Healing the Racial Divide

Healing the Racial Divide retrieves the insights of Dr. Arthur Falls (1901-2000) for composing a renewed theology of Catholic racial justice. Falls was a black Catholic medical doctor who dedicated his life to healing rifts created by white supremacy and racism. He integrated theology, the social sciences, and personal experience to compose a salve that was capable of not only integrating neighborhoods but also eradicating the segregation that existed in Chicago hospitals. Falls was able to reframe the basic truths of the Christian faith in a way that unleashed their prophetic power. He referred to those Catholics who promoted segregation in Chicago as believers in the ""mythical body of Christ,"" as opposed to the mystical body of Christ. The ""mythical body of Christ"" is a heretical doctrine that excludes African Americans and promotes the delusion that white people are the normative measure of the Catholic faith.

""Good scholarship can achieve a resurrection. In this well-researched and beautifully written book, Rice retrieves from virtual oblivion a towering Catholic African American physician and hero, Arthur Falls. Falls's work is a sharp challenge to both American and Catholic ignorance of African American experience and culture.""
--Professor Daniel C. Maguire, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI

""In his groundbreaking study of black Catholics in the US, Cyprian Davis calls for 'carefully researched histories carried out on the local level.' Rice's account of Arthur Falls's life and thought is not only such a history. It is also a portrait of the sustaining and transformative power of faith.""
--Jon Nilson, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL

""Lincoln Rice's text describes racism in both the theology and actions of the Roman Catholic Church and engages readers in a compelling examination of whether racism is heretical or 'merely' sinful. As Rice shows, racism attacks the integrity of the mystical body, a doctrine that deeply influenced Dorothy Day and those in the Catholic Worker movement, including the African-American Chicagoan Arthur Falls. The life of Falls, so effectively retold here, shows that his moral suasion and nonviolent action had lasting results in integrating Chicago institutions. As Falls said, 'If you're right, you don't always lose.'""
-- Rosalie Riegle Troester, editor of Voices from the Catholic Worker


Lincoln Rice earned his PhD in moral theology from Marquette University and has published articles in American Catholic Studies and the Journal of Religion, Identity, and Politics. He currently teaches theology at Marquette University and is a member of the Milwaukee Catholic Worker, which provides temporary shelter for homeless families and promotes a variety of peace and justice issues.