continued legacy of Confederate statues as a beginning to prepare for God’s kingdom, and encourages us all to get to work.