Family isn't only who you're born to. It's who helps you survive.
What if the church has misunderstood Jesus' teaching about family for centuries?
In Beyond Blood, Rev. Dr. Jason Carson Wilson introduces Chosen Family Systems Theory and Chosen Family Systems Theology-an innovative theological, pastoral, and interdisciplinary framework for understanding the communities people intentionally create when biological families are absent, unsafe, or unable to offer love and belonging.
Drawing on Scripture, family systems theory, Black liberation theology, womanist theology, queer theology, pastoral care, psychology, sociology and lived experience, Wilson challenges the idea that chosen family is merely a substitute for "real" family. Chosen family is real family: a source of care, identity, resilience, accountability and hope.
Through biblical interpretation, historical analysis, theological reflection and practical application, Beyond Blood explores Jesus' radical reimagining of kinship; the often-overlooked presence of chosen relationships in early Christianity; Black communities' enduring traditions of extended and chosen family; and LGBTQIA+ chosen families as spaces of survival, resistance and possibility. Wilson also examines Family Systems Theory through a liberationist lens and presents Chosen Family Systems Theory as a new interdisciplinary model for ministry, mental health, community care and social transformation.
Wilson asks what changes when churches take chosen kinship seriously: Whose relationships are blessed, whose grief is recognized, and who receives care when conventional family structures fail? The book confronts the ways religious language can sanctify exclusion while showing how communities of commitment can embody compassion, safety, and shared responsibility. By bringing theological reflection into conversation with systems thinking and care practices, Wilson offers readers a framework for noticing relational strengths, naming barriers to belonging, and building healthier networks of support. The goal is not to dismiss biological family, but to expand our understanding of kinship and ensure that every person's life-giving relationships can be honored.
The book moves beyond theological concepts to the places where belonging can mean the difference between isolation and healing. It considers chosen family in hospitals, prisons, psychiatric institutions, chaplaincy, and other settings where relationships shape survival, recovery, and well-being. It invites congregations and helping professionals to recognize the people who actually provide care-not simply those connected by legal or biological ties.
Designed for both study and practice, Beyond Blood offers practical resources for pastors, chaplains, therapists, social workers, educators, community organizers, and congregations. Readers will find chosen family assessment tools, discussion questions, sample liturgies, congregational resources, clinical applications, and community-organizing strategies to help turn a theology of belonging into tangible practices of care and justice.
More than a book about family, Beyond Blood calls us to rethink belonging itself. It challenges faith communities to move beyond narrow definitions of kinship and build relationships rooted in dignity, mutual care, accountability, and liberation. It offers clergy, seminarians, scholars, students, Black church leaders, LGBTQIA+ Christians, and anyone committed to justice a vision of God's family larger than biology-a community where people are seen, protected, and loved.
If you've ever been told your family doesn't count, this book says otherwise.
Because sometimes the people who save your life don't share your DNA. They share your covenant.
