The Gospel and My Black Skin
Confronting the Past, Reclaiming the Future
- Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
- Publisher: Zondervan Reflective (Zondervan)
- Published: 2026
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Publisher's Description
Is Christianity really a white man's religion? Is it any good for Black people? Can a faith once used to enslave also empower Black lives? In The Gospel and My Black Skin, Dr. JP Foster boldly tackles the complex, often unspoken questions many Black people are asking today. As Christian nationalism gains momentum, revisionist history distorts the past, and churches remain complicit--or silent--on matters of justice, a growing number of Black believers are questioning the faith they've inherited while others are walking away. Dr. Foster offers a timely and prophetic response. With both historical insight and pastoral compassion, he uncovers Christianity's suppressed African roots, exposes how Scripture was gutted to keep Black people in chains, and reclaims the original Christian message as a source of liberation, justice, dignity, and oneness. He directly addresses today's most pressing realities: systemic racism, cultural erasure, and the erosion of truth by those seeking to sanitize the past. This is not just a critique--it is a spiritual and historical reclamation. Dr. Foster calls on Black Christians to confront painful truths, peel back layers of distortion, recover the essence of Christianity, and reclaim a faith that has long been their own. This book is both a challenge and a call to confront painful truths, grieve and heal from generational trauma, and boldly walk into a renewed faith that honors God and Black identity. Whether you are questioning your place in the church, wrestling with religious disillusionment, or seeking a more thorough understanding of Christianity that empowers your faith, The Gospel and My Black Skin is a journey worth taking.
Endorsements (4)
“The Black freedom struggle has been the leaven in the modern democratic loaf just as the prophetic Black church has been the engine of the Black freedom struggle. This courageous and visionary book keeps our great Black tradition of love and justice alive. I salute Dr. JP Foster. His powerful and poignant witness is so timely in our grim times.”
Dr. Cornel West
“For the first time in American history, the younger generation of Blacks is leaving the church en masse; it’s what sociologists refer to as the “Black exodus.” Unable to disentangle the faith of “Big Mama” from that of our enslavers, many have thrown the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. So what are we to do? I’d start by reading my friend Dr. JP Foster’s honest, healing, and hope-filled book The Gospel and My Black Skin. When you finish, you will be inspired, as the old folks used to sing in the Black church, to “hold to his hand, God’s unchanging hand.”
Dr. Bryan Loritts
“Rev. Dr. JP Foster doesn’t pull any punches here. This book strikes a devastating blow to the insidious forms of white supremacy that have flourished under the church’s protection. His goal is to help Black readers understand the pain and disappointment they have experienced at the hands of believers who have absorbed forms of racism and used the Bible to justify them. Then he demonstrates that Christianity is not a “white man’s religion” but grew robustly in Africa before it did so in Europe. After highlighting Black heroes of the faith, Dr. Foster paints a hopeful picture of a collaborative and healthy future where believers of all races can worship and work together. Dr. Foster’s writing style is effortless to read—powerful prose that will challenge readers of any race to rethink their ideas about where Christianity Christianity came from and who shaped it to become what it is today. A prophetic word. A healing balm. An urgent message. Take up and read!”
Dr. Carmen Imes
“didn’t bring Christianity to Africa, and people of color have never been an afterthought in the heart of God. What we need now more than ever are the corrective lenses to see the Bible for the truth that it really is. The Gospel and My Black Skin provides those lenses. This book is so timely and so needed. Read it and be healed.”
Dr. Van Moody
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