A Seminarian’s Word: The power of a name: Ingroups,outgroups,and canonical imagination

Abstract

This article examines the ethical consequences of the ways we narrate the identity of outsiders in the local church. Because names are not neutral things, the names Christians assign to outgroup members materially affect both parties. Using Social Identity Theory as a lens, I explore the problem of intergroup bias and the ways it justifies practices of exclusion and violence in the current North American context. I then offer a few canonical practices as a modest place from which to begin reforming harmful and theologically problematic narrations of identity.