Black liberation theology

Christology from the perspective of the African American

2006-09-23T18:40:00.000-04:00

Christology from the perspective of the African American and
Insights gained in understanding Black Theology from the viewpoints
Of African American theologians and scholars.

This research paper will explore the doctrine of Christology from the perspective of the African American and insights gained in understanding Black Theology from the viewpoints of African American theologians and scholars. This paper will provide a basic definition of the doctrine and present various perspectives of Black male theologians as well as Womanist theologians as they relate to Christology, along with central themes of Black Theology as they relate to the person of Jesus Christ.
Before we can begin to examine Christology from the African American perspective we must first define Christology within the theological framework of the Christian church. Alister E. McGrath’s “Glossary of Theological Terms defines Christology as the section of theology dealing with the identity of Jesus Christ particularly the question of the relation of his divine and human nature.

The Catholic Dictionary defines Christology as that part of theology that deals with “Our Lord Jesus Christ. It comprises the doctrines concerning the person of Christ and His works. The person of Jesus Christ is the second person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Son of the Word of the Father, who “was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man. The stories and mysteries, which were foretold in Old Testament, are revealed in the person of Christ and in the New Testament.
Many scholars refer to Christology as the branch of theology that seeks to explain the saving work or Christ from the approach of describing who the person, Jesus was. In traditional Christian theology Christology logically precedes soteriology, the doctrine that deals with Christ’s saving work. However in the history of the Christian church soteriology actually preceded Christology because of the belief of the early Christians that the work Jesus did, the miracles, healing and teaching led to the claims about who he was.
The doctrine of Christology originated in the early Christian Church in an attempt to answer the questions: “Who was or who is Jesus? Why was he called the Messiah and believed by many to be the anointed one? What did/does Jesus represent in regards to the salvation of human beings and eternal life? These are just a few of the questions that theologians wrestle with concerning the doctrine of Christology.
The Greek word “christos” means “anointed one” and “logos” means “word about.” Therefore Christology is concerned with the union of the divine and human natures. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ and the one divine Person, the Son of God. Christians believe that Jesus is God or the second person of the Trinity who became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth.

The Christian Scriptures, and particularly the Gospels serves as our primary sources for learning about the person of Christ. One theme is consistent throughout the Canon. All of the books deal in some way with the life and ministry of Jesus and the impact he had on the early Christian community and his followers. The responses to Jesus’ question “Who do you say that I am” have helped Christians understand their faith and witness since Peter’s first answer that Jesus is the Messiah. (Matthew 16:16) In a rich variety of images and concepts the New Testament describes, teaches and affirms who Jesus is, what he has done and what remains to be done. It was the issue of slavery and the treatment of African Americans by Christians who preached Jesus as savior of all that led to the development of Black Theology, which seeks to answer the question “Who is Jesus Christ for African Americans? Indeed the answer to this question encompasses a lengthy discourse along with indepth research concerning Christology. The response to the question definitely requires an examination of the culture and the experience of African Americans in their journeys through the Christian faith. It also entails a major discussion of the black theology that has emerged in the United States as a result of slavery and the black experience in America.
But the point, which must be made in response to Jesus’ question “But who do you say that I am?” in dealing with the African American perspective concerning Christology can only be understood through religious discourse that has deep cultural roots and profound theological implications. Both African American male theologians as well as women theologians are doing much work in the area of Christology.
James Cone, one of the first black theologians to emphasize the need for a black theology affirms that Christian theology begins and ends with Christology. Cone states that because Jesus Christ is the focal point of all we know about the Christian gospel, it is therefore necessary to explore the person of Jesus Christ and his work in light of the black perspective. Cone believes that in order to make Jesus Christ relevant to black reality, the task of black theology must begin with asking the question “What does Jesus Christ mean for the oppressed blacks of the land?” (Cone: Black theology of Liberation 110-111)
Cone further contends that the investigation of Jesus Christ must involve the identity of the historical Jesus. Without knowledge of the character and behavior of the historical Jesus of Galilee it is impossible for blacks to assess who Jesus of the 21st century is. Before we can determine the mode of Jesus existence today we must take seriously the examination of the historical Jesus and it’s implication on the African American’s practice of the Christian faith. According to Cone, black theology must show that Albert Cleage’s description Jesus as the Black Messiah “is not the product of minds distorted by their own oppressed condition, but is rather the most meaningful christological statement in our time. (Cone – 111-114)
Demonstration of the relationship of the historical Jesus Christ and the oppressed, begins with a serious encounter with the biblical revelation beginning with the birth of Jesus Christ, continuing on to Jesus’ baptism and temptation, next understanding Jesus’ ministry, and finally a critical examination of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Cone concludes that the gospels are not biographies of Jesus; they are “gospel—that is good news about what God has done in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.” Christology from the black perspective must begin with this focus, which recognizes history as an indispensable foundation of Christology. This foundation prevents us from making Jesus what we wish him to be at certain moments of existence. By taking a serious and critical historical examination of Jesus in the New Testament, we know who Jesus is today and who he was. (Cone 119)
James H. Evans dialogues with other black theologians from the perspective of “Jesus Christ: Liberator and Mediator,” in We Have Been Believers. Evans states that the idea of Jesus is so deeply ingrained in the black religious experience that some have given a negative assessment of black religion and the doctrine of Christology. They have gone so far as to say in a negative assessment that the “Christianity of African people in the United States is, in essence, Jesusology. James Evans is clear to distinguish that “implicit within this criticism is a curious dichotomy between the humanity and divinity of Jesus the Christ, that is indeed inconsistent with African-American theological thought.”
Evans details the development of Christology in two clearly defined positions regarding Jesus. The first focuses on the idea of Jesus as the “Messiah” with all the Hebraic implications and Biblical interpretations, where Jesus is referred to as a liberator of an oppressed humanity, freeing them from powers of sin and social structures. The spiritual implications existent in this position found in the Luken text quoted by Howard Thurman; “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to preach good news to the poor…” provides the foundation. The second position focuses on the notion of Jesus as “the Christ,” who is first and foremost understood to be the “Son of God.” From this standpoint Jesus is referred to as a “mediator between the forces of evil, the effects of sin, and the forces of good, the powers of redemption.” Most black theologians fall somewhere between these two positions.
Regarding a black Messiah noted black theologians such J. Deotis Roberts, James Cone, and Gayraud Wilmore who hold centrist positions regarding Christology agree primarily on the position that the notion of a “black Messiah in African-American religious thought is primarily symbolic, however it is important as a theological symbol because it grounds the biblical teaching in the context of the black culture and the black experience.” (need note)
African American theologians struggle with the christological issues the same as their contemporary European scholars. However it is important to note that the particular shape that a doctrine of Christ that will be understood in the black community and the black church is that which is closest in the hearts of African American Christians. The two emerging issues for Christology in black theology in the twenty-first century according to James Evans are: 1) the “mediation of traditional sources of sustenance and resistance in African American religious expressions, and 2) the liberation of oppressed persons.” The issue of mediation of traditional sources is evident in the writings of womanist theologians, such as Jacquelyn Grant, another topic for a separate research paper. The second topic of liberation is central to the mindset of many black Christian theologians.
Jacquelyn Grant, in her book White Women’s Christ and Black Women’s Jesus, challenges the feminist perspective of Christology and argues that a womanist Christology must center on the humanity of Jesus and not on Jesus’ maleness. The humanity of Jesus serves as the primary reference for the liberation freedom that black women have experienced in today’s society. As an African American woman I am in agreement with Grant that Jesus the Christ represents “ a three-fold significance,” in that Jesus identifies with the “little people,” or the people in the margins, secondly Jesus affirms the basic humanity of these, as “the least,” and thirdly Jesus inspires active hope in the struggle for a resurrected and liberated existence.”
Grant outlines the beginnings of Womanist Christology based on the black woman’s expression of faith as revealed in the black church. Although she rejects the traditional “male image of the divine,” emphasizing that the significance of Christology is not found in the maleness of Jesus, but rather in his humanity, she does not however, question the fact that Jesus died on the cross in order to save us from our sin – the heart of the Christian faith. Grant’s Christology has been shaped has been shaped by the black church experience through the voices of women like Jareena Lee and Sojourner Truth.
Another voice among black women is that of Katie Canon who contends that the Bible is the highest source of authority for most black women. It is in the Bible that black women come to relate to Jesus and find hope for the life situations and dilemmas they struggle with on a daily basis. As God-fearing women these women maintain that life in the black community is more than a defensive reaction to oppressive circumstances. The life that these women live is the “rich, colorful creativity that emerged and reemerges in the Black quest for human dignity.” And it is Jesus who provides the necessary soul for liberation.
Elaine A. Crawford in her essay “Womanist Christology: Where Have We Come From and Where Are We Going?” provides an excellent overview of the Womanist perspectives concerning the contextual theological and Christological questions, “who is Jesus,” and “how is Jesus related to humanity?” These questions that have been sources of debate since the first century give rise to womanist views regarding the person, presence, participation, and purpose of Jesus Christ. Crawford explains that although womanist theology is a relatively new discipline in theological discourse, black women have been “critiquing, reconstructing, and theologizing since Hagar’s radical theological move in the wilderness to name her God.” According to Crawford the question “Where Have We Come From and Where Are We Going?” is foundational in understanding Christology from the perspective of a womanist theology and to the emergence of black women’s consciousness.
For black women the life of Jesus Christ serves as the hermeneutical key or “interpretive reality” in one’s understanding of self and humanity. Womanist as well as feminist theologies have brought a hermeneutic of suspicion to Biblical texts and have thus developed a hermeneutical perspective that uplifts the experiences of women.
There are many voices within the Womanist theological camp as there are approaches to guiding a womanist understanding of Christ. The voices include many of those womanist theologians whose works have been cited in this research paper along with those whose struggle for freedom from slavery, civil rights and women’s rights are too numerous to mention. One other voice that should be mentioned with regard to the doctrine of Christology is that of Renita Weems, Professor of Old Testament at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Nashville, Tennessee.
Weems informs us that Jesus was changing the lives of women even before he was born and Jesus’ ministry on earth profoundly challenged society’s restrictions on women’s roles in the Jewish tradition. Weems also reminds us of the women who followed Jesus to the bitter end. The women who knew only too well what it was like to be rejected, renounced and condemned, stood at the cross where Jesus was crucified. These women who had been with him from the beginning affirmed his Messiahship, served him and prayed for him. Like their contemporary sisters who continue to be ignored, omitted, dismissed and resented by a Euro centric culture, these women found peace and encouragement in each other and in the life and words of their Savior.
Theologically, the heart and mind of the black church and the black preacher are and have always been centered in Christology. While the stories and characters of the Old Testament have played a tremendous role in the life of the black church and in the experience of the black preacher, Christology has been central. Black churchgoers have identified traditionally with Jesus, Calvary and “early Sunday morning,” as understood from the perspective of New Testament. The whole of the Black experience can be understood in the identification of the suffering Jesus. Jesus identified more readily with the oppressed, the downcast, the poor, the imprisoned, and the powerless minorities in societies (Luke 4:18,19; 15). It is this image of Christ that black people ground their theological identity in the association of their lives to that of Jesus Christ. (Jubilee Bible)
Black theologians whether male or female hold that the Jesus of history is important in the African American understanding of who he was and his significance for us today. More than anyone they have captured the essence of the significance of Jesus in the lives of Black people. They have affirmed that Jesus is the Christ, God incarnate and have argued that in light of the Black experience, Jesus is freedom. As Jesus identified with the lowly of his day, he now identifies with the lowly of this day. Jesus has provided freedom from socio-psychological, psycho-cultural, economic and political oppression of Black people. (Black Theology, 283)
In conclusion the issue of Christology and one Christ, or many Christ, or that of a Black Messiah is far from being resolved within the theological spectrum today. Whether the doctrine is tied to the classical or traditional belief or viewed from the perspectives of feminist theologians, contemporary theologians, liberationist theologians, or African American male or womanist theologians, the question posed by Jesus still remains crucial. “But who do you say that I am?” The basic understanding as Christians must be affirmed that Jesus the Christ is the way and the hope for all of humanity. Jesus liberates us from our sins and from injustice and oppression and from indifference. Jesus brings to light the God in each of us and empowers us to share that light and bear witness to others of God’s grace and salvation through the risen Christ.
In the words of Bishop Joseph A Johnson, Jr., “The Church believed that Jesus came into the world for a special purpose. He did not come into the world to give us information on questions of history or science. Jesus came into the world to bring humanity back to God and a real part of Jesus’ saving work was to impart to humankind something of his own vision of the truth of God. Jesus came to reveal the character of God and God’s purpose for humankind. The fulfillment of Jesus mission granted obedience to the will of God.” Alister E. McGrath. Christian Theology, An Introduction. (Oxford University: Blackwell Publishers, 1997.) McBrien, Richard. The Harper Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1995.
McBrien. James H. Evans, Jr. We Have Been Believers. (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1992)
Ibid.,, 77.
Ibid. 86 Jacquelyn Grant. White Women’s Christ and Black Woman’s Jesus. Feminist Christology and Womanist Response. (Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1989.)
Letty M. Russell, Editor. “The Emergence of Black Feminist Consciousness.” Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. (Westminster Press: Philadelphia, 1985).

Elaine Crawford. “Womanist Christology: “Where Have We Come From and Where are We Going?” Review and Expositor Journal, Vol. 95, 1998. 367-380
Renita J. Weems. Just a Sister Away. (Lura Media: San Diego CA, 1988)

Black Liberation Theology/FAQ

2006-09-22T16:57:00.000-04:00

What are (a) the Black Church and (b) the “Black Experience.”? C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya defines the black church as “those independent, historic and totally Black controlled denominations, which were founded after the free African society of 1787 and which constituted the core of Black Christians”, while at the same time recognizing that, “any Black Christian person is included in “the Black Church” if he or she is a member of a Black Congregation.” The Black Church is the plurality of formal institutions and network of ethnic caucuses and congregations of Black Christians that seek to preserve some historic continuity with African-American founders and forebears and some measure of separate identity, if not autonomy, from white controlled judicatories. The general term “Black Church” or “Greater Black Church” refers to the sixteen to eighteen million Christians in the United States who booth claim and are recognized to have some degree of African ancestry and who are organized in congregation and other religious institutions in which African–American membership numerically predominates and is in control on the local level.

The “Black Church” is weighted toward cultural and social institutional factors. This use of the term came into vogue in the mid 1960’s when the designation “Negro” and “Colored” rejected the majority of urban middle class Blacks and “Blacks” began to connote pride in dark skin, ethnic solidarity, affirmation of the history of culture of African-American and militancy in the struggle against all forms of White racism “by any means necessary.”

What has the “Black Experience” taught African Americans that would be useful in the creation of a new historical future for all oppressed people? There are a number of things we have been taught but for years we never really understood it in relationship to our role and position in this society.

We have learned that the sickness of the church in America is also found in the mainstream of American religious thought.
As with the Church as a whole, theology remains conspicuously silent regarding the place of the black man in American society, and for those who spoke their voices were unclear.
The problem of color was simply ignored in America.
The sickness of the church in America is intimately involved with the bankruptcy of American theology.
The church has failed to live up too its appointed mission.
The lack of relevancy of theology for its failure to perform its function.
American theology has failed to take worldly risk

Our task in the church is to make sure that the “church “ is the church. The mission of the church is to act out the gospel it has received. When the church fails in it’s appointed task by seeking to glorify itself rather than Jesus Christ, it is the our job and the job of theology to remind her of what the true mission of the church is, for theology is that discipline which has the responsibility of continually examining the proclamation of the church in light of Jesus Christ. Our responsibility is to revise and criticize the language of the church. This includes not only the language as uttered speech but also the language of radical involvement in the world. It is our task to make sure the church speaks thoroughly human speech, whether word or deed, agree with the essence of the church, that is with Jesus Christ who is “God in his gracious approach to man in revelation and reconciliation. We must not allow the church to remain aloof from the world because Christ is in the world. We must work to development a “worldly theology.” This means that the church must be in the world and that its words and deeds re harmonious with Jesus Christ. We must make sure that Church language about God is relevant to every new generation and its problems. We must call the church to be involved in confronting this society with the meaning of the kingdom in light of Christ.

What is “Black Theology?    Black theology is the embodiment of the insights and understanding of our theologians, our people who appropriated the Christian gospel and articulated its relevance to our need to our condition, to our struggle for freedom. Black theology affirms our children, youth and adults as subjects, not objectives. Black theology calls us to engage in critical thinking to look authentically at the world, and engage in action and reflection with a view to renew and to transform. Black theology emerged from the civil rights movement of the 1960's and therefore it shared the general goals of protesters of that era. It latched on to the radical end of the civil rights movement; it favored Malcolm over Martin, and used terms like "liberation", "Black Power", and "Revolution".

Black theology developed, writers like Cone and West recognized the value of a Marxist critique of the capitalist system, and integrated that into black theology and now calls for a total liberation of black people from racism, capitalism, and imperialism. Black Theology as it has expressed itself in the African-American community seeks to find a way to make the gospel relevant to black people who must struggle daily under the burden of white oppression. The question that confronts black theologians is not one that is easily answered. "What if anything does the Christian gospel have to say to powerless black men," to use James Cone's words, whose existence is "threatened on a daily basis by the insidious tentacles of white power?" If the gospel has nothing to say to people as they confront the daily realities of life, it is a lifeless message. If Christianity is not real for blacks, then they will reject it.

Foundational Voices Before 1980.   Albert Cleage, Jr. wrote a collection of sermons entitled “The Black Messiah” 1969. He promoted the idea that Jesus was a black man….. Developed a nationalist movement…. Jesus was the non-white leader of a non-white people struggling for national liberation against the rules of a white nation…Israel was a mixture of people who were black or mixed with the black people of central Africa…Black people need to know that the historic Jesus was black and a liberator…. Founder of the Black Christian Nationalist…The black church has not always been revolutionary but it has been relevant to the “everyday” needs of black people. Cleage a friend of Malcolm X wrote a sermons entitled “An Epistle to Stokley” “Brother Malcolm” and “The resurrection of a nation” Sermons had strong black and liberation foundations. Cleage believed that Black religion was unique enough that it could not be subsumed under the general rubric of Protestantism.

James Cone wrote “Black theology and black power” 1969 “Black theology of liberation” 1970. Using liberation as the central theme of his theological perspective, Cone’s books made it difficult for white seminary professors to dismiss Black theology as nothing but the rhetoric of a black radical clergy. Cones primary thesis is to analyze black theology in relation to black history, black power and the biblical message… Black theology is the religious counter part to the black power movement…..Black theology is a religious explanation of black people’s need to define the scope and meaning of black existence in a white society…. Black theology puts black identity into a theological context….black power is consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ…..

William R. Jones wrote an important critique of black liberation theology. Theodicy and Methodology in Black theology caught most black theologians off guard.
In his critique he criticizes the theocies and methodologies of Joseph Washington and James Cone. Jones believes the basic question must be is “God a White Racist?” the must be the foundation for the edifice of black theology and thirdly that the issue of Gods racism is unresolved. Jones raises the Question is God anti-Semite. The implication for black theology is clear. In the light of black suffering and again is God a white racist. The question of Suffering in general and black suffering in particular.the question of divine racism cannot be avoided.the nature of black suffering.the issue of favor or disfavor between man and ultimate reality must be considered.

The second understanding must be the charge of divine racism, The notion of methodologies: Black theology must adopt a method of correlation…black experience must function as a theological singular…functional if it advances the concept of black liberation…. black theology must conduct a radical and comprehensive appraisal of classical theological concepts.

Jones raises a number of significant questions: is it premature to classify someone as a suffering servant prior to the liberation event…Without the liberation event how can we differentiate between vicarious suffering and deserved punishment…designate the liberation event for blacks which justifies the noble chosen people-suffering servants.

When Black Theology was given voice in 1970 with the publishing of Cone’s “ a Black Theology of Liberation, Many people decried it as an illegitimate view of Jesus and theology. For certain, it signaled a new perspective. a “new road to faith”  As Black exiles search in often an alien world for the ground of their being, this new road of faith will take us toward the building of community. Love will be recognized as a necessary to the foundation of this structure. This new road will demand new action on the part of those traveling:

We must be concerned for both the oppressed and the oppressor
We must understand a practice the teaching of when he said to love they neighbor as you love your self
W must be able to glory in the past as a gift of God before we can count it as garbage for the sake of the new family and community
A call for solidarity within the Black community; a call for communal identification among the black outcast of America
Our purpose in life should be to leave our community more beautiful than we found it
Like Paul we must clearly apprehend the things which are a par of our own racial and cultural heritage
We must be willing to encourage the discovery of roots long buried and rejected
We must insists that we as creatures of God be true to ourselves
We must celebrate the gifts of those once scorned as members of the black body
We must develop ourselves before we can do any thing for humanity
We as black people must call for an identification between black people and all the wretched nonwhites of the earth
Our faith/religion must be concern for those broken victims in their struggle to be free

This new road to faith must be an affirmation of our being. We can no longer ignore the powerlessness of the Black community despite the repeated call for needed social programs. The formation of this new faith must emerge from the sense of community that affirms itself apart of the kingdom of God. Our faith must rise out of a communal experience with God as we seek to express our theology in language that speaks to the contemporary mood of black people. We must recognize what comes from seeing Jesus as liberator and the Gospel as freedom , which empowers us to risk our selves for freedom and our faith. This faith affirms in the midst of hostel and disbelieving society. We must exist by faith at all times and in all places.

The Promise of Narrative Theology: Recovering the Gospel in the Church

2006-09-22T16:55:00.000-04:00

Alan L. Joplin
December 13, 1999

The twentieth century has been the setting for the development of two interdependent movements: the rise of narrative theology in religious studies and the narrative in neo orthodox theology and contemporary works in hermeneutics.

A narrative is made up of two elements a chronicle of critical event in a person’s life and the interpretation of those events. A person’s identity is shaped by the way they interpret the past. Conversion occurs whenever people alter the perspective by which they evaluate their past and look forward to the future.

The narrative emphasis take two main forms; (scripture as a whole has a narrative character) it is history related rather than historical facts in any narrow chronicling sense; and narratives are fundamental to the understanding of personal identity, because of the narrative quality. Christian discipleship is effected by the resolution of the collision between these two forms, when it gives rise to conversation.

Narratives should be used as the primary language of theology. Protestant doctrines like justification and sanctification fills in the lacking element in the neo-orthodox of revelations and provides the test case for narrative theology and analytical discussion. Neo-orthodox interpretations of revelation reflect the level of the church’s intellectual life, in crisis and identity, which Christians are experiencing at the more primordial level of their life experience.

The Promise of Narrative Theology examines two main themes, Christian identity and Christian revelation, from the standpoint of theology as a story. The modern crisis in Christian identity are centered around the following:
1. The uncertainty of the Bible and Theology and its role in the community
2. The silence of the scripture in the life of the church
3. The loss to both individuals and communities personal histories.

Events and personal histories of both communities and individuals become more meaningful when they are seen to be living stories with a purpose. Stroup, uses language and imagery such as “collision” to identify Christian discovery, disclosure and transformation through encounters with Christ, the Lord of the community.

Building on Niebuhr’s understanding of revelations as an encounter between external events and one’s internal experience, the author argues that a “revelation become an experienced reality at that juncture where the narrative identity of an individual collides with the narrative identity of the Christian community.” A revelation is something that is merely known, whereas true revelatory understanding requires going on to do something because we know it. Wittgenstein gives importance to the social context, in which language is learned and used, but he thinks of language as a tool and this neglects the historical values of symbols and concepts. Revelatory language involves a community tradition in which individuals find their story of personal confession.

Two important issues which are briefly raised but not fully or clearly treated are its implications for questions of historical literacy and theological truths/claims and the relationship between the Christian story and stories of other Faith, which my lack a narrative dimension. Narrative theology will continue because it is rooted in the fundamental symptoms of contemporary crisis.

There are good reasons to believe that the nostalgia upon which narrative theology feeds will grow. Yet they will progress and prosper when like their political counterparts on the edge and margin of modernity—they confront more fully the realities of postmodern culture, consumer society.

The crucial theological issue of the day is weather the church can rediscover how to live out their tradition in light of reinterpreting that tradition for use in a contemporary world. This reinterpretation can offer a clear description of Christian faith, and it’s relevance to the urgent questions, and issues of a modern society.

The absence of theological reflections at all levels of church life makes it hard for many Christians to make sense of their personal identity by means of Christian Faith. Although many characteristics of postmodern industrial societies may appear to resemble semilar phenomena in the past, these characteristics, such as biblical literacy, historical amnesia, ecclesiastical obsession with public image and the congestion of narrative in the marketplace of identity–formation, have different roots roles and functions than their predecessors.

Black Theology Paper

2006-09-22T16:51:00.000-04:00

Black Theology's Call for Economic Justice how do economics and the search for a new just economic order fit in with the goals of black theology? Does black
theology focus solely on exposing and eliminating racism or does it also speak out against economic injustice? If one examines the history of blacks in America, the setting from which black theology emerged, the terminology that it uses, and the later writings of James Cone and Cornel West, then it becomes clear that inherent in black theology is a call for a new economic system that would reduce the harmful effects of capitalism.

Background

Black theology is a popular theology, designed not for an intellectual ruling elite but instead for tens of millions of working class blacks in the United States. It emerges from their experiences of hundreds of years of white racism and economic exploitation, two forms of discrimination that are inseparable
and which still exist in our time.

Slavery

When discussing black experience in the United States one
must first remember that for over a hundred years slavery has
dehumanized blacks and it has shaped the racial and economic
relations that exist today. Slavery determined that black and
whites would be socially divided from the time of the founding of
the United States. It did not exist solely due to white racism
and a 'need' to be superior then blacks. Instead slavery existed
to get blacks to work at bare subsistence levels so that white
plantation owners could earn large profits. This guiding force
behind slavery, a doctrine of minimizing wages and maximizing
exploitation, was capitalism.

After Slavery

Slavery was theoretically abolished by President Lincoln
during the Civil War, but a new kind of slavery replaced it.
Freed slaves found themselves suddenly in a capitalist economy
"full of opportunity", but they were without capital. Many
former slaves returned to work the fields as sharecroppers and
got raw deals in the face of whites who owned all of the land
while they themselves had none. After Emancipation blacks
continued to face discrimination as they were segregated into
jobs that were more dangerous and paid less than those reserved
for whites. Blacks currently serve a role as an army of
unemployed that can be used by bosses to threaten unions to keep
wages low or lose their jobs. Current discrimination is evident
in the fact that blacks are fired in disproportionate numbers
during an economic recession and always face greater rates of
unemployment than whites.

James Foreman

Blacks rebelled against racism and their imposed poverty
during the Civil Rights movements, with the radicals rallying
around the slogan: Black Power! Black theology allied itself
with this Black Power movement that was clearly calling for a new
economic order. James Foreman, in his "Black Manifesto", a call
for economic justice and for a beginning of reparations that was
read at the Riverside church in NYC in 1969, saw clearly that
liberation would not work within a capitalist system:
Any black man or Negro who is advocating a perpetuation of
capitalism inside the United States is in fact seeking not
only his ultimate destruction and death but is contributing
to the continuous exploitation of black people all around
the world. (Foreman 27)
He realized that there was a strong linkage between racism and
capitalism, two forms of oppression that were both part of the
same package that the black power and black theology movements
were opposing. Unlike others who were more concerned with
opposing the current system then creating a new vision, he
explicitly called for a new socialist economic system as a
crucial goal for the liberation of blacks:
"Our fight is against racism, capitalism, and imperialism,
and we are dedicated to building a socialist society inside
the United Sates where the total means of production and
distribution are in the hands of the State, and that must be
led by black people, by revolutionary blacks who are
concerned about the total humanity of this world." (Foreman
29)

Terminology

Black theology emerged from the civil rights movement of the 1960's and therefore it shared the general goals of protesters of that era. It latched on to the radical end of the civil rights movement, favoured Malcolm over Martin, and used terms like "liberation", "Black Power", and even "revolution". So while
Black Theology did not explicitly call for economic change, the terms it used clearly proved what side it was on.

How could a movement favour liberation and agree that economic inequalities should be allowed to continue? Those two beliefs are clearly incompatible! Especially when given the fact that blacks were themselves the primary victims of the inequality. Does not liberation carry with it a clear message of economic liberation in addition to the stated goal of racial liberation?

How could black theologians talk about revolution and agree to maintain the primary system of control, that of capitalism? Revolution would clearly be associated with new left ideology and of past revolutions in countries like Cuba, China, and Russia. The call for revolution was synonymous with advocating socialism.

Cornel West

Starting in the late Seventies, writers like Cornel West and James Cone began to integrate the Marxist critique of capitalism into black theology. In his essay, "Black Theology and Marxist thought" Cornel West calls out for the need for the two to come together and to focus on critiquing their common enemy. First he
questions the use of the term "liberation". Do blacks only seek to imitate middle class whites and permit vast economic inequalities to continue to exist (West 413, vol. 1)? Or does black theology have something to say about the dual economic exploiting doctrines of capitalism and imperialism? (West 413,
vol. 1) He argues that black theology has in the past oncentrated more on opposing the current dominant paradigm than on proposing an alternative, and for that reason it has neglected economic justice (West 413, vol. 1). West argues that class is actually the dominant cause of alienation and this can be seen by
the fact that working class whites are also affected (West 416, vol. 1). Finally he sees that the same forces are aligned behind capitalism and racism against the liberation of blacks (West 414, vol. 1). It is all one fight.

Cornel West in a second essay, "Black Theology of Liberation: a Critique of Capitalist Civilization," calls for a shift in black theology to one that recognizes the validity of the Marxist critique of capitalism and the need for a new socialist order. He recognizes Christianity's prophetic tradition of speaking out against oppression (West 411, vol. 2) and notes Christianity's focus on self fulfilment, a concept that s incompatible with any form of discrimination (West 420, vol.
2). West is not an utopian and recognizes that sin and imperfection will exist, but believes that a revolution, likely an armed struggle, will lead to the establishment of a socialist ociety that he hopes will combine the best of the Marxist and
Christian traditions (West 421-422, vol. 2)

James Cone

According to Cone, Marxism had been neglected because it has been associated with racist whites (Cone 273), viewed as a fringe ideology, associated with Russia in a time of anticommunism, viewed as atheist and a direct threat to Christianity, and seen as overly sectarian (Cone 176-178). In face of these negatives, Cone's interest in Marxism was renewed through contact with Latin
American theology (Cone 177). From there he began to recognize the validity of the Marxist critique, agreeing that Christianity had been used as an opium of the masses (Cone 181). Furthermore he affirms that black liberation theology is in clear support of the poor: "All proponents of liberation theology contend that the
masses are not poor by accident. They are made and kept poor by the rich and powerful few." (Cone 393) Finally Cone directly affirms black theology and being compatible with Marxist political values: "No one can be a follower of Jesus Christ without a political commitment that expresses one's solidarity
with victims." (Cone 187)

Conclusion

In the beginnings of black theology, while it was just emerging the first and most evident source of oppression of blacks was white racism. So racism became its primary target, while black theology's support for socialism remained under the
surface. However as black theology developed, writers like Cone and West recognized the value of a Marxist critique of the capitalist system, and integrated that into black theology and now call for a total liberation of black people from both racism, capitalism, and imperialism.

Works Cited

Cone, James H. "Black Theology and the Black Church: where do we
go from here?" Black Theology: a Documentary History
volume I 1966-1979. Eds. James H. Cone & Gayraud S.
Wiltmore. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1980. 266-275.

Cone, James H. "Black Theology and Third World Theologies."
Black Theology: a Documentary History volume II 1980-1992.
Eds. James H. Cone & Gayraud S. Wiltmore. Maryknoll: Orbis
Books, 1993. 388-398.

Cone, James H. For My People: Black Theology and the Black
Church. Maryknoll : Orbis Books, 1984.

Foreman, James. "The Black Manifesto." Black Theology: a
Documentary History volume I 1966-1979. Eds. James H. Cone
& Gayraud S. Wiltmore. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1980.
27-36.

West, Cornel. "Black Theology and Marxist Thought." Black
Theology: a Documentary History volume I 1966-1979. Eds.
James H. Cone & Gayraud S. Wiltmore. Maryknoll: Orbis
Books, 1980. 409-424.

West, Cornel. "Black Theology of Liberation: a Critique of
Capitalist Civilization." Black Theology: a Documentary
History volume II 1980-1992. Eds. James H. Cone & Gayraud
S. Wiltmore. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1993. 410-425.

Key principle of liberation theology

2006-09-22T16:45:00.000-04:00

Though it has distant historical roots in 16th century Christian humanism, and more immediately in Vatican II, properly speaking liberation theology stems from the 1968 assembly of the Latin American bishops in Medellín, Colombia. That session
endorsed a “preferential option for the poor” on behalf of the Catholic church in
Latin America. The movement took its name from Gustavo Gutiérrez’s 1971 book,
A Theology of Liberation.

Today it is common to speak of a variety of “liberation theologies.” In his 1995
book Liberation Theologies, Jesuit Fr. Alfred Hennelly distinguishes nine: Latin
American, North American feminist, black, Hispanic, African, Asian, First World,
ecotheology and even a liberation theology of world religions. The focus in this
article is on the Latin American form that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s.

Four ideas have been central to the movement:

The preferential option for the poor. For the liberation theologians, this
means that the church must align itself with poor people as they demand
justice. Such insistence has led to charges that liberation theology advocates
class struggle. The liberationists, however, say that they did not invent the
division of society into a wealthy elite and an impoverished majority. The
church helped create this social order: Catholic missionaries served as
evangelizers for the European conquerors, and church leaders sided with the
elites for 400 years. The point, say the liberationists, is not to involve the
church in class struggle, which is a given of the Latin American situation.
Their goal is to shift the church’s loyalties.
Institutional violence. Liberationists see a hidden violence in social
arrangements that create hunger and poverty. Thus when critics accused
theologians of advocating revolutionary violence (which most did not), they
often responded: “But the church has always tolerated violence.” They
meant that by endorsing the status quo, church leaders were acquiescing in a
system that did violence to millions of people.
Structural sin. Liberation theologians argued that there is a social dimension
that is more than the sum of individual acts. Examples frequently cited
include neocolonialism and the feudal nature of the relationship between the
Latin American oligarchy and the peasants. By extension, the redemption
from sin won by Christ must be more than the redemption of individual souls.
It must redeem, transform the social realities of human life.
Orthopraxis. This term was coined by the liberation theologians as a
counterpoint to insistence on orthodoxy, meaning correct belief. Liberation
theologians argue that what is most fundamental is correct action -- that is,
effort leading to human liberation. Most liberation theologians say the accent
on orthopraxis is a matter of balance. They wanted to remedy a
centuries-long Christian inclination to overemphasize belief at the expense of
action.

Liberation theology places a premium on social analysis. To remedy injustice, they
believe, one must first understand the social mechanisms that produce it. To do this,
many liberation theologians were drawn to Marxism. Critics found this alarming,
insisting that one cannot distinguish between Marxist “science” and its ideological
underpinnings -- atheism, materialism and totalitarianism.

Finally, liberationists stress the pastoral dimensions of their work. In Latin America,
liberation theology came to be identified with the base communities, tens of
thousands of small groups of Christians, usually 10-30 people, who come together
for scripture study and reflection leading to action.

The base communities were at the roots of much of the Vatican alarm about
liberation theology. Since they existed independent of clerical oversight, they
seemed to represent a model of “church from below”; and indeed they were
sometimes presented this way by some of their more enthusiastic advocates.
Mainstream liberation theologians have repeated, however, that there is nothing
necessarily adversarial about the base communities.

2006-09-22T16:34:00.000-04:00

Summary analysis of the proceedings
of the ME99 academic workshop held in Cape Town.

Introduction
Section I: Narrative framework

Theme 1: Religious discourse and
public discourse

Theme 2: Religious plurality and
identity in civil society

Theme 3: Citizenship of
marginal/subjugated voices

Themes 4 & 5: Law, constitution, and
religious
organisations/choosing a human rights
language

Theme 6: Interpreting corporate
language and practice

Themes 7 & 8: Religion, gender and
public discourse/ Black theology as
public discourse

Theme 9: Reconstructing a civic moral
fibre
Section II: Clarifying key
concepts

Creating a conceptual language

The key concepts: religion, public
and discourse
Secondary concepts and qualitative
terms
Symbolic-normative language

Problematising and deepening the
language

Religion
Religious language and religious
institutions
Public and publics
Discourse and identity
Discourse and marginality
Public discourse, values and
symbolic language
Race, class and gender
Conclusion

Key Concepts & Framing Questions

Introduction

The Multi-Event 1999 (ME99) was planned to include a wide range of people—including politicians,
religious leaders, academics, local community group representatives and cultural workers. Chances are
that understandings of religion and its role and place in the public realms of society would differ widely
within such a group. This document has been created to hopefully minimise confusion, to limit debates
at cross-purposes with one another and to assist the interpretative activity in which all must engage in
order to arrive at generally intelligible results whilst offering possibilities for new synergies, initiatives and
connections. It attempts to lay out key concepts and framing questions which offer a common foundation
for the debates and discussions which will take place around concrete issues at the February
conference.1

The document arises out of a gathering of some fifty-five academics held in Cape Town in
September/October 1998, with a view to sharpening our focus in looking at our own context, with
comparative input from some international partners. The workshop dwelt on a number of themes in
succession, providing different angles on the question of religion in public life. Brief concept papers had
been commissioned for each theme and were provided to participants.2 These papers were briefly
introduced by convenors. After a plenary debate, the issues were pursued further in smaller groups. All
discussions were carefully tracked and extensive summaries developed.

These two sources of material (concept papers and discussions) has been collated in this document,
which takes the form of a summary analysis of the central points that emerged. The material has been
cut down to a minimum in order to provide a document which may be quickly appraised and readily
referenced in debate.

What follows is organised in two ways. First, a "narrative framework" sets out the eight themes dealt
with in the workshop, more or less as discussion took place. It is therefore largely schematic, raising a
range of questions and views. Speakers or writers are not identified as such. This narrative framework
functions in the first place to orient the reader to the intellectual "story" of the workshop. Second, a
section on "clarifying key concepts" identified in the workshop is provided. In some ways, it is a rerun of
the narrative framework; except it moves a step further in pursuing a more analytical investigation of the
themes and issues that were dealt with. It is therefore not organised around the nine themes but rather
cuts across them to probe links, contradictions, ambiguities and ideas contested in the workshop.

Together, these two sections offer a basis for further discussion, particularly in relation to the ethical and
practical issues which were to be the prime focus of ME99. The aim of the document was to orient
people to the languages that are being used to discuss the issues, the way these languages work, and
the ambiguities and openness in them. It also aimed to give international guests some insight into how
many South Africans think about their current context in respect of religion in public life. As an historical
record, we believe the document will also be of interest to others seeking to relate religion and public life.
For this reason, we are making it available to a wider audience.

Section I: Narrative framework

Theme 1: Religious discourse and public discourse

A major challenge of this discussion was to seek clarity on how language is used, including the variety
of meanings which underlie key concepts, when religious discourse becomes public discourse.

What do we mean by the term "religious"? Specific faith communities? faith traditions? a set of core
values? Often we assume that a particular nuance in our use of the term is clear to all others. The
concept "religion" is fluid and contested, and notoriously difficult to constrain within any one meaning. Is
it possible to work with a plurality of understandings, a plurality of "religions"?

Further, what is meant by "religious discourse"? Is this a separate type of discourse, which then requires
"translation" when spoken in public? Is it essentially subversive talk, "giving voice" to those who are
marginalised or silent? Does it necessarily require one to be fluent or conversant in other discourses, to
develop the ability to be bilingual?

Or is religious discourse already public discourse, drawing on values which are meant for the common
good of society as a whole? If so, then this suggests a need to negotiate common goals, a common
vision and common language to articulate those goals and visions. In South Africa, where the need for a
common centre and a harmonious vision in a deeply plural society is undermined by massive inequality
and significant asymmetries of power, this task has become both a challenge and a serious problem.

Does religious discourse have to be explicitly "faith language", or can visions and symbols be expressed
in non-religious language? Is there a place for an explicitly religious language in a public sphere? If so,
how can this language be articulated in a way that embraces pluralism? Who participates in religious
discourse in the public sphere? Is religious discourse an essentially elitist discourse (articulated by
religious leaders)? or is it formed on the ground? And finally, in what ways is religious discourse a type
of praxis (as, for example, the preaching of Desmond Tutu or Martin Luther King)? How does such
religious discourse embody and nurture the values and attitudes relevant to the public sphere?

We may further also ask what is meant by the term "public". Does it refer to a particular space which
requires rules of entry and a specific (secular?) language? or are there many and contested "publics"? If
so, how do they relate and what are the dynamics of power at play? How do religious people relate to
public space? Do they constitute a separate public?

If "public" is seen as a separate space, then there is a need to equip "boundary" people who can move
between them. If however "religion" and "public" are seen as overlapping, potentially sharing common
goals, common symbols and even a common language, what new metaphors may express this
commonality? In this context, is it useful to speak of "civil society" and "civil religion"? Are they helpful in
articulating certain goals and visions for society—particularly plurality, acceptance and diversity?

Concrete, limited ways in which "religion" interacts with "public" include specific joint ventures between
religious groups, political organisations and/or NGO’s who agree to collaborate on particular projects.
Those who have worked on such ventures are able to speak of the lessons which they have learnt along
the way. They suggest joint ventures require

a specific, attainable goal or goals (communicated in language understandable to all groups)
a language for articulating these goals which is both visionary and accountable
a language which is able to stretch beyond "what is" (the actual) to new, imaginative possibilities
a language which also provides a framework of accountability for the actual, concrete ways in
which movement towards that goal is achieved –a "horizon language"
positive trust in the other, built through relationship
an internal understanding of the strengths which each group brings to the endeavour
leaders who are capable of being open to working within and between different contexts
("religious" and "secular").

Theme 2: Religious plurality and identity in civil society

The concepts "identity" and "plurality" are inter-dependent whilst inherently in tension—a tension that
can become either creative or destructive.

The present South African context requires new ways and models for naming sameness and difference
without succumbing to the tyrannies resulting from an overemphasis on one or the other—as, for
example, in apartheid or colonialism. How is particularity to be affirmed within an understanding that
engagement with others is essential? Equally, does "unity" language simply mask differences? Does
talk of our "Rainbow Nation" create a dynamic challenge towards pluralism? or does it allow "business
as usual" for those in power? The same question can be asked of the term "non-racialism".

In the task of naming sameness and difference, "chromatic language" will more and more be seen as
problematic. Chromatic language recognises no nuances in identities and speaks, for example, of
"black" and "white" as if the meaning of these terms are undisputed. This point is developed further in the
next section.

There are important power dynamics which need to be named within the process of dialogue. Language
and identity are integral to one another, yet not all groups are allocated the same power in the contested
realm of identity. Is "dialogue" possible between those of unequal power—and when some have not been
able to claim and articulate their own identity? How is identity formed without dialogue and difference?
What are the aspects of our particularities (contexts, histories, religious traditions) which enable and
prevent a truly "pluralistic conversation", where a particular identity may be affirmed without being
absolutised. How does religious language reflect this goal? How do we use religious language and
symbols to provide spaces for becoming?

Identity and plurality meet in the context of actual communities, through our primary communities—such
as family, church, mosque and temple. How do we embody openness and plurality within our
communities of identity? How is this plurality embodied in the present understanding of nationhood within
South Africa?

A crucial question in this respect: Is religious language able to assist in the movement towards positive
plurality? or is it mainly an obstacle? A particular challenge for religious language is to move from the
idea of possessing the truth and of speaking in absolutes, to naming and opening up possibilities. All
religious language comes from experience. But experience, though real for each person, remains partial,
concealing as much as it reveals.

Religious language must articulate what is possible in reality as well as what is actual and, whilst doing
so, recognise that there are many possibilities which may be realised. One particular faith tradition may
not lay sole claim to the area of possibility without introducing a new kind of tyranny. If this is so, how
are religious communities to articulate possibilities in the knowledge that truth is contested and the task
of actualising their ultimate (spiritual) goals never ended?

Theme 3: Citizenship of marginal/subjugated voices

Because it never takes place on a level playing field, the possibility of discourse deconstructs the
concept of citizenship. "Citizenship" operates as a "deceitful" concept when we assume that, when one
achieves citizenship, one is naturally invited into "public space". Such an assumption is false when
public space operates on the basis of privilege—the privilege of power defined to exclude the other.
Alternatively, citizenship may be understood as contested by the particular discourses of the silent and
marginalised. Here citizenship is understood, in post-structuralist terms, as being "partially constituted"
by discourse, or rather by many contested discourses.

The current situation in South Africa raises epistemological questions in this regard. In a post-modern
context, as opposed to a liberation context, the discourse of the poor and marginalised is understood as
merely another discourse, rather than a morally or epistemologically better one. This is an area of
practical debate. What are the issues of power involved in this difference? How does the idea of being
"partially constituted" by the discourses of the poor and marginalised offer an alternative understanding of
discourse and identity? Is this a fruitful way of thinking for unlocking the positive and creative aspects of
"difference"?

Within the current South African context, what is the nature of the relationship between religious identity
and citizenship? The two can often be in tension, with one claiming exclusive allegiance. How do
plurality and the idea of being partially constituted provide ways of working with current identity crises?

Is the concept of "marginalisation" synonymous with that of "subjugation"? Or is it possible to choose to
be marginal as a strategy? By remaining "on the margins" how does one challenge the concept of power
as located at the centre? Or is being on the margins simply acquiescing to the notion that power is at
the centre? In speaking of marginality, do the adjectives "precarious" and "advantageous" help to unpack
the issues of power at play? How would one develop an ecclesiology, for example, on the basis of an
understanding of "advantageous marginality"?

If some discourse is also marginalised through its subjugation, how do we understand or have access to
it, to what may be termed "silence", "absence", "hidden transcripts" and so forth? Should religious
communities necessarily acknowledge marginalised discourse, or provide spaces for marginalised voices
to be articulated? How else are they to be recovered? Does this not imply that centres of power need to
be destabilised, and in fact, would they (or would this be a naïve vision)? Recovering the voices of those
who are marginal in both public and religious discourse may first require identifying the silences.

Finally, identity is in part shaped by constructions of "the past", including the collective memories of a
particular society. However, the past in South Africa is both divided and dividing, and not all memories
are recorded. Besides the effects of oppression, how do we record the memories of those who operate
orally?

Themes 4 & 5: Law, constitution, and religious organisations/choosing a human rights
language

The term "religion" can be unpacked in both cultural and structural ways. Culturally, we may speak of
the way religion functions in creating core values for particular religious communities within society. One
test of the formation and articulation of these values for South Africans asks how well they serve to
promote plurality and deconstruct power.

Structurally, we may speak of differing modes by which religions organise themselves. For example, one
typology would see religions organised primarily (though not exclusively nor without overlap) as
"communities", as "institutions" or as "associations". In simple terms, the communal mode emphasises
group norms, the institutional mode emphasises institutional authority, and the associational mode
emphasises the individual. Each mode—and this is the relevant point—marks a different understanding
of the nature of the relationship between religious organisations and a democratic, pluralistic state. The
challenge of interacting with a pluralist democracy raises particular challenges to each model. The
challenge for all of them is how to engage in a genuine "civility of discourse" without surrendering
particularity.

Analogously, language functions differently in multiple and different communities, the pertinent example
here being the "language of human rights". It means something different to those living in an
economically deprived area compared to those who are economically secure. It has a different weight in
the cultural context of Africa, with its strong communal anthropological norms, than it has in the
Cartesian, individualist environment of the "Enlightened" West. Not surprisingly, human rights language
is a contested arena.

The example of human rights language, usually deeply shaped by religious notions, suggests that the
moral context of our language (what values form our language) is significant. So, too, is our ability to
communicate across contextual boundaries (raising again the question of discursive "bi-" or
"multi-lingualism", and the issue of how we find or construct a new common language).

The language of human rights draws us back again to the question of whether and how religious
organisations articulate the language of the experience of marginalised people, as opposed to those
whose experiences reflect the norms of the "centre". Going further: is the focus on language as such
short-sighted? What is its material base and what are its material effects? And what has this to do with
human spirituality, undoubtedly a central issue in most, if not all, religions?

Finally, what are the challenges that face religious communities after the inauguration of the
Constitution? It is an incongruous fact (or is it?) that, contrasting with the Constitution, many religious
communities are taking up reactionary positions towards human rights—for example, over the issues of
abortion and sexual orientation. Do religious communities embody a "culture of human rights"? Can
they? Should they?

In highly contested areas concerning the progressive values that the new South African Constitution
enshrines, are there common symbols (such as "human dignity" and "worth") which might be made
meaningful to diverse communities, and which simultaneously allow religious communities to find ways
of bringing accountability into the legal and political realms?

In the current context, the relationship between the democratic state (political, legal, etc. institutions)
and religious organisations is somewhat fluid and ambiguous. The majority of people in South Africa are
"religious" while African world-views, unlike strong elements in Western world-views, do not encourage
the dichotomising of life into dyads such as sacred and secular. If this is so, what do we envisage by the
separation of "state" and "religion" (a constitutional principle)? How much separation? What are the
appropriate and inappropriate ways in which religion functions in relation to Constitutional democratic
institutions and practices?

Theme 6: Interpreting corporate language and practice

Within the corporate world, language is primarily adversarial, the language of "win or lose". It also has a
two-fold link to religious schemas: First through its own pseudo-religious character (the market being the
first truly global "religion"); and second, in the way that it co-opts standard religious language—as for
example when "value", "equity" and "transformation" become keywords. There is a paradox, however, in
that the corporate world resists any religious presence other than in privatised garb. A separation
between these "two worlds" has consequences both for those who work within the corporate world and
for those who are affected by it.

For those who function primarily within the corporate sector, an enforced schizophrenia prevails. Ethics
and values formed within a religious context (such as "compassion" and "justice") receive little prime
space or affirmation in a corporate setting. A more holistic approach is often spoken about in the current
business world, such as "giving business a soul". This may however be nothing more than a fad. The
value of this language is still measured in terms of profits: one "wins", for example, through co-operation
rather than competition.

For the rest of the world affected by the politics of economy, the power of the market operates as a law
on its own, and there is no apparent accountability nor any seeming connection with the value of human
life and dignity—especially the lives of those within the poorer "southern" countries. The move towards a
"virtual market place", where the primary commodity is money, means that any connection the money
world has with actual communities becomes even more tenuous, making the establishment of
accountability on the basis of human worth more difficult.

The danger of a shared (religious) language lies with the potential of the corporate world to co-opt
symbols and empty them of their religious or spiritual meaning. For example, the concept of "ubuntu"
now graces almost anything that might sell better in association with it. There is also the danger of
losing a certain degree of critical distance. At the same time, although there may be a certain similarity
of language on occasion, this does not guarantee any shared understanding of the language. On the
other hand, the chasm between standard religious and corporate discourses leads to the dismissal of
any serious religious discourse in the corporate world, usually on the basis of it being judged "naïve" or
"idealistic". How then is religious discourse to be "translated" into corporate discourse in a way which is
powerful and meaningful?

Some clear challenges emerge. Religious traditions valuing the worth and sacredness of human life offer
a voice of accountability to corporate practices. How do religious organisations inject ethics of
accountability into the corporate world? Religious pluralism offers a challenge to the hegemonic power of
corporate globalisation. What is the possible role religion can play in destabilising and contesting
economic systems which are life-draining?

Themes 7 & 8: Religion, gender and public discourse/ Black theology as public discourse

As specific voices within the context of "religious and public discourse", black and feminist/womanist
discourses offer particular vistas of critique for the broader relationship of what is religious and public
discourse. Both challenge the hegemonic construction of "religion" and "public" from positions that are
marginalised either by racial or gender subjugation.

Here the term "public discourse" is seen within a particularly ironic light. The word "public" is implicitly
inclusive. Yet in reality the power dynamics at play within its centres necessitate the exclusion of both
women and people of colour. Paradoxically, both black and womanist/feminist discourses are continually
involved in the public sphere, for both are involved in economic, political and cultural issues by the
necessity of context, though often through resistance.

As resistance discourses within the context of religious discourse, black and feminist/womanist
discourses evoke questions about how various traditions, or narratives, constitute "public discourse". In
particular, they draw attention to narratives which are located on the periphery, implicitly critiquing the
assumption that appropriate discourse is only constituted by hegemonic and essentialist definitions of
what is public. They constitute discourses of "counter-" and "sub-publics".

In resistance, these discourses propose that the notion of public needs to be re-imagined to include the
narratives, or memories, of those who have suffered—those who have been marginalised and ignored.
The inclusion of these narratives does not mean that they simply become other narratives amongst
many. The recovery and articulation of narratives on the periphery constitutes a different genre of
discourse—what may be called the liberative "poetics of testimony". Challenging centres of power
defined by elitism and exclusion, these discourses also envision ones which are embodied, plural and
ethically responsive to those who suffer. Including these narratives into the corporate notion of what
constitutes "the public", invites both diversity and an ethic of compassion. They remain vital, simply
because the challenges of both racism and patriarchy remain, however much other aspects of South
African life are changing.

However, as resistance discourses, black and feminist/womanist approaches also raise the issue of
whether being part of a public discourse at the centre is in fact the optimum place to be. Power and
space are problematised. To be "at the centre" as defined by some notions of occupying public space
often involves giving up other spaces. Being marginal may constitute the very nature of particular
discourses, perhaps particularly religious discourses. We return thus to an earlier theme.

In re-defining the nature of "public space" by intentionally constituting it through normally "absent"
discourses, our understanding of power located at the centre also necessarily changes. What is
projected as a goal in this process is a public space which is polyglot, requiring honesty, an openness
to diversity, an ethic of listening and compassion for the other.

Religions are internally challenged in their fundamentals by black and feminist/womanist discourses and
other "marginalised" discourses. Feminist discourses, for example, challenge the historical construction
of "gender" as the symbol for human difference. Feminist theory names a set of social constructions
which has led, from the axial age (the period when most great religions of the world arose) onward, to the
dominance of males and the oppression of women within religion and society. Within Black theology, the
concept of "ontological blackness" (blackness as a material, social and structural condition) presents a
"contrast experience" to dominant hegemonic discourse. This is not a question of pigmentation but
rather of a marginal, subjugated condition. The challenge within this concept is one of recognising and
naming a global condition of the systemic use of power operating within the public sphere on the basis of
racial superiority against those deemed to be inferior. That ideology remains strong, and it suggests that
Black theology remains a critical discourse within the public sphere.

The radical challenge remains one of reconstituting public space through marginalised narratives. This
raises difficult questions, especially in terms of the way religious communities are structured and led.
How do those who have been silenced enter into the public narrative? Who provides the "space" for these
voices? How is the notion of power that is constituted at the centre to be challenged? Put differently, how
is the centre to be interrupted? In what way are religious organisations cultivating the "poetics of
testimony"? What part does religious language, symbols, worship, liturgy or preaching play in cultivating
compassion, truth-telling, diversity, or ethical and moral responses to those who suffer? In short, how are
religious organisations and traditions re-imaging the notion of public space as a "space of solidarity in
difference"?

Theme 9: Reconstructing a civic moral fibre

Of the many challenges facing a democratic South Africa, two were identified here: division and moral
disintegration. A widespread consensus exists on the deep-seated moral failure within our society
(including corruption and crime). Equally, the effects of the deeply-entrenched divisions of the past
remain with us.

These challenges highlight the way(s) in which religious institutions and traditions are engaged, or not,
within the public sphere. The context is not as clear as before in terms of a direct "enemy" when
apartheid produced a history of challenging unjust government. What lessons were learnt? What
strengths and weaknesses identified? Are religious groups thinking strategically now? The current
context is far more "post-modern" in the sense of being more ambiguous and overtly plural. How are
religious organisations responding to these new challenges?

Does the link between moral fibre and national identity suggest certain possible strategies for action?
Concerns about a national moral fibre raises possibilities for the deployment of common symbols ( such
as "ubuntu") in order to clarify and articulate what the common goals and visions for society may be. The
Constitution itself proposes a common basis for both public and religious action, with its grounding in
concepts of human dignity and worth. What, then, does it mean when many religious organisations
actively oppose areas of the Constitution—such as abortion rights, sexual orientation rights and the
outlawing of the death penalty—on the basis of particular faith interpretations? What is the price that
religious groups pay by having a narrowly defined public agenda? These are critical questions involving
the perceived role and agenda that religious organisations are assuming.

The manner in which religious organisations participate in creating the good of society also needs critical
and careful thought. Absolutes are unhelpful and "give and take" essential—whatever the agenda. Do
religious organisations need to begin to think differently, thinking not in terms of absolute principles, but
rather in terms of specific, concrete programmes and dynamic systems of accountability?

Analysis of the issues and challenges may be aided by identifying "hard" and "soft" issues. Hard issues
centre around the challenges posed by a society in transition to democracy (with the negative forces
from apartheid still a present reality). Soft issues cluster around the nature of liberal democracy—issues
such as individualism and capitalism. Is this the kind of democracy we want? What are the alternatives,
the checks and balances? What are the links between moral formation and the type of democratic
society we hope to build? Are greed and corruption to be endorsed because liberal democracy sanctifies
the individual’s rights above those of the common good?

In strategising roles focused around moral formation for religious groups, challenges arise to think more
broadly about the concept of "moral formation". A broad understanding is needed, meaning not simply
the identification of various religiously based moral issues—which may lead to a narrow, exclusivist
focus. Neither can it merely be a matter of proclamation. What are the links, for example, between
aesthetics and moral formation? The role of the arts in shaping moral insight and perception, as well as
in enabling social transformation, must be given more attention. This includes the way in which aesthetic
formation takes place in the dramas and rituals of religious liturgies and rites.

Conclusion

Discussions at the workshop were highly nuanced. At some points, inevitably, hot issues led to
interchanges which were valuable in themselves, but secondary to the goal of generating conceptual
categories and interrogative frameworks for the Multi-Event proper. Such have not been included in this
account.

At this point, we proceed to a more analytical approach to the workshop materials and inputs. The rest
of the document is as much a creation of its writing team as it is of the workshop participants, though it
depends almost entirely on the content of the debates of the workshop.

Section II: Clarifying key concepts3

Introduction

A conceptual language is distinct from an "everyday" language in which concepts may be embedded,
but where they are tacit rather than focal. A concept is a logical "snapshot": It freezes human activity,
allowing us to stop and examine its structures and relationships. Concepts are therefore tools, and
malleable ones at that.4 They do not limit "truth" but have their value in parsing everyday experience, in
identifying its structures, in clarifying its dynamics, in making important distinctions. A "common
conceptual language" is not a language evacuated of particularity or interest, but rather one in which the
particularities of its users may find a "home" while yet being communicable to others.

If a concept is a logical snapshot, what follows here is the making of a photo album: beginning with
various snaps, followed by a general sorting and a more specific pasting-in. The point of this section is
limited to providing a résumé or taxonomy of concepts as they were employed during the workshop or
through concept papers, with nuances and clarifying terms. Its purpose, while recognising the limits
involved, is to generate "a more or less common language" for the February 1999 events.

Creating a conceptual language

The key concepts: religion, public and discourse

The three key concepts the conference dealt with are "religion", "public" and "discourse". In the
presentations and discussions, "religion" and "public" were often seen as two different "realms" which
had to be "connected" or otherwise related. Sometimes the implication was that there were "religious
people" and "secular people" (i.e. believers and non-believers);5 at other times the terms referred to
particular spheres of life6 (so that the same person can be seen as "religious" with reference to her
attendance at cultic services and "public" when she is, say, speaking in a court of law).7

The word "discourse", often meant in its everyday sense of "talk about something", was usually
employed with reference to "religious" or "public" (or sometimes "secular") languages. But occasionally
the term was used in a more specialised sense: a network of power relations, built on words, which
constitutes and disciplines the subjects and subjectivities to which it refers (and who refer to it).8 When
the term "religious discourse" was employed, there seemed to be an impulsion to either "translate" it
into "public discourse" (which would imply that religious discourse was used by religious people) or to
train "religious people" to be bilingual—that is, to speak a public language.

But these ideas of "translation" and of speaking in different tongues were used in different ways.
Sometimes they carried the meaning of a person with strong religious commitments working in a sphere
other than that of a religious community (as a lawyer, for instance). At other times it had to do with
working in common enterprises with those of different faith commitments, including inter-religious
dialogue, or with people who do not identify at all with any particular tradition. These are very different
kinds of issues, and a distinction between them must be drawn.

In other uses "religious discourse" meant the particular discourse of religious or faith communities or
their official representatives. So "the voice (or voices) of the churches (or church)" could be said to be
either "silent" or "prominent". What was specifically religious about this was the source (i.e. who was
doing the speaking, or in what name)—but not the quality or the content of the discourse (i.e. what was
actually being said). This kind of discourse (church statements against apartheid, for instance), does not
need to be translated. It is already "public".

At other times, religious discourse referred to a kind of language which could be spoken by faith
communities, their representatives or their members, but also by those not claiming any affiliation with a
faith community. This kind of language is heavily symbolic and mythic—and particular, bordering on the
idiosyncratic. It is usually opaque to those not sharing the same faith commitments, and it needs
translation—whether into a "public" language (which, as we shall see below, is problematic) or into
political, legal, ethical and other tongues. Its varieties need translation, so that those inhabiting different
symbolic universes can understand and find equivalents in their own particular traditions (such as a
"Muslim" speaking so that "liberal humanists", "Hindus" or "African traditionalists" can understand).

Secondary concepts and qualitative terms

A number of other concepts were employed with reference to each of the key concepts, as for example
when the word "identity" was used with reference to "religion", "public" (space) and "discourse". The
same could be said for words like "values", "moral formation" and "marginality". One could also speak of
relations between these secondary terms, for example, between "identity" and "marginality".

We may separate out a third set of modifying terms, such as "hybridity", "plurality", "particularity" and
"contestation". No less important, these words qualified the primary and secondary terms. Interestingly,
they recurred with reference to very different concepts: for example, identities were seen as contested
and plural (alongside other identities), but so was public space, and this was applied to both "religious"
and "secular" identities.

Symbolic-normative language

A fourth set of words, in some ways the most crucial, attempted to capture normative concerns
symbolically. These are words like "ubuntu", "health"9 and "healing",10 "covenant",11 and "human
dignity".12 Although rooted in particular "religious" or "secular" visions, they were offered to connect the
various concerns.

In the synopsis that follows we will focus on the primary terms, relating them first to each other, then to
the other terms.

Problematising, nuancing and deepening the language

All these words meant different things to different people (and sometimes the same people!) depending
on the context of the discussion and the way each was combined with other words. This meant that
people were frequently "talking past" each other. For example, in the selfsame discussion the term
"religion" might have been used to refer to official religious bodies like the Catholic Church,
"spirituality"13 and dogmatic language—without clarification or distinction.

When the term "public" was conflated with the term "secular", "religion" took on the meaning of the
(secular) public’s (sacred) "other". "Religion" at other times simply described a set of institutions (as
much "secular" in the sense of located in the "world" as banks and libraries). Or "religion" was used to
embrace a number of sectors, including the public—for example, civil religion (Everett) which is public
religion.14 Another example of this broader use of the term "religion" was a description of capitalism as
global religion.15

It is thus important to clarify the key concepts used at the workshop.

Religion

The conference set out to construct "a language of religion in public life". This task frequently took the
form of relating what were termed "religious" and "secular" languages—an essentially dualist strategy.
This manifested itself in a search for a "common grammar"—particularly with reference to law, human
rights and religious languages16—or a hermeneutic of translation or "bilingualism". Some even proposed
a hybrid discourse—something in-between "religious" and "public"—a "religiously based discourse that
would make sense to a politician".17

A strict distinction between the "religious language" and "secular language"18 is problematic as it
implies a firm boundary between sacred and secular that is not always held across traditions.19
Moreover, the notion of a "secular language" actually masks a plurality of languages, including
academic, legal, economic, political and ethical,20 each of which have their own irreducible character or
identity.21

All of these languages have important orienting dimensions (i.e. they are not empty of spirituality or
normative concerns) and they always imply a certain normative framework. Though usually not obvious,
every legal discourse, every economic system, contains within it a certain idea of how society ought to
be organised, of what constitutes authentic human activity, and so on. Such languages also furnish the
stock of images out of which religious language is drawn—and the reverse is also true. The forensic
language of the court, for example, is an important source for Christian understandings of "redemption",
while Christian understandings of redemption profoundly influence even a "quasi-juridical" institution like
the TRC.22

Rather than speak of "religious language" as opposed to "secular language" or "public language", some
wished to recognise a plurality of languages: "legal language", "academic language", "economic
language" and so forth. What this would mean for religion in public life is not clear, nor is it clear whether
"religious language" would appear alongside these others.

A second issue is the conflation of the terms "public" and "secular"—a conflation which masks many
different communities of many different kinds, each (implicitly or explicitly) propagating different visions
and commitments. Moreover, the use of the term "secular" often implies a certain understanding of the
proper role of religion in society drawn largely from a Tocquevillean model of the USA—i.e. that religious
institutions take their place alongside non-religious institutions as voluntary associations—while the term
itself is no longer sociologically clear when seen comparatively across different cultures and societies.

Religious language and religious institutions

Different languages find their homes in specific institutions, such as the law court (legal language), the
university (academic language) and the business office (corporate language). The language of faith finds
its home within faith communities, particularly in their cultic practices. This was not contested at the
conference. However, it was noted that faith language in particular is not the sole possession of faith
communities. Languages of faith are also spoken outside "traditional" faith communities. Indeed, faith is
a human activity before it is institutionalised in faith community structures.23 The term "spirituality"
carries the meaning of faith as a part of being human. The example of global capitalism is one instance
of faith language appearing outside a faith community.

On the other hand, the pronouncements of faith communities and their representatives may be couched
in political, economic, juridical and ethical languages. Not all statements issuing from faith communities
or their representatives constitutes faith language—either in the sense of proclamation or of testimony.
While the SACC under apartheid, for example, may have been motivated by faith convictions to make
pronouncements condemning state activities, the actual content of those pronouncements may have
been remarkably similar to that of "secular" movements.

A further point: the language of faith is not only a spoken language. It is performed, even "sung".24 It is
"testimony" language expressed in narrative, poetry, music and film.25 A concept of "the language of
faith" cannot therefore be restricted to the spoken word. Nor must it be restricted to the obvious, to the
"public transcript". Languages of faith are also spoken and performed in "hidden transcripts"—which
brings in the interface with "marginality".26

Throughout the workshop it was pointed out that the language of faith is a "limit" language, not a special
tongue alongside political, economic, juridical, etc. languages. It takes those languages and pushes
them, opening them up to possibilities "beyond" the everyday. This is what happens in proclamation, or
testimony.27 This contradicts to an extent the idea that faith language is spoken alongside the other
languages.

Just as the language emanating from faith communities need not necessarily be faith language, so the
public activities of faith communities need not necessarily be subsumed under the category of
"proclamation". For faith communities are also interest groups, contesting space, negotiating power and
so forth. The term "faith community" seems to indicate the representation of certain faith-convictions as
its dominant feature. Yet faith communities are also tightly woven, even knotted, with strands of race,
class, ethnic and other interests. Moreover, proclamation is also an activity of "secular" liberation
movements and political parties.28 Political and constitutional movements in South Africa are often far
ahead of faith communities in this regard, which paradoxically (against their prophetic traditions) appear
more conservative. Indeed, the Constitution is in many respects a "vision" document and in the minds of
some (especially conservative) faith communities, a rival.

Implied, though not explicated, in the conference was the idea that not all faith languages are equally
legitimate. Languages of faith can also be "idolatrous".29 If patriarchy is (along with capitalism) a global
religion, for example, it is one that closes down rather than opens up life. The language of apartheid was
a faith language that understood the divine as one who divided rather than "made whole". Such a
language, such a spirituality, legitimates oppression. Corporations also pay tribute to their economic
gods of "growth" and "progress". Inter-faith dialogue, on this view of faith language, can be seen as a
multi-lingual interaction not just between faith traditions but between different normative visions and
understandings of how society should be run. The question is, who is to judge and how?

Public and publics

Similar to the term "religion", the idea of the "public" implies a societal "structure", "realm" or "sphere" (a
space where religion also ought to present itself), or perhaps a dimension of life, as in "public" vs.
"private" life. What emerged in the conference was also the idea of public as "covering" (masking?) a
number of overlapping areas—or perhaps rather "public" as itself the area of unclarified overlaps.

The term "rationality" was sometimes placed alongside the term "public", meaning that the public sphere
should be governed by a process whereby those who enter it should be able to translate their visions and
values into intelligible and defensible validity claims.30

Further nuances became important in defining the "public" as itself constituted by "multiple languages"
or discourses. This "polyglot public discourse"31 may be thought of as the recognition of different
disciplinary languages (such as legal and economic), different genres (such as poetry and song), or the
articulation of different visions (such as Christian and Afro-humanist)—all of which are public. The tension
between "the public" as a homogeneous idea and "multiple publics" is supplemented by that between
the idea of "public discourse as one way of articulating many visions" versus "public discourse as many
genres, many visions". This tension appeared in other discussions as well (for instance, around the
terms "marginality" and "citizenship").

The two dominant metaphors of the relation between religion and public, we noted, were "bilingualism"
and "translation". There was also the idea of a hybrid, mediating language which would be
understandable both to those speaking as religious persons and those speaking as public persons. The
idea of the public as itself multiple problematises the ideas of both "bilingualism" and "translation",
however. If the public is already multiple, public language becomes shorthand for a number of
languages,32 a kind of "multilingualism".33 But perhaps "public discourse" simply refers to the everyday
discourse—a synonym for the lowest common denominator where particularities do not interfere.

Discourse and identity

Besides being a broad, inclusive term (embracing in principle every "citizen"), "public" can also refer to
"the centre", to the mainstream, to the realm of dominant powers. It is inhabited by "trained
speakers"—those with facility in speaking to each other. Here "public" stands not against "private", but
against those outside the mainstream—the disempowered. Public in this sense creates "non-public"
others. Some thus spoke of "counter-publics",34 and "little publics"—especially where public forums are
inadequate or exclusionary. We will return to this point.

Public space in the main seemed to be taken as "common space", a place where common identity is
shaped—the idea of what it means to be "South African" in finding common goals or a "national
identity."35 Paradoxically, it seems that one must have an identity in order to enter and negotiate public
space.36 Equally paradoxical, withdrawal from public space in favour of internal, identity-forming
practices (as, for instance, an independent church) can be an act of resistance in relation to a dominant
public space—especially where the "public" is a realm of alienation. In another direction, public space
may also place identities under threat through relativising them in reference to what is common. The
notion of "advantageous marginalisation" was used of the Muslim community in a largely Christianised
South Africa in this context.37 Public space is thus also space where identities are contested not simply
by "the common" but by other identities.

A major concern is that identities (such as ethnic, religious) be allowed to inhabit and contest public
space, and that they be protected against corruption or co-option.38 But many also spoke of identities
as hyphenated or hybrid, as "multiple-constituted".39 Even when the idea of a primary community as
forming one’s world view was put forth, it was opposed with the idea of multiple communities, influences,
particularities, and even selves which arise in the dynamic process of constituting identities and
cultures.40 This hybridity makes it conceptually impossible finally to separate "African" and "European"
identities in present-day South Africa. Each is profoundly implicated in the other. Yet there is a
necessary "rediscovery" of "one’s own culture" in a post-apartheid context.41 The term used to convey
the opposite of an acceptance of hybridity is "absolutism"— meaning the denial of hybridity, the
closing-off of the dynamic of identity formation, a kind of cultural fundamentalism.42

Perhaps we could speak of plurality as the contestation of one identity or identity-community with
others, and of hybridity as the contestation of identity within communities or even selves. Identities on
this view are layered and textured, with "faith" identities intertwined with and constituted by race, class,
ethnic, sexual, physical and other identities.43 We have not yet fully come to terms with the implication
of this for reconstituting "religion and public life".

The "politics of identity" was seen as the other side of the "politics of sameness." An example of the
latter is globalisation under capitalism: One may see this as a "global religion" which is not one
particularity among many (unlike mainstream religions) but a homogenising religion with reference not
only to the many religions, but also to constructions of "public". In other discussions, moving to another
point, inclusive concepts such as the idea of "embrace"44 were placed alongside concepts such as
"sameness" and "difference" which may be named in good or bad ways (apartheid being a bad way of
naming them).

Identities are "owned" over against other identities or a common identity. They may be marginalised by
the centre, or they may for strategic reasons represent a choice to inhabit the margins. In the latter
case, one may speak about: "advantageous marginality" (where a situation of marginalisation is
creatively used to amplify the voice of a group pressing for recognition) and "precarious marginality" (the
consequence of a dual allegiance, i.e. religious affiliation and national citizenship, which results in a
choice to stay on the margins but not as a result of subjugation).45 This latter idea was spoken of with
reference both to conservative Muslim and Christian groups who claim that their interests or convictions,
including their understanding of the way public life should be constructed, are not represented in the
Constitution.

Discourse and marginality

There is also the kind of marginality that is perhaps better spoken of as "subjugation". While none would
have disagreed, at least in principle, that public space ought to affirm different identities, the marginality
that comes with poverty, for example, is a different matter. The conceptual distinction may be seen if one
notes that one has a "right" to be "Muslim", say, but one does not have a "right" to be poor. The term
marginalisation was thus used of specific "categories" without regard to particular persons, such as
"women", "the poor", "foreign Africans",46 independent church groups,47 and nations.48 But it also
sometimes meant something along a dynamic, contextually determined continuum of power and
consciousness—as in "more or less marginalised" (as opposed to a boundary condition between "the
marginalised" and "the non-marginalised").49

This discussion turns us back to the concept "citizenship". While seen as an ideal (perhaps a synonym
for being "South African"), it was also held to be an ambiguous term, in its etymology even constituting a
marginalisation of rural people.50 West pointed out two possible understandings of citizenship: the first
with reference to the city and thus the centre of power. The second as a public identity "partially
constituted" by the discourses of every community, including the marginalised.51

The question of citizenship raises the question of discourse—no longer simply as language, but as the
power to make and remake reality (which also includes language, but perhaps at a different level). One
may ask, do the marginalised have a discourse?52 Do they help constitute "common" reality? This is
especially a problem if citizenship is used in the sense of "centre" or "centred" or "empowered".
Excluded from citizenship, they would in this sense be excluded from the public and from public
discourse. They are neither empowered, nor even constituted as subjects. There are two possible
theoretical moves at this point: the one is to locate power in hegemonic, dominant centres, and to
identify power relations as wholly asymmetrical.53 The other is to locate power in hidden agencies, in
non-public (or perhaps, "counter-public" and "counter-hegemonic") discourses, so that while still
asymmetrical, power is understood as more diffuse and available than otherwise, albeit in less overtly
recognisable forms.54

This points to the redefinition of citizenship with reference to the marginalised: "Citizenship" can be said
to have been extended to them [not simply when they can make their mark on a ballot paper but] when
they hear their own voices in the public realm. Questions remain about the practical efficacy of such a
view in dealing with hegemonic powers, but the insight is highly suggestive for understanding the
possibilities of religion in public life, especially where religion has been "privatised" or relegated to an
inferior, even useless, category of experience.

Public discourse, values and symbolic language

Two final concepts were repeatedly addressed: "national integrity" and "moral ambiguity". National
integrity (which could also refer to national unity or a "common place") is seen as endangered by moral
ambiguity, not in the sense of "different (incommensurable?) moralities" in the public sphere, but in the
sense of the positioning of that sphere and its institutions between "morality" and "immorality". It was
agreed that "religion" (whether in the sense of faith communities or of spiritualities) was "needed" to play
a role here.

Identity-dynamics also enter into the picture. There was a general sense that certain values (e.g.
ubuntu), though rooted in particular faith communities, might bridge the two realms of the religious and
the public, perhaps even be mobilised to address especially political and corporate life. But some felt
these words could be cheapened (particularly for the groups who "owned" them) when mixed with the
language of commerce.55

A counter point was that the meaning of symbols needs to be open to change and development,56
presumably through contact with other languages, discourses and contexts. When then is a concept
"corrupted" if at all, and by whom? A similar fear arose about "prophetic" religion, should faith
communities lose their distinctive voice over against the mainstream, a strong possibility if their way of
speaking was too closely identified with the public.

Race, class and gender

A final set of concepts shaping debate at various points, sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly,
were race, class and gender. They are intertwined in much of what has already been noted, and they all
have implications for constructing identity. It was also noted that the idea of a homogeneous public
discourse excludes the specifying discourses of race, gender and class.57

Notions having to do with race and racism included distinctions between "chromatic" ("black", "white")58
and geographic language ("African", "European"), with the two being problematised in relation to each
other. For example, does "black" convey the same as "African"? Can one speak meaningfully (some do)
of "white Africans"? Would it be more appropriate to develop a hybridised term, a hyphenated identity
which is non-chromatic, such as Euro-Africans (a tendency which is clearly strong in the US, for
example)? What is at stake in this generally, and for religion in particular? Black theology has already
gone beyond chromatic language in its links with, and at points even dependency upon, African
theology. It was asked whether the idea of Black theology in different contexts carries the same
nuances, as for instance in the US and South Africa, especially where the meaning of "blackness" is
contested.

In South Africa, the relation between "black" and "Christian" theology is also increasingly contested, with
at least one leading exponent of Black theology wanting to loosen the relation.59 The relationship of
black theology to African theology is also complex and in need of fuller explication. Black theology as a
publicly critical discourse, it was suggested, is in need of being tied anew to political analysis and
mobilisation is it is to develop. Others (from the Black theology tradition) felt that Black theology as it
has been known in South Africa was terminally ill and no longer adequately addressed the changed
context. Black theology, it was argued, is for the moment tied to the margins, and a question arose
about whether it can move into the centre. One response was that it was precisely in being tied to the
margins that Black theology functioned as a practical and theoretical critique of the centres of power and
of structural racism in the wider society. It is not "in crisis" as much as it "deals with crisis" out of crisis.

This remains a profoundly challenging issue, especially if one concedes, as virtually all delegates did,
that racism remains both a central issue and a practical reality.

The concept "class" was hardly dealt with overtly, an interesting matter given the strength of the ideas
through the 1970s and the 80s in South Africa. No discussion of class issues took place except in the
indirect sense of notions of subjugation and domination which shaped many debates. Perhaps the
problematic nature of class concepts in capturing the wide and diverse nuances which enter into
contemporary social analysis (at least of the kind that is not strictly Marxist) explains part of the strange
silence on class as such. Perhaps it is a signal of the way in which religion often fails to grasp the reality
of workers. Perhaps it is because discourse about class has been transformed into other terms in
various theoretical languages (such as "hegemony" and "ideology", "domination" and "subjugation"). In
any event, one factor is that various kinds of domination and subjugation are now part of the
emancipatory agenda, and not only that of workers by capital.

Thus it is that gender issues—specifically patriarchy and sexism—are seen to be as important a
touchstone of transformation as race or class. Gender is a metaphor for difference, and this difference
shapes the public sphere as much as any other. One matter raised in debate was a common implication
in the way the questions are discussed, that gender issues are women’s issues, signifying a conflation
of terms which need to be distinguished.60 Gender issues are also male issues and concern the
construction of maleness—suggesting the possibility of a "counter-hegemonic" construction of
maleness.61

These points were made in various ways, though the workshop was unable to carry out a fuller
explication of their meaning for religion in public life. Here the concept papers prove to be "thicker" in
their understanding of context. One group, however, noted that a thicker understanding of context
requires more than a socio-economic analysis; and it requires paying attention not only to actualities
(that which is) but also possibilities (that which is still to come).62

v v v v

This section has attempted to look at the question of forming a common language by which we might
unpack and develop our understandings of religion in public life. It began with some caveats, identified
the central concepts which generate confusion or provocation, and outlined some subordinate and
modifying concepts. It then moved on to problematise, nuance and deepen the language(s) that
appeared most strongly to shape the discussions and debates of the three days over which the
workshop ran. In the process, it becomes clear that a great deal of attention was paid to notions of
discourse on or from the margins, and of discourse as marginal. This in itself is not surprising, given the
South African context and the general profile of those academics who attended the workshop—mainly
people for whom "gender", "race" and (to a considerably lesser extent) "class" are not simply theoretical
constructs but personal and practical matters.

Conclusion

This report has given an account of the preparatory academic conference for the Multi-Event 1999 and
provided a series of snapshots of the way in which South Africans in particular, with input from
international partners, frame and develop the relevant concepts. The original idea behind its production
was to better prepare people for the debates scheduled to take place in Cape Town in February, 1999. It
was a goal of the academic conference to provide South Africans an opportunity to clarify their own
thoughts and extend their own debates in interaction with overseas participants. This document has also
provided a record of this.

Perhaps the metaphor of a "map" rather than a photograph assists at this point. The workshop, and what
is reflected of it in this document, in its task of pursuing framing questions and key concepts about
religion in public life, was something like coming off a motorway of liberation struggle, transition, and
transformation and arriving at a relatively unknown city centre. Numerous roads appear along the way,
some off the main highway, some busy thoroughfares, some hidden back-streets, some going one way,
some intersecting and diverting, some dead-ending in a cul-de-sac.

This report has been primarily about charting these roads—opening up issues and questions, rather than
tying down specific routes or prescribing answers. Its aim is to generate further, better informed debate
and reflection in the service of wiser, more penetrating practice.

Footnotes

1 At the time of writing, these concrete issues and topics included "African renaissance"; AIDS/HIV;
arts, religion & transformation; crime & corruption; does public policy need religion?; eco-justice,
ecclesia & community; economic values & ethics; faith communities, NGOs & government; gender, race
& class revisited; globalisation, poverty & Jubilee 2000; land & labour; media & religion; nationhood &
humanity; truth, reconciliation & the future.

2 A selection of these papers is provided with this report. All the papers are available in hard copy from
ME 99, c/o Dept. of Religious Studies, Univ. of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch 7701, and on the
ME99 web-site: http://www.ricsa.org.za/ME99.

3 Footnotes in this section tie specific points to the various discussion groups and concept papers. At
the beginning of the conference, groups were divided into colour-codes (red, yellow, etc.). From the
middle of the second day, groups were reorganised and were designated by numbers (group one, two,
etc.). We have given a reference to the particular group for the sake of those who may wish consult the
full context of a specific discussion. All material is available from the ME99 office. See note 2 for details.

4 Even the Platonic notion of "universals", one participant reminded us, is properly understood to mean
"tentative though enduring approximations to reality".

5 Red group discussion, Theme 1.

6 Red group discussion, Theme 2. Some also spoke of withdrawal from the public as "religious
ghettoization". The blue group made a similar point, but using the term "private" as opposed to "public".
The implication is that this is not how things are to be, though the talk of remaining private and of
engaging the public implies that religion is more "at home" in a private sphere.

7 Cf. Paul Farlam's concept paper as well.

8 Gerald West's concept paper is sensitive to this use of the term.

9 Cf. Gary Gunderson's concept paper. In discussion it was noted that a definition of health current
among professionals as "not a goal but a facilitator for achieving our goals".

10 A response to Gunderson's paper (in the plenary discussion, the semantic shift from "health" to
"healing" was noted).

11 Blue group discussion, Theme 1.

12 One group saw that this concept is common to law and religion; another noted its affinity with
traditional African culture.

13 The term "spirituality" was itself differently used, while some complained that it had become
overused, meaning everything and therefore nothing. Red group discussion, Theme 2.

14 William Everett's concept paper. Not only is the nature of civil religion contested, but so is its
authenticity. For some it means a false religion. Group Discussion, Theme 6. Everett's use is neutral.

15 Cf. Robin Petersen's concept paper. Patriarchy was similarly described as "the religion of the planet"
in Susan Brooks Thistlewaite's paper.

16 Cf. also H. Russel Botman's paper. What provides the grammar is described as "morals" or "values".

17 Red group discussion, Theme 2.

18 Buti Tlhagale was one who appealed for a "mediating language" which would transcend
denominational and sectarian religious interests yet be "publicly accessible". But he also made a strong
distinction between what he termed "religiously based" and "secular" arguments, maintaining that in the
public arena the former must give way to the latter.

19 Everett's paper offers a normative typology of religion and public, implying strongly that the third of his
types is how things should be. Dwight N. Hopkins' paper observes that "African indigenous
religio-cultural values were not separable from the public sphere."

20 Plenary session, Theme 1. Likewise the term "public discourse", a group noted, needs to give way to
the notion of "public discourses"-the corporate world, the media, politics, etc.

21 Legal language, for example, cannot be reduced to "moral" language, though there has to be a way of
"placing" each in relation to the other.

22 Cf. Stephen W. Martin's concept paper: The TRC faith hearings in particular are a good case study of
a confluence of languages and genres.

23 Some kind of faith is present whenever one speaks of how the world ought to be. Pink group
discussion, Theme 2. Also Douglas R. McGaughey's paper: there is an ought in every is.

24 Gunderson's concept paper.

25 Rebecca S. Chopp's concept paper.

26 Discussion groups for Theme 3. James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden
Transcripts (New Haven: Yale, 1991) was a work referred to in several discussions

27 Chopp's, Robert Franklin's and Hopkins' concept papers.

28 Red group discussion, Theme 2, noting that "religiously imbued" discussions often occurred in
cabinet; it was also noted that many members of the ecumenical church which mobilised against
apartheid now form a kind of "church" sitting in parliament (with prayer meetings).

29 The word "idolatry" is a normative word specific to "monotheistic religions". However, like the word
"prophetic", its meaning is translatable in other contexts.

30 Plenary discussion, Theme 1. Rationality refers to the processes embodied in discourse ethics (e.g.
Habermas) rather than cognitive or mental activity. A contrary assertion was that "religion" refers to the
utopian and "economics" to the rational dimension. Small group discussion Theme 6.

31 Chopp's concept paper.

32 Plenary discussion, Theme 9.

33 Yellow group discussion, Theme 6.

34 Chopp's concept paper.

35 Green group discussion, Theme 2. Also cf. Daryl Balia's concept paper.

36 E.g. yellow group discussion, Theme 1.

37 Cf. A. Rashid Omar's concept paper.

38 As when a term such as "ubuntu", held "sacred" by a particular community, is co-opted to sell
products or votes.

39 Cf. Petersen's paper.

40 Discussion of McGaughey's paper, Theme 2.

41 Pink group discussion, Theme 2.

42 Pink group discussion, Theme 2.

43 Some felt that dialogue amongst religions could provide a model for relating identity and difference.
But others argued that whereas one (usually) chooses to identify oneself with a religious tradition, one is
"born-into" an ethnic, racial or national group. Pink group discussion, Theme 2.

44 Petersen's paper, Theme 2. The green group argued in session #5 that the term "exclusion" (the
opposite of embrace) was a better term that "marginalisation".

45 Omar's concept paper.

46 Pink group discussion, Theme 3.

47 Green group discussion, Theme 3.

48 Plenary session, Theme 3; green group discussion, Theme 3.

49 Plenary discussion, Theme 2. West's paper uses the same idea with reference to power: of a
continuum with hegemony at one end and a "consciously ideological" position at the other.

50 Cf. Chirevo V. Kwenda's concept paper; also Masenya and West, and Plenary discussion, Theme 3.

51 West's concept paper. See section one above.

52 West's concept paper.

53 West's concept paper.

54 Cf. West's and Chopp's concept papers.

55 Plenary discussion, Theme 9. Also plenary discussion of Theme 2.

56 Group two discussion, Theme 8.

57 Chopp's concept paper.

58 Petersen's concept paper.

59 Tinyiko S. Maluleke's concept paper.

60 Thistlewaite's concept paper.

61 Plenary discussion, Theme 7.

62 Group one discussion, Theme 8.

Anybody There?

2006-09-22T16:18:00.000-04:00

Anybody There?
Reflections on African American Humanism

by Anthony B. Pinn

I argue here for the possibility of a humanist theology, a theology that
holds community rather than God as the center of life altering questions,
accompanied by an understanding of religion and theology as centered on the
problem of evil, or theodicy. Christian theology as done within African
American communities is premised upon a sense of redemptive suffering as
the best response to moral evil in the world. Furthermore, this theological
stance is intimately tied to the Christian tradition, complete with a God
who is concerned for and working on behalf of the oppressed. It continues
to be my belief that, although important in many ways, this theological
stance and its narrow perception of religion may not be the best means of
achieving the social transformation or liberation sought by the African
American community. I conclude that a theological stance on moral evil
requires an alternate religious system--African American humanism. This is
not meant to dismiss Christian approaches out of hand, rather, to broaden
the possibilities, the religious terrain, and to foster conversation
concerning liberating ways of addressing the problem of evil. Humanist
theology, and humanism as a religion, nonetheless need further explication.

Within this essay my goal is to briefly outline the African American
humanist religion to which humanist theology corresponds by pointing out
several institutionalized sites of humanist thought and praxis. I hope to
provide a better sense of where and how humanism functions in African
American communities. More precisely put, I hope to explicate the manner in
which humanism functions in African American communities as a religious
orientation.

I wish to move away from definitions of religion that are strictly
positivist and limiting in nature. Such definitions, those rejected by many
sociologists of religion, do not serve a useful purpose in light of my
comparative agenda. I have in mind, for example, the limited range of
religiosity presented by Hans Baer and Merrill Singer with respect to
spiritual churches and other religious organizations. In addition, I would
like to think of religion in terms of multiple or pluralistic orientations
that do not demand a traditional God idea and singular notions of concern.
Humanism is a manifestation of religion because of concern with
orientations brought to bear on the existential condition of African
Americans. It makes use of established rituals (socio-political
involvements, and both collective and individual critical reflection) that
move toward progressive individual and communal identities. However, my
past use of Paul Tillich's notions of ultimate concern and ultimate
orientation did not provide the best framework for this understanding of
humanism as religion. The Tillichian understanding of ultimate concern is
singular in nature and does not really allow for the multiple and immediate
orientations I have in mind. In actuality, it contradicts my strong
inclination toward multiple locations, of which humanism is one. Rather
than a Tillichian move in order to understand humanism as religion, the
work of Gordon Kaufman may prove more useful as a way to caste humanism as
a religion.

Religion, hence, is understood as that which helps humans find orientation
(or direction) "for life in the world, together with motivation for living
and acting in accordance with this orientation--that is, would gain, and
gradually formulate, a sense of the meaning of human existence." Religion
helps individuals and groups to live in beneficial ways in light of life
altering questions such as the problem of evil that are not easily
addressed through skills and resources associated with "ordinary patterns
of meaning and action internalized from infancy on." While through various
ritual structures and symbolic sources, humans are enabled to understand
their thought and actions as significant and meaningful. In keeping with
Kaufman, I'm not suggesting that this orientation is toward the "sacred"
understood in traditional terms. Instead, this is orientation toward
"reality" in general terms. In this way, both theistic and non-theistic
forms of expression are understandable as religion because religion, in
short, is not limited to easily identified and historically explored forms
of expression. Religion is the "underlying resources of meaning and ritual
that inform and fund the ongoing living and dying in a culture as a whole.
Therefore humanism is a religion because it is one way to gain orientation
and motivation toward the framing of human life through useful goals and
agendas. Humanism does not replace other traditions, instead it contributes
to the diversity, the plurality that characterizes the religious landscape.
Before presenting examples of humanism as praxis oriented religion, it
might be useful to briefly position African American humanism within the
larger arena of humanist thought and practice. We begin with Europe and the
Renaissance.

Early humanists in Europe understood themselves as Christians who addressed
the dilemma of bringing to the process of intellectual inquiry both
Christian doctrine and "pagan" resources. Many were trained clerics with
this question: how does a Christian read the pagan classics without being
contaminated? These clerics and others of Italy and Europe in general were
concerned with bringing the humanistic disciplines to bear on medieval
culture and learning. In this respect, humanism of the medieval period was
active and geared toward problem solving, within the confines of a strong
and determined church.

Because Christianity dominated the landscape and claimed control over the
discussion of moral conduct, humanists were obligated, at least in a
limited way, to address religious institutions and theological concerns to
provide guidance that the professional religious elements of Italy failed
to address. In addressing religious and theological thought, humanists felt
a need to respond to methodological issues that directly effected attitudes
toward action. The centrality of human life in a less than ideal world is
present within humanism at this stage in that humanist scholars saw little
value in abstract theological discussion when people were struggling to
live ethically. Religious conversation and theological language had to
address the moral struggles of humanity. Therefore, humanists of this
period brought into one conversation, devotion to God and a concern for
humanity. These two, with respect to questions of moral living, were
inseparable. In short, an interest in pragmatically connecting thought and
life marked the work of humanists, whether described as Christian or not.
The twin concerns of God and humanity would continue to motivate humanists
as their ideas blazed a trail across Europe, establishing centers of
thought in locations such as Germany, France and England by 1517.

Humanism's compatibility with theism came into question and, with time,
some humanists such as Wilhelm von Humbolt moved away from "religious "
orientations, asserting instead the dominance of experience as the key to
truth. The Enlightenment's emphasis on reason would, therefore, spark a
radical appeal to human perfectibility and the inevitability of progress on
earth. In the twentieth century this "antireligious" sentiment would mutate
into what Lewis W. Spitz and others refer to as a "new humanism"--human
centered and aggressively antireligious in nature.

Similar concerns also fostered an appreciation for humanism in North
America. In the United States the promise and pitfalls of a new democracy
generated a concern for human life. Blood, sweat, and toil generated the
fundamental questions of life's meaning and purpose: the Civil War,
Reconstruction, etc., especially required the creation of a worldview that
made sense of human promise and misery in the modern era. The result was
the emergence of humanist inspired thought and organizations. Although
Enlightenment ideas related to freethought and humanism were under siege
during the Great Awakening revivals, this questioning of God, and the
countervailing idea of the centrality of humanity, were never completely
wiped out. Humanist sentiments continued to grow, then, from this early
period into the work of philosophers such as John Dewey, and radical
liberal clergy like John H. Dietrich of the First Unitarian Society of
Minneapolis.

African American humanism shares the human-centered emphasis of humanism,
but there's a different rationale for this position based upon various
forms of oppression encountered by African Americans that were, at times,
justified theologically. Manifestations of humanism begin early with
suspicion concerning the Christian message as pointed out in 1839 by Daniel
Payne, one of the leading figures in the African Methodist Episcopal
church. Fearful that slaves will completely give up on the Christian faith
if they aren't introduced to the "true " gospel message, Payne writes:

The slaves are sensible of the oppression exercised by their
masters and they see these masters on the Lord's day worshipping
in his holy Sanctuary--and they know that oppression and slavery
are inconsistent with the Christian religion; therefore they
scoff at religion itself--mock their masters, and distrust both
the goodness and justice of God. Yes, I have known them even to
question his existence. A few nights ago between 10 and 11
o'clock a runaway slave came to the house where I live for safety
and succor. I asked him if he was a Christian; "no sir, " said
he, "white men treat us so bad in Mississippi that we can't be
christians. "

Based upon Payne's depiction, it seems fairly clear that the early presence
and rationale for humanism within African American communities revolve
around the inadequacy of Christianity for responding to moral evil. This
initial phase of humanism is primarily addressed on the level of the
individual and in cultural manifestations such as work songs, the blues,
and folklore. Although African Americans have held humanist perspectives
and operated accordingly for centuries, use of the phrase, Black Humanism,
as a reference is fairly recent. Empowerment: One Denomination's Quest for
Racial Justice, 1967-1982 provides the following information concerning the
use of this term, linking its use with the Black Unitarian Universalist
Caucus created to respond to racial issues within the UUA:

Black humanists understood humanism as a process, an existential
process by which one finds and lives his humanity. To be human is
to direct one's own life; therefore, Black Humanism calls for a
seizure of decision making and implementation for oneself.
Gaining power is an essential element of humanism.

Its appeal to social justice is similar to that used historically within
African American Christian churches minus one ingredient: justice is
demanded and premised upon a humanocentric appeal to accountability and
progress, not on the dictates of scripture lived through the Christ figure.
However, because of the work of William R. Jones and Mark Morrison-Reed,
for example, this site of Black humanism--the UUA--is somewhat known.
Therefore let's now give attention to what I think are sites readily
connected with praxis rarely thought of as humanist.

With the development of the Harlem Renaissance and its exploration of
uncomfortable and raw life questions as well as the "de-radicalization of
churches, " the increase in alternate responses to oppression made space
available for humanist interpretations. Although figures such as Richard
Wright are referred to, there are others whose work deserves attention. And
beyond a theological exploration of their writings, attention should also
be given to the personal religious perspectives of these figures. For
instance, how does the agnosticism of a James Baldwin or the humanism of a
Zora Neale Hurston effect their inclusion in theological reflection and
religious studies in general? The literature of the Harlem Renaissance
provides insights that not only inform theological reflection because of
their concern with religious themes and imagery, but it also provides, when
personal positions are considered, a much needed challenge to theological
assumptions (e.g., answers to the problem of evil) and ideas of religious
normality within Black communities. In this way, they provide license to
advocate the humanism I find interesting and noteworthy.

Many of the above figures continued to understand the Christian church as
an important cultural development, but without acceptance of its
theological stance. Others involved themselves in institutional structures
that allowed for the further development of their humanism. That is to say,

Doubt, frustration, and denial of God's existence arise also from
social crises. The repudiation or negation of God may influence
the behavior of Negroes in many ways. It may lead many of them
into the humanistic camp--Negroes would then seek to perfect
social change--without relying on God or super-natural aid. The
negation of the idea of God may also drive Negroes into the
communistic camp, whereby more militant or violent means would be
used to achieve political and economic status.

Not to put too fine a point on it, I nonetheless suspect that the
non-theist stance of the Communist Party and its rhetorical appeal to
African Americans (thin as it was) provided a forum and home for African
American humanists who found churches either uncomfortable or hopelessy
backward.

Documents available at the Schomburg Center, the division of the New York
Public Library geared toward research in African American culture, and
other locations, document Party organizing activities in African American
communities such as Harlem during the early during the 1920s and 1930s. The
Communist Party, however, was reluctant to "attack " black churches owing
to the strength of churches that in the end could hamper organizing
efforts. Others were unwilling to move in this direction because of
personal commitment to the Christian church. Robin D. G. Kelley has
documented this. Nonetheless this support, as Kelley points out, was mixed
with a critique of less than liberating activity on the part of clergy who
spent their time gaining wealth and preaching against transformation. Some
took this critique further and rejected the Christian church and its
doctrine altogether as non-liberating activity and thought. According to
Kelley:

Challenges to religious beliefs frequently surfaced in personal
conversations and arguments within the Party. Such challenges did
not only come from white Communists; they were common among some
leading blacks. What Hosea Hudson's recollections reveal is that
attacks on religion often had little bearing on politics or
theory. He was rebuked by comments such as in "Ain't no
God....Nobody ever seen God. How you know it's a God? " When he
cited the Bible as his witness, he recalled a common retort was,
"The white man wrote the Bible " ÖIn other words, black
Communists who questioned the viability of religion had concerns
kindred to a good portion of working-class blacks throughout the
United States. Therefore, we cannot assume that the party
experience itself was the sole reason for "atheism " practiced by
a small minority of Communists in Alabama. On the contrary, it is
likely that blacks who questioned the existence of an omnipresent
God or were simply fed up with clerical corruption, were drawn to
the party because of its scathing critique of the church.

Although some Black communists like Hosea Hudson were active in the church
they often indirectly critiqued its activities via a challenge of God. As
Hudson recalls:

I challenge one or two deacons one Sunday afternoon. We all
sitting around talking. I told them, I said, "It ain't no such
thing as no God. You all go around here singing and praying, " I
said, "and they regular lynching Negroes, and you ain't doing
nothing about it. "

Hudson recounts that he never lost his belief in God. However, what he
states actually sounds like a version of agnosticism.

I never did finally stop believing in God. I haven't stopped
believing yet today. I don't argue about it. I don't discuss it,
because it's some-thing I can't explain. I don't know whether
it's a God, I don't know whether it's not a God. But I know
science, if you take science for it, and all these developments,
I can't see what God had much to do with it--So it's something
beyond my knowledge to deal with. And I don't deal with it. I
don't try to deal with it.

Hudson also recounts that this type of rejection of God was genuinely
embraced by some members of the Party who never attended church, and who
used this critique of God as more than a challenge to passivity. Hudson
states that:

I had heard other Party people talking. Some of them had never
been members of no church, talking about there wont no such thing
as God: "Where is he at? You say it's a God, where is he at? You
can't prove where he's at." Negro Party people said that to me,
Murphy and Horton and Raymond Knox. We'd have big discussions.
One Sunday I said I was going to church.

"What you going for? What you going for?"

I said, "I'm going to serve God."

They said, "Where is God at? You can't prove it's no God
nowhere."

They said, "Where is God?"

I said, "In heaven."

"Well, where is heaven?"

The objections of Black Communists who rejected God often revolved around
the problem of evil. In the words of Raymond Knox: "...here they lynching
Negroes...if God's all that good, how come he don't stop the police from
killing Negroes, lynching Negroes, if God is all that just? " In rejecting
God, the humanists Hudson knew in the Communist Party held humanity
responsible for social transformation. Hudson found it difficult to respond
to these charges. In his words:

I just didn't have a [sic] answer. And them was the kind of
questions they put. "If God is such a just God, and here you
walking around here, ain't got no food. The only way you can get
food is you have to organize. So if you have to organize to
demand food, why you going to pray to God about it? Why don't you
go on and put your time in organizing and talk to people?"

Disillusionment with the Communist Party grew (as is brilliantly narrated
in the work of Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright) because the Party--by the
time African Americans participated in noticeable numbers--had withdrawn
from a strong interest in the negro question. Although some African
Americans undoubtedly remained within the Party hoping for change in its
policy on racism, others took their humanism in the direction of Black
nationalism.

Theologians such as James Cone gave attention to the Black Power movement
in a way that displayed the distance between the compatibility of
Christianity and Black Power. In his early writings, Cone argues for an
understanding of Christianity (and theological reflection) through
recognizing the Christ event as an affirmation of the need for power. This
connection is certainly present particularly in the early phases of the
Civil Rights movement and SNCC. Nonetheless this distance between Christ
and "mundane" manifestations of power, as expressed in the late 1960s, was
not completely reconciled. Consequently, in the late twentieth century, the
Black Panther Party and SNCC became emblematic of other locations of
humanist praxis and religion.

I cannot help but believe that the movement away from the Christian-based
Civil Rights movement sparked by SNCC and the thundering call for Black
Power pointed to deep theological differences. It's more than likely that
theistic motivations and explanations failed adequately to address the
concerns and ideas of some of the more "radical" elements of the movement.
The break, I argue, also marks a move away from the theism of the Civil
Rights movement and toward materialist analysis and human-centered
solutions. Gone were integrationist goals and reliance upon Christian
doctrine and paradigms for action. SNCC decided that social transformation
would only occur when African Americans took control of their destiny and
worked toward change. Reliance on human potential praxis was heightened in
ways that distinguished this phase of SNCC's personae from the Civil Rights
movement. Although inadequately defined in terms of social transformative
thrusts and foci, Black Power--for some of its advocates--did harness
rather clearly defined theological assumptions based upon humanist leanings
and the language of self-determination. Consider here the thoughts of James
Forman, a member of SNCC.

In his autobiography The Making of Black Revolutionaries, Forman describes
his "conversion" to humanism (as defined above) which did not hamper but
rather informed Forman's praxis. His work toward social transformation with
SNCC, for example, points to the nature and sustainability of humanist
praxis. He notes that during his time at Wilson Junior College in Chicago
his doubts concerning the existence of God, based primarily on the problem
of evil, grew. This process was intensified through contact with
questionable Black preachers whose self-centered and selfish ways resulted
in his distaste for ministry and the church. Such interactions are summed
up by this comment: "God was not quite dead in me, but he was dying fast."
After returning from military service some years later, Forman came to a
final conclusion concerning the existence of God. He writes:

The next six years of my life were a time of ideas. A time when
things were germinating and changing in me. A time of deciding
what I would do with my life. It was also a time in which I rid
myself, once and for all, of the greatest disorder that cluttered
my mind--the belief in God or any type of supreme being.

Outlining the rationale for his "disbelief," Forman notes that during a
philosophy course he set firm upon the following:

I reject the existence of God. He is not all-powerful,
all-knowing, and everywhere. He is not just or unjust because he
does not exist. God is a myth; churches are institutions designed
to perpetuate this myth and thereby keep people in subjugation.

For him humanism required a strong commitment on the part of people to
change their present condition in ways that belief in God did not allow. He
continues:

The belief in a supreme being or God weakens the will of a people
to change conditions themselves. As a Negro who has grown up in
the United States, I believe that the belief in God has hurt my
people. We have put off doing something about our condition on
this earth because we have believed that God was going to take
care of business in heavenÖMy philosophy course had finally
satisfied my need for intellectual as well as emotional certainty
that God did not exist. I reached the point of rejecting God out
of personal experience and observations...

Critiques of the black church based upon materialist approaches to social
transformation continued through the Black Panther Party. The attraction of
some SNCC workers to the Black Panther Party led by Huey Newton and Bobby
Seale was based upon a common concern with transformative activity that
held as its measuring stick the welfare of African Americans and other
oppressed groups. The Party had a clearly defined platform and was much
more certain of its armed and revolutionary stance. Reflecting on the
ultimate demise of many Black Panthers, Bobby Seale sums up the goals of
the Party, goals which speak to a universal humanist agenda:

We need activists who cross all ethnic and religious backgrounds
and color lines who will establish civil and human rights for
all, including the right to an ecologically balanced,
pollution-free environment. We must create a world of decent
human relationships where revolutionary humanism is grounded in
democratic human rights for every person on earth. Those were the
political revolutionary objectives of my old Black Panther Party.
They must now belong to the youth of today.

Drawing heavily from Marx, Fanon, Engels, Lenin, Mao, etc., the Party
initially denounced the church, and, one can assume, its teachings as well,
labelling both counterproductive. Huey P. Newton reflects on this:

As far as the church was concerned, the Black Panther Party and
other community groups emphasized the political and criticized
the spiritual. We said the church is only a ritual, it is
irrelevant, and therefore we will have nothing to do with it. We
said this in the context of the whole community being involved
with the church on one level or another. That is one way of
defecting from the community, and that is exactly what we did.
Once we stepped outside of the whole thing that the community was
involved in and we said, "You follow our example; your reality is
not true and you don't need it."

However, the Party softened its position when it recognized the central
role the church held in Black communities. Like the Communist Party, the
Panthers recognized that recruitment would be difficult if open hostility
existed between the Panthers and Black churches. The Panthers fostered a
relationship of convenience and socio-political necessity, but without a
firm commitment to the churches' theological underpinnings. Newton
rationalizes this strategy by arguing for a different conception of God,
God as the "unknown " that, interestingly enough, science will ultimately
"discover." In this sense, God does not exist in the affirmative. This was
the Panthers compromise with socio-political necessities of community
connections and the teachings of Marx. Quoting Newton again:

So we do go to church, are involved in the church, and not in any
hypocritical way. Religion perhaps is a thing that man needs at
this time because scientists cannot answer all of the
questions--the unexplained and the unknown is God. We know
nothing about God, really, and that is why as soon as the
scientist develops or points out a new way of controlling a part
of the universe, that aspect of the universe is no longer God.

Whether successful or misguided, the Black Panther Party's humanism is
notable. In essence, attention is taken off of divine assistance because
talk of God is ignored. Rather, humans are given sole responsibility for
altering the world. In the words of Bobby Seale:

We are fighting for the preservation of life. We refuse to be
brainwashed by comic-book notions that distort the real
situation. The only way that the world is ever going to be free
is when the youth of this country moves with every principle of
human respect and with every soft spot we have in our hearts for
human life. We know that as a people, we must seize our time.

I realize that the examples provided here, particularly those of the
Communist Party and the Black Panther Party, raise questions concerning the
essential notion of atheism vs. humanism in what I advocate, as well as
questions concerning either one's ultimate usefulness beyond immediate
issues. The latter I address thusly: these serve as useful examples because
they point beyond immediate context to a larger and continued concern for
identities and dignity. Granted, many Blacks moved away from this humanist
position (e.g., Eldridge Cleaver), and humanism has hardly meant the
complete transformation of the world! Still, this does not seal humanism's
fate as indefensible. Rather, it has always understood that failure is a
possibility, but one that should not prevent us from continuing to work.
Humanism does not provide guarantees; rather it suggests possibilities
sustainable through human effort alone. Kaufman's sense of religions
providing world-pictures is helpful here. He writes that these pictures may
not be accurate; ultimately they may not be true, but they are
indispensable because humans need them in order to orient themselves.
Ultimately, humanism provides a world-picture, one that I suggest avoids
the harmful effects of redemptive suffering in ways the Christian tradition
does not. Humanism, I believe, is a way of ordering our world and our lives
through giving equal attention to human failure and human potential as the
launching platform for more sustained engagement with community and
dignity.

Moving back to the first question: what is the relationship between atheism
and humanism? Putting it frankly: the lines between agnosticism, atheism,
and humanism are inevitably blurred. This is particularly evident in the
section of this essay concerning the Communist party when the Church and
God are brought into question as the result of their perceived inability to
respond adequately to the problem of evil as manifested, say, in regard to
the lynching of blacks. But does this mean that the Christian church and
its theology are hopelessly flawed? Must a humanist be an atheist? As I
have argued elsewhere (Why, Lord?: Suffering and Evil in Black Theology),
humanism in some phases of its emergence can arrive in theistic guise. Much
of liberation theology, for example, entails this type of partnership with
God. Therefore, humanists can be theists, concern for humanity assuming
theistic or other comparable forms. As I've argued in my book, theistic
humanists must continue to think through the problem of evil (in ways that
atheistic or agnostic humanists can avoid) because they continue to embrace
a traditional notion of God as present, just, good, and working toward the
liberation of a continually oppressed group.

But for many there is simply not enough evidence of this God to warrant
continued theism. And these, in response to the problem of evil--as the
examples have shown--embrace an atheistic or an agnostic humanism that puts
God aside and relies exclusively upon humanity for the resolution of
questions caused by moral evil. This represents a position that is not
overly concerned with God as a negative myth, but rather God as a
liberating myth that is nonetheless unsubstantiated. I'm wary of such
normative stances because exclusivity is damaging and certainly
unwarranted; yet in the end religious relativism does not completely
satisfy. The key is a reflexive and reflective tension because the
relationship between the various religions and their alleged truth content
is, for all we know, ever unfolding. Thus, while advocating humanism, I
remain mindful of Kaufman's words:

"Religion" is, however, an enormously diverse and diffuse sphere
of human existence, including wide ranges of perspectives and
practices, institutions and symbolisms. Moreover, it is not at
all clear that there is any way, at this time, in which the
descriptive and historical study of this vast and complex field
can (or should attempt to) develop norms or standards coherent
enough and specific enough to provide effective orientation and
guidance for contemporary human life--a central theological
objective. Theologians, therefore, will need to conduct their
explorations and reflections in terms of some particular
meaning-and-value complexes, some frameworks of interpretation
which command their respect and commitment; but whatever
frameworks are employed today must be open enough and
comprehensive enough to allow considerable freedom and
experimentation in the investigation of the many issues pertinent
to the orientation and guidance of contemporary life.

My goal is to challenge both humanists and theists to think through the
consequences (in terms of social transformation) of their claims. But first
it has been necessary to demonstrate the existence and viability of
humanist theology and humanism as a religion.

FOOTNOTES

[Web Admin's Note: The document conversion process unfortunately did not
retain footnote numbering.]

I must thank Dr. Victor Anderson for his careful reading of an earlier
draft of this essay. His insights and suggestions were invaluable. I am
also grateful to two Macalester College students, Gregory Colleton and
Gretchen Rohr, for research assistance during the early phases of
preparation for writing this piece. A more detailed examination of humanism
as a religious system, drawing from this essay, is provided in my book: The
Varieties of African American Religious Experience: Theological
Introduction (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, Fall 1998).

Hans A. Baer and Merrill Singer, African-American Religion in the Twentieth
Century: Varieties of Protest and Accommodation (Knoxville: The University
of Tennessee Press, 1992).

Gordon Kaufman, In Face of Mystery: A Constructive Theology (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1993), 225.

Ibid., 227.

Ibid.

Charles Trinkaus, "Italian Humanism and Scholastic Theology, " in Albert
Rabil, Jr., Renaissance Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy, Volume 3
Humanism and the Disciplines (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1988), 327-328.

Lewis W. Spitz, "Humanism and the Protestant Reformation, " in Albert
Rabil, 1988, 380.

Corliss Lamont, The Philosophy of Humanism (New York: Frederick Ungar
Publishing Co., 1965), 17-18.

John H. Dietrich, "Unitarianism and Humanism, " in What If The World Went
Humanist?: Ten Sermons, selected by Mason Olds (Yellow Springs, OH:
Fellowship of Religious Humanists, 1989), 58.

Daniel Alexander Payne, "Daniel Payne's Protestation of Slavery, " in
Lutheran Herald and Journal of the Franckean Synod (August 1, 1839),
114-115.

Empowerment, 1983, 24.

For an interesting discussion of the Harlem Renaissance and literary
developments within other Black communities see: Wilson Jeremiah Moses, The
Wings of Ethiopia: Studies in African-American Life and Letters ( Ames:
Iowa State University Press, 1990), chapter 12.

Benjamin Mays, The Negro's God as Reflected in His Literature (New York:
Atheneum, 1973), 243.

See Mark Naison's "The Communist Party in Harlem, 1928-1936. " Relevant
holdings include: the Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers.

Robin D. G. Kelley, "Comrades, Praise Gawd for Lenin and Them!: Ideology
and Culture Among Black Communists in Alabama, 1930-1935, " Science and
Society, Vol. 52, No. 1, Spring 1988, 61-62. Also see Robin Kelley's
"Afric's Sons with Banners Red " in Imagining Home. Furthermore, some
churches actively worked with the Communist Party:

Although the Communists never had a sympathetic ear from the larger,
well-established black churches, several ministers and working-class
congregations of smaller Baptist churches in and around Birmingham provided
critical support for the Communists and the International Labor Defense in
opposition to a state-wide anti-sedition bill. (Ibid., 63)

Ibid., 64.

In addition some churches supported efforts to organize around economic and
political issues and for this purpose, offered their buildings for
meetings.

Kelley, 1988, 65-66.

Ibid., 133.

Ibid., 134-135.

Nell Irvin Painter, The Narrative of Hosea Hudson: His Life as a Negro
Communist in the South (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979),
133.

Ibid., 134.

Ibid.

See Harold Cruse, "Jews and Negroes in the Communist Party, " in The Crisis
of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black
Leadership (New York: William Morrow and Company/Quill, © 1984), 147.

James Forman, "Corrupt Black preachers, " in The Making of Black
Revolutionaries (Washington,DC: Open Hand Publishing, Inc., 1985), 58.

Ibid., "God Is Dead: A Question of Power, " 80-81.

Ibid., 83.

Bobby Seale, Seize the Time: The Story of The Black Panther Party and Huey
P. Newton (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1991, Introduction, 3.

Huey P. Newton, To Die For The People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton,
edited by Toni Morrison (New York: Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc.,
1995),

Newton, 1995, 64.

Seale, 1991, 429.

Gordon Kaufman, God, Mystery, Diversity: Christian Theology in a
Pluralistic World (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 6. I believe that my
humanist theology and humanism as a religious system avoid charges of
idolatry in light of Kaufman's understanding of religious diversity and
plurality, and because all religious traditions contain an element of
reflection that wrestles with the life altering questions, based upon their
sense of primary concern. For humanism as I understand it, this primary
concern is community and the dignity it must foster; what theological
reflection seeks is to make sense of all else in light of community and
human dignity. Within the religion of humanism, then, this is not idolatry.

New York: Continuum Publishing Company, 1995.

If there were more sustainable evidence that God exists and is working
toward the liberation of the oppressed, atheistic humanism might not exist.
It is, in this way, owing to inadequate responses to the problem of evil:
humanism of this kind is primarily concerned with evidence. Therefore, if
science, for example, were to demonstrate as correct the claims of
liberation minded theists, humanists would have to embrace theism and seek
to work in a fitting manner toward social transformation.

Kaufman, 1993, 27.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
This paper was first published in Religious Humanism, vol. 31, nos. 3 & 4,
summer/fall 1997, p. 61-78. Copyright © 1997 by the Friends of Religious
Humanism, Inc.
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The Doctrine of Suffering

2006-09-22T16:15:00.000-04:00

Introduction

Why me? Why now? What is God doing? Suffering is a tool God uses to get our attention and to
accomplish His purposes in our lives. It is designed to build our trust in the Almighty, but suffering
requires the right response if it is to be successful in accomplishing God’s purposes. Suffering forces
us to turn from trust in our own resources to living by faith in God’s resources.

Suffering is not in itself virtuous, nor is it a sign of holiness. It is also not a means of gaining points
with God, nor of subduing the flesh (as in asceticism). When possible, suffering is to be avoided.
Christ avoided suffering unless it meant acting in disobedience to the Father’s will.

Ecclesiastes 7:14 In the day of prosperity be happy, But in the day of adversity
consider--God has made the one as well as the other so that man may not discover
anything that will be after him.

The following questions are designed to help us “consider” in the day of adversity:

(1) How am I responding to it?

(2) How should I respond to it?

(3) Am I learning from it?

(4) Does my response demonstrate faith, love for God and for others, Christ-like character, values,
commitment, priorities, etc.?

(5) How can God use it in my life?

Suffering Defined

What is suffering? What are these bends in the road that God puts in the path of life that we are to
carefully consider? Simply stated, suffering is anything which hurts or irritates. In the design of God, it
is also something to make us think. It is a tool God uses to get our attention and to accomplish His
purposes in our lives in a way that would never occur without the trial or irritation.

Illustrations of Suffering

“It may be cancer or a sore throat. It may be the illness or loss of someone close to you. It may be a
personal failure or disappointment in your job or school work. It may be a rumor that is circulating in
your office or your church, damaging your reputation, bringing you grief and anxiety.”40 It can be
anything that ranges from something as small and irritating as the bite of a mosquito or the nagging of
a gnat to the charge of an elephant or having to face a lion in the lions’ den as with Daniel (Dan. 6).

General Causes of Suffering

(1) We suffer because we live in a fallen world where sin reigns in the hearts of men.

(2) We suffer because of our own foolishness. We reap what we sow (Gal. 6:7-9).

(3) We sometimes suffer because it is God’s discipline. “For those whom the Lord loves He
disciplines, and He scourges every son He receives.” (Heb. 12:6).

(4) We may suffer persecution because of our faith--especially when we take a stand on biblical
issues, i.e., suffering for righteousness sake (2 Tim. 3:12).

Of course, all of these do not apply at the same time. All suffering is not, for instance, a product of
our own foolishness, self-induced misery, or sin. It is true, however, that rarely does suffering not
reveal areas of need, weaknesses, and wrong attitudes that need to be removed like dross in the
gold refining process (cf. 1 Pet. 1:6-7).

The Nature of Suffering

Suffering is Painful

Suffering is hard. It is never easy. Regardless of what we know and how hard we apply the
principles, it is going to hurt (cf. 1 Pet. 1:6--“distressed” is lupeo meaning “to cause pain, sorrow,
grief”).

Suffering is Perplexing

Suffering is somewhat mysterious. We may know some of the theological reasons for suffering from
Scripture, yet when it hits, there is still a certain mystery. Why now? What is God doing? In this, it is
designed to build our trust in the Almighty.

Suffering is Purposeful

Suffering is not without meaning in spite of its mystery. It has as its chief purpose the formation of
Christ-like character (Rom. 8:28-29).

Suffering Proves, Tests Us

“Trials” in James 1:2 is the Greek peirasmos and refers to that which examines, tests, and proves
the character or integrity of something. “Testing” in this same verse is dokimion which has a similar
idea. It refers to a test designed to prove or approve. Suffering is that which proves one’s character
and integrity along with both the object and quality of one’s faith. Compare 1 Pet. 1:6-7 where the
same Greek words are used along with the verb dokimazo which means, “put to the test,” “prove
by testing as with gold.”

Suffering is a Process

“We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, proven character; and . . .” (Rom.
5:3-4). “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its
perfect result, that you may be perfect (mature) and complete, lacking in nothing” (Jam. 1:3-4). As a
process, it takes time. The results God seeks to accomplish with the trials of life requires time and
thus also, endurance.

Suffering is a Purifier

No matter the reason, even if it is not God’s discipline for blatant carnality, it is a purifier for none of
us will ever be perfect in this life (Phil. 3:12-14).

Suffering Provides Opportunity

Suffering provides opportunity for God’s glory, our transformation, testimony, and ministry, etc. (See
reasons for suffering given below.)

Suffering Requires Our Cooperation

Suffering requires the right response if it is to be successful in accomplishing God’s purposes. “We
all want the product, character; but we don’t want the process, suffering.”41 Because of our make
up as human beings, we can’t have one without the other.

Suffering is Predetermined and Inevitable

1 Thessalonians 3:3 so that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions; for you
yourselves know that we have been destined for this.

1 Peter 4:19 Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust
their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.

The question we must each face is not, “if” we are going to have trials in life, but how will we
respond to them.

Suffering is a Struggle

It’s going to be a battle all the way. That’s why they are called “trials” and “testings.” Even when we
understand the purposes and principles of suffering, and we know the promises of God’s love and
concern given in the Word of God for handling suffering, dealing with the trials of life is never easy
because suffering hurts. Trials simply give us the capacity to cooperate with the process (Jam. 1:4).
They allow the process to work and allow us to experience inner peace and joy in the midst of the
trials.

In order to handle suffering with inner joy and tranquillity, we must be able to look ahead to God’s
purposes and reasons for suffering. This requires faith in the eternal verities of God.

Compare the blessings of affliction as seen in the testimony of the Psalmist in Ps. 119:

Before affliction:
Straying and ignoring (vs. 67a)
During and in affliction:
Learning and turning (vs. 71, cf. vs. 59)
When under affliction we need
to:
Determine Causes if we can (Is it because of something I have
done?)

Determine Objectives (What is God wanting to do in my life or in
others?)

Determine Solutions (How does God want me to handle this?)
After affliction:
Knowing and changing (vss. 67b, 97-102)

Resting and valuing (vss. 65,72)

We must understand God’s chief purpose for our lives is to be conformed to the image of Christ and
He has determined in His plan to use suffering for our spiritual development. If we are going to
endure suffering and the trials of life, however, we must also understand and believe in the other
purposes and reasons for suffering as they are related to the chief purpose.

Purposes and Reasons for Suffering

(1) We suffer as a testimony, as a witness (2 Tim 2:8-10; 2 Cor. 4:12-13; 1 Pet. 3:13-17).
When believers handle suffering joyfully and with stability, it becomes a marvelous testimony to the
power and life of Christ that we claim and name. Suffering provides key opportunities to manifest
and magnify the power of God through His servants in order to verify and confirm the messenger and
his message. It provides opportunities to reveal our credentials as ambassadors of Christ (1 Kings.
17:17-24; John 11:1-45). This includes the following areas:

To glorify God before the angelic world (Job 1-2; 1 Pet. 4:16).
To manifest the power of God to others (2 Cor. 12:9, 10; John 9:3).
To manifest the character of Christ in the midst of suffering as a testimony to win others to
Christ (2 Cor. 4:8-12; 1 Pet. 3:14-17).

(2) We suffer to develop our capacity and sympathy in comforting others (2 Cor. 1:3-5)

(3) We suffer to keep down pride (2 Cor. 12:7). The Apostle Paul saw his thorn in the flesh as an
instrument allowed by God to help him maintain a spirit of humility and dependence on the Lord
because of the special revelations he had seen as one who had been caught up to the third heaven.

(4) We suffer because it is a training tool. God lovingly and faithfully uses suffering to develop
personal righteousness, maturity, and our walk with Him (Heb. 12:5f; 1 Pet. 1:6; Jam. 1:2-4). In this
sense, suffering is designed:

As discipline for sin to bring us back to fellowship through genuine confession (Ps. 32:3-5;
119:67).
As a pruning tool to remove dead wood from our lives (weaknesses, sins of ignorance,
immature attitudes and values, etc.). The desired goal is increased fruitfulness (John 15:1-7).
Trials may become mirrors of reproof to reveal hidden areas of sin and weakness (Ps. 16:7;
119:67, 71).
As a tool for growth designed to cause us to rely on the Lord and His Word. Trials test our
faith and cause us to use the promises and principles of the Word (Ps. 119:71, 92; 1 Pet. 1:6;
Jam. 1:2-4; Ps. 4:1 [The Hebrew of this passage can mean, “You have enlarged, made me
grow wide by my distress]). Suffering or trials teach us the truth of Psalm 62:1-8, the truth of
learning to “wait on the Lord only.”
As a means of learning what obedience really means. It becomes a test of our loyalty
(Heb. 5:8). Illustration: If a father tells his son to do something he likes to do (i.e., eat a bowl
of ice cream) and he does it, the child has obeyed, but he hasn’t really learned anything about
obedience. If his dad, however, asks him to mow the lawn, that becomes a test and teaches
something about the meaning of obedience. The point is, obedience often costs us something
and is hard. It can require sacrifice, courage, discipline, and faith in the belief that God is good
and has our best interests at heart regardless of how things might appear to us. Regardless of
the reason God allows suffering into our lives, rarely does it not reveal areas of need,
weaknesses, wrong attitudes, etc., as it did in Job.

Suffering itself is not the thing that produces faith or maturity. It is only a tool that God uses to
bring us to Himself so we will respond to Him and His Word. It forces us to turn from trust in
our own resources to living by faith in God’s resources. It causes us to put first things first.
Ultimately, it is the Word and the Spirit of God that produces faith and mature Christ-like
character (Ps. 119:67, 71).

In James 1:2-4 and 1 Peter 1:6-7 the key word is “proof.” “Proof” is the word dokimion
which looks at both the concept of testing which purifies, and the results, the proof that is left
after the test. The Lord uses trials to test our faith in the sense of purifying it, to bring it to the
surface, so we are forced to put our faith to work.

(5) We suffer to bring about continued dependence on the grace and power of God. Suffering
is designed to cause us to walk by God’s ability, power and provision rather than by our own (2
Cor. 11:24-32; 12:7-10; Eph. 6:10f; Ex. 17:8f). It causes us to turn from our resources to His
resources.

(6) We suffer to manifest the life and character of Christ (The Fruit of the Spirit) (2
Cor.4:8-11; Phil. 1:19f). This is similar to point (4) above with more emphasis on the process and
defining the objective, the production of the character of Christ. This has both a negative and a
positive aspect:

Negative: Suffering helps to remove impurities from our lives such as indifference, self trust,
false motives, self-centeredness, wrong values and priorities, and human defense and escape
mechanisms by which we seek to handle our problems (man-made solutions). Suffering in
itself does not remove the impurities, but is a tool God uses to cause us to exercise faith in the
provisions of God’s grace. It is God’s grace in Christ (our new identity in Christ, the Word
and the Holy Spirit) that changes us. This negative aspect is accomplished in two ways:

(a) When out of fellowship with the Lord: Suffering becomes discipline from our heavenly
Father (Heb. 5:5-11; 1 Cor. 11:28-32; 5:1-5). This involves known sin, rebellion and
indifference to God.

(b) When in fellowship with the Lord: Suffering becomes the loving and skillful handy work
of the Vine Dresser to make us more productive. It involves unknown sin, areas we may not
be aware of, but that are nevertheless hindering our growth and fruitfulness. In this case,
suffering often constitutes mirrors of reproof (John 15:1-7).
Positive: When believers live under suffering joyfully (i.e., they endure and keep on applying
the promises and principles of the faith), Christ’s life or character will be more and more
manifested as they grow through the suffering (2 Cor. 4:9-10; 3:18). This means trust, peace,
joy, stability, biblical values, faithfulness and obedience in contrast to sinful mental attitudes,
blaming, running, complaining, and reactions against God and people.

(7) We suffer to manifest the evil nature of evil men and the righteousness of the justice of
God when it falls in judgment (1 Thess. 2:14-16). Suffering at the hands of people (persecution,
violent treatments) is used of God to “fill up the measure of their sins.” It shows the evil character of
those who persecute others and the justice of God’s judgment when it falls.

(8) We suffer to broaden our ministries (cf. Philippians 1:12-14 with 4:5-9). In the process of
producing Christian character and enhancing our testimony to others, suffering often opens up doors
for ministry we could never have imagined. Paul’s imprisonment (chained daily to Roman soldiers in
his own house) resulted in the spread of the gospel within the elite imperial praetorian guard. The
Apostle was undoubtedly continuing to rejoice in the Lord, but if he had been complaining, sulking,
and bitter, his witness would have been zero.

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Peter #4

Suffering: Peter wrote his two letters to believers living in Asia Minor during the first century A.D.
At the time, these early Christians were undergoing severe hardships, and the suffering they were
experiencing was beginning to impede their spiritual growth. In his first letter, Peter is primarily
concerned with this problem of suffering. In fact, he uses the Greek word pascho (the verb meaning
"to suffer") more in this one short letter than the apostle Paul does in all of his epistles put together.
Hardships, setbacks, disappointments, illnesses, and all the various and sundry forms of suffering
can, quite understandably, be a stumbling block to faith.

We believers say that we have been delivered from God's wrath, that we have been forgiven all our
sins by the blood of Jesus Christ, and that we are now God's children. Why then is life so difficult?
Why is there so much pain? Without biblical answers to such questions, intense suffering will
inevitably put tremendous pressure on a believer's faith, tempting him to doubt God. But God has
provided us with truth to combat this doubt, the truth of His Word. With the truth contained in the
Bible, God has given us the means to protect our faith, understand the suffering that comes our way,
and endure it with the result that God is glorified, and we grow spiritually. Peter's objective in writing
1st Peter is to give these hard-pressed early believers the critical information and encouragement
they need to pass the suffering test, information that is just as crucial for us to master today as it was
for them nearly two thousand years ago.

Categories of Suffering: It will be helpful for our purposes to categorize the causes of suffering
from the biblical point of view. The most ubiquitous form of suffering we may term general human
suffering. By God's design, the physical universe operates in certain predictable patterns which are
commonly called natural laws. Similarly, in the human realm, God has ordained a system of normal
human behavior, implanted in the conscience of all people (Rm.2:14-15). We may label as human
law the attempts of mankind to codify these principles.

If we should decide to ignore the consequences of either category of law (natural or human),
suffering would result. For example, we might chose to ignore the law of gravity and jump out of a
second-story window, or we might decide to take home a television set without paying for it first.
While we might possibly avoid negative consequences in both examples, it is clear that repeated
flouting of natural and human law will inevitably bring suffering. Often times, of course, it is
impossible not to run afoul of natural and human law. For example, on the natural side, all of us will
encounter some sort of disease in our lives, while on the human side, even compliance with the law
can often be painful (e.g. paying income tax). In extreme situations, such suffering can be intense
(consider the victims of natural disasters, or political persecutions undertaken in the name of law and
order). The point is that the normal operation of the physical universe and human history produce
suffering in the natural course of things, and we all understand that this is so and can easily discern
the specific natural or political causes for individual cases of suffering.

The Origin of General Human Suffering: As believers in God, and in the perfection and
goodness of God, we may well ask why there is pain and suffering at all, why political persecution
and natural disaster? The short answer to this question is that suffering originated from evil, and evil
originated from God's creatures, not from God. While we shall have cause to study the pertinent
doctrines (such as Creation, Angels, Satan and the Angelic Conflict, and the Fall of Man) at a later
date, a few words about the origin of suffering are in order here.

God's original creation of the universe included a category of exceptional creatures called angels.
Superior to mankind in ability, they were also endowed with free will. One particularly gifted angel
whom God had placed in a position of great authority took it into his heart to rebel against God and
attempted to replace Him as ruler of the universe (Is.14:12ff.; Ezk.28:12-19). The Bible is silent on
the precise course which this revolt took, but we know that God's ultimate triumph over Satan and
the angels who chose to follow him is certain (Lk.10:18; Rm.16:20; Rv.20:10).

Obviously, as an omnipotent being, infinite God would have had no trouble subduing one of his own,
finite creatures. Instead of doing so immediately, however, God apparently decided to demonstrate
to Satan and all the angels that Satan and his followers had truly been free to choose, and that,
therefore, the fact that God had created Satan did not make God responsible for the evil which
Satan chose to do. To prove this, God created man, a creature far inferior to the angels in ability, but
possessed of the same free will. Faced with the ultimate contest which would decide his fate, Satan
realized that his only hope of avoiding condemnation lay in thwarting this divine demonstration of
creature free will. Otherwise, a human choice for God would prove beyond all doubt that Satan had
indeed also been responsible for his own actions. Satan therefore sought to alienate man from God
by corrupting our original parents (Gen.3), but God provided a solution for man: though man had
used his free will to disobey God and had thus fallen into sin, God gave man another opportunity.
God gave man the chance to use his free will in obedience to God by submitting to God through faith
in the coming Savior (foreshadowed by the "coats of skin" of Gen.3:21 which represent, by the
animal sacrifice through which they were provided, Christ's death on the cross).

What does all this have to do with general human suffering? When God created man, He created
them male and female (Gen.1:27), He created them perfect, and He placed them in a perfect place:
the Garden of Eden (from the Hebrew gan-'aden, meaning "garden of pleasure [or delight]",
Gen.2:8). In this perfect place, and in this condition of perfection, man knew no suffering, just as in
the new paradise to come, suffering will once again be absent (Rev.21.4). As a result of the fall of
man in Genesis chapter 3, however, all mankind is subject to general human suffering in this life. God
had warned Adam and Eve that eating from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
would produce their death (immediate spiritual death, or alienation from God, and eventual physical
deterioration, death, and eternal condemnation: Gen.2:17). In addition, they were thrown out of the
perfect paradise of Eden (Gen.3:22-24), and a new element was introduced into their lives: suffering.
"Pain" is prophesied for Eve (Gen.3:16) and "toil" for Adam, but both words come from the same
Hebrew root: 'atsab, which means to feel hurt, pain, and grief. Thus Adam and Eve left all of us,
their descendants, a legacy of general human suffering. But while our relationship to our first
parents has brought us suffering and death, the new relationship which God offers us with Himself
through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ brings us joy and eternal life, for while "in Adam all die, in
Christ shall all be made alive" (1Cor.15:22).

In the midst of pronouncing judgment upon Adam and Eve, God also provided them with His
promise of hope, telling them (Gen.3:15) that the Seed of the Woman (i.e. Christ) would one day
crush the serpent's head (i.e. Satan). This victory came at the cross, so that all we who have put our
faith in Christ now look forward with certainty to the future day when these bodies of pain will be
resurrected as bodies of perfection (2Cor.5). Then we shall live forever with God the Father and His
Son Jesus Christ in the new paradise, the new Jerusalem (Rev.21-22).

The Suffering of Believers: As believers, we live in phase II of God's plan (time; see lesson #3).
Phase I (salvation) ended when we accepted Jesus Christ as our savior, and phase III (eternity)
has yet to begin for those of us still present on the earth. Though our hearts have changed in
obedience to Christ, our bodies are exactly the same as they were before salvation, and we still
inhabit the same imperfect world as we did before we believed. Consequently, we are still subject to
the general human suffering that has plagued mankind since the fall of Adam and Eve. There are
some very important differences in the suffering of believers, however.

First of all, our suffering will come to an end. We have certain knowledge through faith that we shall
eventually be liberated from the pain and tears of this life, and, like the creation itself, we eagerly
anticipate this liberation, knowing that the hardships of this present time are not worthy to be
compared to the wondrous glories of heaven to come (Rom.8:18-23).

Secondly, we know that whatever suffering we are called upon to endure, it is all part of God's plan
for our lives, and that the end result, even of painful suffering, will be for our good according to the
wisdom and mercy of our heavenly Father (Rom.8:28).

It is critical, however, to distinguish between the two types of specific suffering which are unique to
believers in order to avoid the shipwreck of our faith. The believers to whom Peter wrote were
having trouble making this distinction between the two types of the suffering of believers:

(1) undeserved suffering and

(2) divine discipline.

Undeserved suffering: This term simply means hardship that God allows to come the believer's
way to test, temper, and train the believer. All too often, believers assume that suffering means that
either God isn't concerned about them, or else God is punishing them. Hardship does not necessarily
mean that God is displeased. As we shall see next week, spiritual growth is impossible without some
opposition in life whereby God can demonstrate His faithfulness to us in hard times, and whereby we
in turn can demonstrate our trust in Him in spite of adverse circumstances.

As Christians, it is absolutely essential that we be objective when difficulties come our way and
remember that our heavenly Father loves us so much that He gave His only Son to die for us,
therefore He will surely help us through our problems as well (Rm.5:8-9). If we have done nothing
wrong, it is imperative that we not open up our mental "closets" to see what long-past sins may be
responsible for our current suffering. God deals with us in forgiveness and grace. Sins committed
long ago, confessed long ago, forgiven long ago, and dealt with long ago are not the cause of our
current problems. We must avoid misplaced and superfluous feelings of guilt, or else they have the
potential to wreak havoc on our spiritual lives. Part of Peter's purpose in writing 1st Peter was to
dispel confusion on this point which was threatening the spiritual growth of the believer in Asia
Minor.

Divine Discipline: True, we are not perfect beings. That is why we needed a perfect savior, Jesus
Christ, to die in our place. By His blood we have been redeemed (1Pet.1:18), bought out of the
power of sin. But since we still inhabit imperfect bodies (Rm.7), and still live in an imperfect world
(Jn.17:15), regrettably, it is beyond our ability to be completely sinless after becoming believers
(1Jn.1:10).

Because of His righteous character, God must address the sin which believers commit, but he deals
with us as a loving Father. When our children do wrong, if we truly love them, we discipline them not
to sate our anger, but to correct their behavior for their own good. The way God deals with us when
we sin very similar. In Hebrews chapter twelve, we are told that God disciplines "those He loves"
(v.6), and that all who are truly son's of God are disciplined by Him (v.8). God's purpose in
disciplining us is not to crush us, to destroy us, or to pour out His wrath upon us, but to correct us,
to train us, and to make us the kind of Christians He wants us to be (vv.10-11).

How then should we face the problem of personal sin and the divine discipline it brings on? First of
all, as we continue to grow spiritually and learn the doctrinal truths of God's Word, we develop a
clearer sense of just what is sinful and what is not sinful. If we do sin, 1 John chapter one gives us the
crucial mechanics by which we must correct the situation and get back into fellowship with God. In
verse 8, John tells us that we all "have sin" (i.e., we have a sinful nature, and are thus predisposed to
sin; cf. Eccles. 7:20), but in verse 9 we find that "if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to
forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". Now the Greek word for "confess" is
homologeo, and it simply means to "admit". Therefore if, when we do sin, and we then admit our sin
to God (in a simple prayer), then the Bible tells us here that God forgives us that sin, and that,
furthermore, He cleanses us not only from that sin, but from "all unrighteousness" into which we may
have fallen.

Should we then feel guilty about our sins? While it is certainly understandable that we might well feel
sorry about sinning, and are surely sorry about the pain which divine discipline has brought us, we
must never forget that Christ is the issue here, for it is He who bore our true guilt on the cross
(1Pet.2:24). God does expect a contrite spirit on a part (i.e., an honest and legitimate confession
which recognizes as sinful the sin we confess; cf. Ps.51:17; Is.57:15-16; 66:2). However, it is
imperative that we understand that the issue to God is not our emotions, but Christ's work on the
cross.

In fact, if we undertake to make ourselves suffer emotionally for our sins, or in any other way
afflict ourselves as some sort of penance for our sins, we will not be forgiven for all our troubles
(cf. Esau and Judas). The only person who was good enough to suffer for our sins was Jesus Christ,
and it is only the work of Jesus Christ which God the Father finds acceptable. Our feeling sorry or
guilty therefore not only will not clear our case before God, but we also run the risk of insulting Him.
For when we manufacture excessive, self-imposed guilt and emotional self-torment it is as if we are
saying "what Christ did wasn't good enough; I have to help God by contributing my penance too".

The Proper Attitude to Sin: David's attitude in Psalm 51 the correct approach for the believer
who has sinned. David is hurting badly under the pain of divine discipline, so he acknowledges
(admits, confesses) his sin to God (not to another person) and asks God for restoration. David is
quite properly sorry for sinning, but he recognizes that the issue is God's character (v.4), and God's
mercy (v.9), not his own feelings. God's attitude toward the believer who admits his sins in this
[correct] fashion is found in the parable of the prodigal son (Lk.15). First, the son confesses his
transgression against his father (v.21). Then, although the son was willing to accept some menial
position on the family estate (vv.18-19), his father forgives him, welcoming him back with joy and
thanksgiving (in spite of his transgression), and receives him back into all the benefits and privileges
of a son (vv.22-24). In like manner, God, on the basis of Christ's death for our sins, will graciously
forgive us and restore us no matter what we have done, no matter how terrible we feel, if we only
we are willing to return to Him and simply admit our sins to Him.

Review:

General Human Suffering: This is the common legacy of the entire human race because of
Adam and Eve's original disobedience to God, but through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, a way
has been provided for all mankind to reenter the Father's loving embrace by accepting His
Son as their savior. After believing in Christ, the Christian is not removed from this world, but
left here to grow spiritually and glorify God.
Undeserved Suffering and Divine Discipline: Our tenure in the devil's world inevitably
entails some undeserved suffering for growth and blessing, but also some suffering which
results from sin and the divine discipline which follows sin. It is essential that the believer keep
these two categories of suffering separate. Confession of sin (simple acknowledgment of
disobedience given to God in private through prayer according to 1Jn.1:9) brings immediate
forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration. Undeserved suffering, on the other hand, is a challenge
to faith, and an opportunity to trust in God that He will deliver us from hardship, no matter
how bleak the situation may be.
The solution to undeserved suffering, as we shall consider next week, is to rest in the
power and grace of God.
The solution to the suffering brought by divine discipline is immediate confession of sin.
As soon as a sin is confessed, it is forgiven, and the believer is completely cleansed. By
confessing our sins to God, we admit our disobedience. And while it is only natural and
proper that we should wish to avoid making the same mistakes again, the emotions of guilt
and "feeling sorry" do not influence God. His policy is one of grace. That means that He
forgives freely from His own goodness and for His own glory on the basis of what Christ did
for us on the cross, not on the basis of any works which we might attempt to do as penance.
Confession of sin is a sine qua non in the Christian way of life. All believers sin, therefore all
must confess their sins as they commit them, for this is the only way to be forgiven and
cleansed so that we can once again press forward with our primary mission in phase II of
God's plan for us: SPIRITUAL GROWTH!

Let us therefore not allow unconfessed sin or inordinate guilt about past sin to stand in our way.

OVERCOMING OPPRESSIVE THEOLOGY

2006-09-22T16:10:00.000-04:00

Theos/logos God words or words about God are not etched in granite...they
metamorphosise with time. All of us see things a bit differently than how we saw
them ten years ago, and certainly our theology has progressed since we were first
saved. Some of us are "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time" the title of a book
I read last year. We met Jesus at an earlier time before we experienced life and
thought we knew all about Him, only to find out this walk with Jesus must be
experiential...you must walk with Him to know Him. You must suffer with Him to
know Him. The Winans wrote a song with the lyrics 'What would I know about
being restored if I'd never lost my place, and what would I know about mercy if I
hadn't gotten out of grace"

The church of Jesus Christ is also in the midst of change, some of it for the better,
and some of it for the worse. Some of our theology binds while some sets free.
Jesus established the role of ministry that was being ushered in by the
phenomenon of God being made flesh when He read from the scroll of Isaiah one
Sabbath morning. Jesus said the Spirit of the Sovereign God was upon Him for
this purpose...to

PREACH GOOD TIDINGS TO THE MEEK
BIND UP THE BROKEN HEARTED
PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES
OPEN THE PRISON TO THEM THAT ARE BOUND
TO PROCLAIM THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR ...THE YEAR OF
JUBILEE
TO COMFORT ALL THAT MOURN
TO GIVE BEAUTY FOR ASHES AND THE OIL OF JOY FOR
MOURNING
TO GIVE A GARMENT OF PRAISE FOR THE SPIRIT OF
HEAVINESS
TO MAKE US TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, PLANTINGS OF THE
LORD

This must also be our purpose.

All ministry that purports to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ must pass
this litmus test, this acid test, does the ministry promote you, your views,
philosophy and dogma or does it represent the real Jesus.

There is oppressive theology being preached in the body of Christ. Listen
carefully to the television, the radio, read carefully the books, and the mailings.
You will see three distinct basic teachings that are the root of oppressive
theology.

I . NATIONALITY OF GOD
In this country we often hear "God is the God of our nation. We are the people
God loves most. Let's get America back to God." It is as though we have
exclusive rights to God. In our nation what is called Christianity is often
Americanism. "God must prefer my country because I do." With this thinking the
majority race can close the borders to aliens, oppress minorities, justify foreign
wars or whatever because "God is our God and prefers us." The republicans
think God belongs to them. White folks think God belongs to them. Israelis own
God, Arabs try to own God... and we African Americans sometimes feel God
loves us much more than anyone else. (everyone different from us is less than us)

Making God a God of nations leads us to making God a God of denominations.
Just within the Christian church we teach baptism in Jesus name , in the names of
the trinity, for adults only, for children only, by immersion, by sprinkling, as
necessary for salvation, and as a prerequisite for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Each denomination feels they have the revelation and therefore if" I am right you
must be wrong." Turf wars abound for ownership of the real word of God. It is
amazing the division this causes. God is not a God of any nation, or any
denomination. Nations are formed to facilitate the needs of their citizens.
Denominations are set up to facilitate the work of the church on earth. People,
individuals not buildings or organizations are called to be a habitation for the
spirit of God. We must preach a gospel that heals and brings wholeness to the
person. Whole healthy persons get together and form a healthy denomination.

II. PRECONCEIVED INTERPRETATION
We often go to the bible already sure of what it says. We have decided God is for
this and against that, and we approach scripture looking for those passages that
defend our position. It doesn't matter if they are taken out of context or not. What
if we came to the study of scripture seeking to understand the times, the context,
the politics, the culture, the religion, and the social norm represented by the
thousands of years of history in the Word? Then we would be equipped to make
the scripture relevant to the times we live in. Rightly dividing the word of truth
would help us know what was intended for literal translation and what was given
to teach a spiritual principle.

III. INHERITED OPPRESSION
Lastly to my sisters and brothers of the African Diaspora, we have been a
historically oppressed people. We were taught the word of God by the same
people who were felt fully justified by the Word of God to sell us, brand us , beat
us, and sell off our children. Good southern religious folks who could sing
Amazing Grace on the deck of a slave ship. Our understanding of a God that
could allow such atrocities would have to leave us feeling inferior. How does an
inferior group of people feel superior? The oppressed become oppressors. It is a
learned behavior. Light colored folks feel superior to dark folks. Skinny folks
feel superior to fat folks. Educated folks feel superior to undereducated folks.
Men lord over women, 'haves' lord over the 'have nots'. The pulpit often becomes
a place of monarchy, not ministry.

Whoever is considered the gentile in our midst is often oppressed by us. African
Americans who got their opportunity through Affirmative Action are speaking
against it. While you are driving your car and living in your house and eating your
food remember folks just a few years ago got lynched for less. We will not be
truly free until we adopt a theology that does not oppress any one. It is a chain on
our hearts and with it we keep each other in chains. OPEN THE PRISON TO
THEM THAT ARE BOUND. LET'S HAVE A YEAR OF JUBILEE! LET'S LIFT
THE CLOUD OF JUDGMENT AND ALLOW A CELEBRATION OF
DIVERSITY. LET'S TEAR DOWN THE WALLS OF PARTITION WE BUILT
TO DIVIDE US AND LOOSE THE SPIRIT OF GOD TO FLOW FROM
CHURCH TO TEMPLE TO CATHEDRAL TO MISSION TO PRAYER
GROUP. LETS SET EACH OTHER FREE.

THE AFRICAN MASK

2006-09-22T16:07:00.000-04:00

To the Western world masks are the most commonly known art form of Africa.
They can be admired for there beauty and craftsmanship. Although the artistry of the African masks is evident, for the people who create them they have a meaning much deeper than surface beauty.

African masks are danced to make a connection between the human and the spirit worlds, to convey ideas, and to reinforce social controls and religious beliefs. Masks are danced or performed at funerals, initiation ceremonies, reenactments of legends, and to ask a spirit's blessing for the prosperity and protection of an individual, family or community.

Some of the spirits these masks evoke are represented in mask depicting women, royalty and animals.

Introduction

Masks are known to have existed for 17,000 years, appearing in infinite variety and in widely scattered societies and cultures through the world.

Evidence of the prehistoric use of masks has been found in both Europe and Africa, and masks survive from the ancient civilizations of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

They have been fashioned out of both durable and ephemeral materials, including bone, terrecotta, stone, ivory, metal, and wood, as well as leaves, twigs, feathers, cloth, and animal and vegetable material.

Used for disguise, concealment, social control, spirit manipulation, physical protection, and entertainment, masks may be essential components of solemn religious observances of adjuncts to secular festivals.

In the West today, masquerades are found exclusively in performance and secular contexts. In many African societies, however, masking continues to play an essential role in the life of the community and provides an aesthetic means of addressing universal human issues such as:

1. a concern for order
2. the nature of reality and the cosmos
3. relationships to others
4. and coming to terms with death.

The masked dancer is accepted as an incarnation of an ancestor or spirit being whose appearance energizes the ritual but the mask itself is only one element in an elaborate and complicated event.

Body-concealing costume, dance, music, song, myth, and , often dynamic interaction between masker and audience, are essential components of the masquerade.

African masks were meant to be part of a total visual and auditory experience which is irrevocable altered once the mask has been removed from its original setting and displayed as an inert sculpture in a private collection or museum.

Nevertheless, the presence of these objects in a museum affords us the opportunity to begin to understand something of the genius of the African sculptor.

The masks demonstrate the great variety of form, content, and medium which characterize mask production in Africa.

Mask represent both humans and animals and exhibit the creators' technical mastery and conceptual creativity, especially in the approach to form, rather than emphasize likeness, the artists concentrate on the essence or the spirit of the subject. Thus for example, the depiction of the emphatic horizontal of the Bwa Butterfly Mask [2] suggests, rather than replicates, the wingspan of the insect in flight.

Masks fascinate people of all ages and cultures. Something magical occurs when a person wears a mask, hiding his or her true identity behind something beautiful, interesting, or frightening. The world of the African mask is particularly intriguing and complex.

Glossary

Ancestor: A deceased person, either immediate or remote, from whom a family or clan traces its identify. Ancestors are believed to be concerned with the welfare of their descendants and can intercede on their behalf or punish them for improper behavior.
Culture: The full range of human activity, represented by objects, buildings, rituals, etc., including religious practices and beliefs and social organization.
Ephemeral: An event or object that lasts for a markedly brief time. Something that is living or lasts only for a day, as certain plants or insects do.
Masks: A physical object designed to cover the face or the head.
Masquerades: An important event involving masked dancers, musicians and their audience.

Myth: A traditional story that serves to explain a practice, belief, natural phenomenon,or world view of a people.

Social Control: The maintenance of harmony and stability in a community through enforcement of laws, including judging disputes and punishing offenders. In many African cultures, masks and other art objects play important roles in achieving social harmony.

Masquerade

The mask is an interesting artifact which has often been studied as such and collected for display in the European context of the museum. When presented this way, as a disinterested visual commodity surrounded by other artifacts which are related only by the significance that the curator has ascribed to the collection, the African mask is no more the potent force it was created to be. For only in the human action context of the masquerade does its deeper cultural significance and efficacy as an oral- aesthetic motif become apparent. The mask provides a visual representation of the otherwise invisible, and the masquerade becomes the metaphor for life, and for the manner in which the divine or ancestral spirits often intervene from behind masks that we have learned to take for granted.

During its construction, the ancestral mask is given features which distinguish it from other masks that may be used in the context of entertainment. Communally-approved artistic codes are used in constructing this mask such as the use of white as the color of death or-- since animals are not believed to exist after death--the rendering of animal forms in the mask-. The particular animal forms used add to the textual content and revelation of what the mask represents, e.g. the lion as strength, the spider as prudence, or horns as the moon and fertility. So the artist provides the first designation of the mask, and the dancer who wears it provides the second designation in performance. Without this second designation in the masquerade, the mask is incomplete because it has no efficacy as Nommo ... again, an art-for-life's-sake ethic.

The musician's role may be to invoke the spirit to enter the masquerader, whereafter the mask and dancer are considered sacrosanct and not to be desecrated for fear of harm to the miscreant. Therefore during the masquerade the masked dancer is granted symbolic status and representational immunity, because any comments that they make (Nommo) are believed to be coming from the particular ancestor or god (indicated by the mask) that is now in possession of their body. And in such ritual the supernatural becomes a tangible presence, accessible for propitiation and intervention in the affairs of the living. Alternatively the occasion may also be used judiciously to convey messages and critiques to members of the community which may, if delivered in a different context produce friction and hostility.

This African masquerade tradition has been maintained in non-traditional contexts and Diasporan communities in variations of its outward forms, much of which was necessitated by authorities who were hostile to the African. For instance the African and Spanish syncretisms that one finds in Afro-Dominican musical traditions came about largely as a result of the Catholic church's suppression of African religious expression in any form amongst enslaved Africans.

This oppressive action by the church forced African religious expression underground to emerge in this disguised creolised form that nevertheless remained more musically and spiritually African.

The adoption of Catholic saints, Christian liturgy, and Spanish melodies and vocal techniques was the mask that Africans created in the Afro- Dominican context by necessity in order to preserve their tradition.

This technique of developing an outward form that appeased hostile authorities while simultaneously maintaining the deeper integrity of African culture was an ingenious application of the masquerade tradition, also notably demonstrated in the black folk church in America.

And it was given dramatic practical application during the African-American period of the underground railroad when enslaved Africans were planning and executing their escape to the north.

Enslaved Africans would sing in codes such as "steal away to Jesus" which, to the slave-owners sounded like a harmless longing to be with the heavenly master, but in reality masked the call-and-response to freedom.

As an oral-aesthetic motif, the masquerade is adaptable in its outward forms to the circumstances within which the deeper African mythoforms operate on behalf of the community.

Whether the oral-aesthetic masks are coded in non-African languages, in Christian liturgy, or in the "entertainment" jargon and paraphernalia of the music industry, the traditional art-for-life's-sake ethic and modes of discourse nevertheless continue to exist and perform dynamically within the larger masquerade of life.

Kinetic Orality

It has been said that a person who "hears" African music "understands it it in dance or some form of physical movement. Movement in the African musical context is not simply about the dance, because in its existential sense it expresses the generative power that constitutes life, that is transported in rhythmic sound, and then transformed into the visual patterns of the flesh.

Taking its cues from the spiritual kinetic or telekinetic that was earlier referred to as kimoyo, this energy is maintained and transformed into a visual kinetic through the oral-aesthetic, thus creating a continuum and culturally-distinctive imperative in the motif kinetic orality.

It is this kinetic imperative that creates the misapplication of formal Eurocentric methods of transcribing, performing, and analyzing "music" (versus "dance") to the understanding of African oral-aesthetic processes.

Rhythm is a crucial element of kinetic orality and a major reason for a relevant Africa-centered approach to its forms and processes of oral- aesthetic expression.

Because it is heavily emphasized in the African context, rhythm creates the weakest link to formalist and isolationist Eurocentric music theories and static forms of transcription, and it reveals African values and their dynamic and conducive forms of cultural agency.

Community is paramount ... and African rhythms, which carry indigenous speech patterns, initiate processes of community by their physical and emotional impact in the dance.

As mentioned previously, it is said that each person has a rhythm to which they dance.

The vast cultural array of rhythmic and dance motifs not only attest to this fact, but the metaphor of the rhythm validates the uniqueness of the individual, even as the polyrhythms that are conveyed in performance suggest and elicit community.

The generative and transformative power of Nommo therefore lies to a great extent in the kinetic modalities of rhythm, and in its unique abilities to functionalize the concept of community.

And here too one notes a significant cultural distinction with the formal Eurocentric separation between performer and audience.

As a collective entity whose oral-kinetic requires an interactive relationship for aesthetic fulfillment, the African communal imperative overrides these hard boundaries, even in performances set on the western context of the stage.

The black audiencearrives at such a venue fully expecting to "come and jam with ... party with ... get down with ... and be moved by" the performance.

As the designated "chorus" they may provide responsorial accompaniment such as "tell the truth" and "sing it baby;" hand-clapping, finger-snapping, foot-stomping, and other body movements which convey the kineticism of communal vitality.

This performance format took off in a big way with a growing young white audience who were in a mood of rebellion against authority and ripe for cultural experimentation during the early years of rock'n' roll.

Their exposure to rhythm and blues artists such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Fats Domino and the growing popularity of the genre amongst white youth spawned the creation of rock 'n' roll as a white version of this popular style of music.

Artists such as Elvis Presley, Pat Boone, Bill Haley, Ricky Nelson, and Andy Williams earned their initial popularity by covering black rhythm and blues songs.

The overt sexual connotations of the term rock 'n' roll were not lost on "Elvis the pelvis" as the eventual "king" became known from his performance style.
In any event it is interesting to note that such white appropriations of
African oral-aesthetic motifs were interpreted and expressed as a duality of sex and rebellion. Suddenly the "back-beat" and "syncopated" African rhythm (so designated in relation to the metronomic Eurocentric time-line) became a hot commercial property. On its own cultural terms this rhythm demonstrated the "talking drurn" motif by reflecting and informing the kineticism of African/Ebonic speech patterns.

And so the appropriation of these rhythms by rock 'n' roll artists brought them in touch with Nommo and restructured patterns of perception, interpretation, expression, and interaction as they relate to sound and subsequently translate to image. In contrast to formal distinctions and hard boundaries between music as a sound phenomenon and dance as iconographic, Nommo precedes and conceives the Africa-centered image or the visual kinetic which is always itself in a dynamic relationship with sound. And it is through the motif of kinetic orality that one participates in and finds revelation of the deeper mythoforms that govern the oral life-world.

African musicians exploit the visual kinetic elements of dress, facial expressions, and body movements including dance in order to magnify the word--the oral-kinetic-thus optimizing the passage of the spiritual kinetic, and establishing a successful rapport with the community. They consciously use their entire bodies in musical expression, relating to the rhythm as if it were the heartbeat of life itself and conceiving music and movement as an audio-visual unit. The interactive motif of kinetic orality therefore facilitates the being and becoming of life via an Africa-centered spiritual-oral-visual continuum, and the rnusician-dancer-instrurnent unity demonstrates this abundantly. One only need witness the phenomenon of a Michael Jackson performance to understand how potent, integral, and current this Africa-centered motif remains.

And as the almost mythical "moonwalk" has become associated with the King of Pop, so have dances such as the "Charleston," the "twist," and the "funky chicken" been created by musicians James P. Johnson, Chubby Checker, and Rufus Thomas respectively. The "Talking Drum"

As the masquerade trains perceptions of the forces that operate behind outward forms in the universe, so too does 'the musical instrument play a crucial role in reinforcing and adding to this. perceptual training. From the moment of contemplating its construction to the performance on the finished product, the musical instrument plays a symbolic role as co- creator whose "body" and "voice" are an anthropomorphic extension of the African being. The instrument maker who uses the resources of a tree to construct the instrument may go through an initial ritual of offering libations in order to honor the ancestral spirits who are believed to reside therein. The resonating space within the completed instrument is then believed to give fullness to the ancestral voices (Nommo), and it is the musician's performance on particular instruments that enables the ancestors to be present through the medium of the dancers.

As such therefore, the dancer's body is often also considered as an instrument that can be "played" by the sounds of a skilled musician. As modern western science and music therapy have become aware, different sounds speak to different parts of the human body and inform the various responses which in the African context become a dynamic audio-visual call-and-response dialogue. The dancer who is conversant with. the language of the music knows to make certain audible or physical responses to particular sounds and rhythms, thereby entering into the dialogue in a linguistically congruent and visually appropriate way. In so doing Nommo becomes amplified and extended through these audio-visual patterns of socially-constructed movement. In part this explains why it is impossible to understand African "music" by the Eurocentric approach of writing it down in its audible aspects only.

Moreover the iconographic Eurocentric orientation towards dance as a distinct aesthetic category from music is problematic in the African context because it disregards the interchangeable and/or simultaneous roles of dancer as musician, rhythmic collaborator, and musical instrument. In the oral life-world the human body, as the instrument and extension of the Supreme Creator, is the prototype for the secondary models: aerophones; chordophones; membranophones; or idiophones. For instance, sound production through the larynx or human voice-box is caused when air from the lungs cause the lower pair of vocal cords to vibrate. Pitch is controlled by varying the tension on the cords, and volume is regulated by the amount of air allowed to pass through the larynx. These same principles govern sound-production on chordophones- (stringed instruments) and aerophones (wind instruments).

The human body has its own inner resonating spaces which, in the musical instrument as mentioned above, would be where the soul of the ancestor resides, and from where Nommo as life is generated. Also, as a specialized receptor of sound, the human middle-ear (tympanum) is a drum-like structure consisting of a hammer and anvil that acts upon the vibratory membrane of the eardrum. By extension, human biological cells and surfaces that are responsive to touch create a polycentric environment for the various impacts of tactile sound. The body-politic is thus a complex interactive network regulated by the life-sustaining rhythms of breathing in collaboration with the heartbeat, and these principles are incorporated into oral-aesthetic forms and concepts. Oftentimes therefore, African musical instruments will be carved to resemble human forms either in whole or in part in order to train a deeper understanding of what sound-producing entities represent.

As a general rule instruments are constructed individually according to the particular tastes and traditional norms of the musician. The tuning of these instruments is subject to the language patterns of the musician's mother- tongue, as are the rhythms that are generated in performance. The musician thus "teaches" the instrument the traditional language it will "speak" in its role as a speech-surrogate and co-creator. The ability to remain true to linguistic patterns is especially crucial in the many African languages where tones serve phonemically to distinguish the meanings of words. In such cases one word may have a number of different meanings depending upon which syllable is intoned higher or given more stress. This is the principle by which the "talking-drum" (as order to render the thoughts, language, and emotions of the community as faithfully as possible.

As a communications technique the "talking-drum" principle is a quest for truth in which musical instruments as speech surrogates become co- creators and conveyors of Nommo. Often the drum has been used to convey messages over long distances to others familiar with the language. And in a number of instances music has been put to journalistic use in interesting ways such as the performances by Jabo musicians who sit in the Liberian marketplace and offer a running on-scene commentary on their talking-xylophones. This is a variation on the role of the traditional griot who is often attached to leading households in African class-societies or alternatively acts as a freelance poet, in either event exercising their special knowledge of traditional history, language, and the lineage of their patron by way of praise-singing, commentary, and instrumental accompaniment.

As an oral-aesthetic motif therefore, the "talking-drum" principle lends itself in a variety of ways to the understanding of the deep structures of African- derived music in the global village. It also brings into question the Eurocentric distinctions between vocal and instrumental music; music and dance; and musician and dancer. One hears the linguistic imperatives for instance in the African-American blues scale which flatten the 3rd, 7th, and sometimes 5th of the western diatonic major scale, and also in the musical rhythms which, having lost their original ethnic specificity nevertheless inform and are informed by Ebonic speech patterns in the Diaspora. So the fact that African instruments such as the drum were banned from use by the slave master because of their communicative "talking -drum" motif in this context. It simply masquerades in other congruent forms.

Further examples abound of musicians who create within this Africa- centered conceptual tradition. Blues instrumentalist and singer B.B. King and his guitar which he has anthropomorphized in the co-creative person of "Lucille" is one such example. Other examples include the scatting-style of an Ella Fitzgerald, and the performances of a Bobby McFerrin or the group "Take-6" in which they employ their bodies as surrogate- instruments, imitating the sounds of trumpets and various percussion instruments. The tap-dancing tradition also blurs the western distinctions between music-dance and musician-dancer-instrument. Conscious rap music and its proactive journalistic themes of social reflection

commentary, and criticism; its urge to correct the historical record and tc collect on past dues; its praise-singing modes and so on are all additionally valid and notable expressions of the Africa-centered "talking-drum" motif.

HE THOUGHT OF HOWARD THURMAN

2006-09-22T16:04:00.000-04:00

T

Howard Thurman was one of the most influential thinkers in the African American
community of the 20th century. Together with people like W.E.B. Dubois, Cornel
West, Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr.
and others, Thurman put forth ideas that helped to shape the course of the
African American struggle for a place of equality and freedom in American
society. Thurman was also an important figure in the movement towards interfaith
understanding. Few religious or civil rights leaders were unacquainted with
Howard Thurman who, in his later years, was regarded with awe. Indeed Martin
Marty referred to him as a saint, someone whose search for the Good Life, the
God-Life was so profoundly honest, so profoundly worthwhile, so profoundly clear
that people of any and every religious understanding could draw strength and
wisdom from his life and his thought, even though they were couched in the
particular language of his own tradition, Christianity. In these opening days
of the 21st century we have need of all the wisdom we can discover if we are to
confront and overcome the many problems of our society, not least of which is
the enduring American dilemma of race.

Thurman's ideas are found in 23 books, hundreds of articles and essays, and many
sermons and meditations published in numerous magazines and journals. The best
short collection of this material is the Beacon Press book of two years ago, A

STRANGE FREEDOM: THE BEST OF HOWARD THURMAN ON RELIGIOUS
EXPERIENCE AND PUBLIC LIFE, edited by Walter Earl Fluker and Catherine Tumber.
The sub-title of A STRANGE FREEDOM points to one of the central ideas in Thurman's view of the world, namely that religious experience and public life need each other. For
either to be a worthy experience, it must be intertwined with the other and
interact with it in vital and continuous ways.

In an article written in 1939 on 'Mysticism and Social Change," Thurman points
out that mystics must be social activists. The mystic, the individual who seeks
a personal experience of the Ultimate, of God, must return from that experience
into society. The mystic must bring back to social life a sense of the unity of
all things, for social life is always fragmented. "Society", says Thurman,
"ensnares the human spirit in a maze of particulars so that the One cannot be
sensed nor the good realized."

Never to retreat and seek out a vision of the good leaves us prey to the tyranny
of little things, the details of life which we all know can keep us forever busy
and distracted so that we never seek and certainly never understand what the
good might truly be.

By the same token, whatever vision of unity and goodness is experienced by the
mystic, it is of little value unless the mystic is willing to risk that vision
in trying to realize it among other human beings. As Thurman notes, "there is a
profound element of anarchy in all spiritually motivated behavior. The
temptation to pride, arrogance, self-righteousness, is ever present." We must
burn these spiritual flaws out of our system in the fires of social reality as
we seek to realize the good we have glimpsed in our vision.

Thurman wrote of mystics, but he was surely talking of each one of us. The
vision of the good comes not just in top of the mountain or middle of the
wilderness experiences. It also comes from the discipline of prayer and
meditation, from thoughtful reflection, from worship or celebration, experiences
available to all men and women.

His point was that both religious experience and public life are important and
they must feed each other. Religious experience gives us the vision. Public life
gives us the opportunity. We must not exhaust ourselves in public life but
retreat in order to refresh ourselves. Likewise we must not hide out in mystical
life but return from our religious experiencing to bring our visions into
contact with the real world.

We must both seek a vision of the good and try to make that vision real in human
life. This understanding is at the heart of Thurman's life and thought.

It is important to make this assertion at the beginning because there are many
who regard Thurman as too mystical to be of value in the struggles of daily life
and of trying to cope with injustice. Nothing could be further from the truth.
He was a man deeply rooted in various spiritual traditions which taught him the
value of both religious experience and social activism- the black church
experience with its awareness of suffering and its rich tradition of hope, the
meditative disciplines of the Quakers but also their social activism, the
theological inclusiveness of the Hindu tradition and the principle of non-
violence as a guide to social action taught to Thurman by Gandhi, to name
several of the primary sources of his faith and thinking.

Most important of all was the tradition of Jesus, which he felt was often not
the tradition of Christianity. Thurman rejected what he felt was an all too
common understanding of Jesus as an object of worship. Having Jesus as an object
of worship led to contempt for those who did not worship him and to a dangerous
exclusiveness that was characteristic of Christianity and a dagger in its heart
where it appeared. To Thurman, Jesus represented the quintessential religious
person seeking a vision of moral community and personal dignity.

In his book, JESUS AND THE DISINHERITED, a book which Martin Luther King. Jr.
carried with him throughout his years as a civil rights leader, Thurman speaks
of Jesus as a Jew, as a disinherited and poor Jew, as a Jew living under Roman
oppression. He sees in Jesus' response to these conditions a way for his fellow
Negroes to work their way out of the oppressive conditions in which they lived
at the time (1949). Certainly it was wrong to acquiesce, but equally wrong to
resist violently the might of the oppressors.

The way of Jesus, what became Thurman's way, what became King's way as well, was
to learn to love oneself by realizing that the kingdom of heaven is within us.
Do not, in other words, allow an oppressor to determine the quality of my inner
life. Let love flow inward and outward until the oppressor is overwhelmed by
love and ceases to be an oppressor. "Hatred is destructive to hated and hater
alike. Love your enemy, that you may be children of your Father who is in
heaven...The Kingdom of God is within."

Unlike many of his fellow Christians then and now, Thurman believed that many
could and would come to the same place as Jesus, the place of Love, without any
attachment to or perhaps even knowledge of Jesus. To Howard Thurman this was of
no consequence. The reason is something he often pointed out: "What is true in
any religion is in the religion because it is true; it is not true because it is
in the religion." Thurman was not disturbed by the fact that human beings speak
many different religious languages. What matters is Love. Whoever teaches it is
worthy of being followed. Thurman followed Jesus, but respected and honored
those who followed different people and different paths.

That respect for others' ways grows also out of a sense of the importance of
freedom. White Americans have historically resonated to the word liberty, for
that was the word used in colonial times to signify our release from the chains
Great Britain imposed upon us. But for the African American historically the
word has been freedom, freedom from slavery, freedom once slavery was ended from
the numerous legal and economic and social bonds that restricted the life of the
African American. But freedom is something more, and it is this part of freedom
that Thurman stresses.

To Thurman there was a fundamental distinction between liberty and freedom.
Liberty was part of the social contract, related to external activities and
subject to restriction and removal. Freedom "is a quality of being. It cannot
be given and it cannot be taken away...Freedom is the process by which, standing
in my place where I am, I can so act in that place as to influence, order,
alter, or change the future...life is not so fixed that it cannot respond to my
own will, my own inner processes...(Freedom) is the private, intimate, primary
exercise of a profound and unique sense of alternatives...freedom is the sense
of option. Mark you, I do not say freedom is the exercise of option. That may
not be possible. But freedom is the sense of option, the sense of alternatives
which only I can affect. And this is the thing that threatens all dictatorships,
all tyrants, because there is not any way which the external forces in the
environment can reach inside and cause the individual human spirit to relax and
give up its sense of option."

Freedom is ultimately "a discipline of the mind and of the emotions." Freedom
enables us to develop a purpose, a plan, and thus to know when we have strayed
from the plan and are lost. It becomes what Thurman called "a principle of
orderedness" and this in turn helps to guide our behaviour and our action by
teaching us when we are on the right path and when we are not. Freedom is a
quality of the human spirit without which our humanity is significantly
diminished.

One of the essential elements in the success of the civil rights movement was
that those who participated-who marched and were beaten and who went to jail and
lost jobs but who never gave in and who never retaliated-were people who first
learned about freedom and took it into their souls. There is no other way those
people could have withstood fire hoses and vicious dogs, terrifying threats and
economic pressures, the naked face of hatred and violence looking at and working
upon them. But they did, and they changed the destiny of this nation by doing
so. Thurman's understanding of freedom was directly involved in the work of
civil rights leaders and indirectly involved in every person who joined in those
heroic actions.

In his book, THE INWARD JOURNEY, Thurman writes that "it is a strange freedom to
be adrift in the world of men without a sense of anchor anywhere. Always there
is the need of mooring, the need for the firm grip on something that is rooted
and will not give. The urge to be accountable to someone, to know that beyond
the individual himself there is an answer that must be given, cannot be
denied...To be known, to be called by one's name, is to find one's place and
hold it against the hordes of hell. This is to know one's value, for one's self
alone. It is to honor an act as one's very own, it is to live a life that is
one's very own, it is to bow before an altar that is one's very own...It is a
strange freedom."

In this short passage is found Thurman's appreciation for freedom and also
further clues to his understanding of what freedom really is. A brief discussion
of each of these will help to broaden our understanding of the thought of Howard
Thurman.

The first of these is character. Character is about our inner life, our
integrity, our understanding of, commitment to, and willingness to abide by the
highest moral authority we can discover or imagine. In a wonderful sermon on a
passage in Jeremiah, Thurman tells his listeners that the power of the prophets
lies not in their birth nor their education and certainly not in their self-
righteousness. The power of the prophets lies in their faith. "In the last
analysis," he says, "the only thing to which a man may appeal for basic security
is the high quality of his dedication and the supreme worth of that to which he
is dedicated. If a man dedicates his life to the highest that he knows, that
dedication gives to his life added worth and significance." Such dedication is
truly the measure of the individual.

Again unlike so many of his contemporaries in the Christian ministry, Thurman
made clear in this sermon that belief in a particular God as representative of
that "supreme worth" was not important. Indeed he condemns vigorously those who
speak the words of dedication to God but then act as though there is no God,
while he praises those who call themselves atheists but who live out a life of
full commitment to noble ideals. Living in love, striving for justice, avoiding
arrogance and self-righteousness, keeping our eyes focused on the worthiest
ideals-these are the signs of character and integrity that can turn our "strange
freedom" into strength and joy.

Character is also about what we do in a time of suffering. If we endlessly ask
ourselves why we are made to suffer, we learn nothing from our suffering and
advance in no way towards ending that suffering. Thurman believed that suffering
could be a powerful reminder of our mortality. Suffering tells us that we shall
die, that the universe is not structured around our desires and convenience,
that because we are free we shall sometimes make mistakes and bring woe down
upon our heads. All this is to be human.

Whiners learn nothing from suffering, but the person of character learns much:
that always there is someone suffering and in need of what we can offer to them
of our resources; that sometimes on the road to a noble goal there will be rough
places but that this does not make the journey futile, only difficult. Even if
we do not arrive at journey's end, someone will, and we will have made a
contribution to their doing so. Character is built in moments of suffering, or
it is revealed as being too feeble to withstand hardship.

One last aspect of character is written of in Thurman's book on Jesus where he
speaks of the importance of truth-telling. He is talking of those who are
disinherited and the dreadful burdens they must carry. He asks what can they do
and responds with several answers. The oppressed can lie and cheat and deceive
because they feel that all that matters is ultimate victory over those who rule
over them. They can make compromises as a means of surviving. But Thurman looks
to Gandhi's example of speaking truth to power as the right way to act.

"Be simply, directly truthful, whatever may be the cost in life, limb, or
security. For the individual who accepts this, there may be quick and speedy
judgment with attendant loss. There must always be the confidence that the
effect of truthfulness can be realized in the mind of the oppressor as well as
the oppressed." Such a sincere faith in the power of truth rests in the
sincerity of our belief in the transcendent ideals to which we have committed
ourselves. Thurman's understanding of this aspect of character is grounded for
himself in a belief in God, but he recognizes that that was one man's view. He
says that "sincerity in human relations is equal to, and the same as, sincerity
to God." Then he quotes from Matthew 25 where Jesus tells his disciples that the
ultimate judgment of history will rest favorably on those who have visited the
sick and gone to the prisons and fed the hungry and clothed the naked, for in
doing so they have indeed honored God.

Part of Thurman's understanding of freedom is strength of character. This is
built around a deep faith in the highest and best we can know or imagine, a
willingness to suffer for the ideals to which we are attached, and a willingness
at all times to speak truth even in the face of overweening power. Freedom
requires character.

Civility. Civility is grounded in humility. Humility arises out of our awareness
that we are very limited creatures, limited by the frailty of our bodies and the
weakness of our minds. Rather than build ourselves up with a false pride, we
must recognize that every human being is like us. There is a bond of commonality
that crosses every barrier between us natural and artificial. Here is the first
step in learning the importance of civility: that every human being with whom I
engage is sister/brother to me.

Civility also arises out of a sense of gratitude for all that I have been given.
From the wonders of a beautifully structured world to the wonders of human
society with all its interdependent parts, I rely on that which is outside
myself to sustain me. From weather that does not boil me alive as would happen
to me on the planet Mercury to weather that does not instantly freeze my blood
as would happen on the planet Pluto, I am part of a system for which I am not
responsible but that gives me life and sustains me in it. From those who operate
the schools where I was educated and the businesses from whom I purchase needed
goods and the other institutions of society that provide for a wide network of
important events and programs and systems I have received and continue to
receive an abundance of opportunities for living and enjoying and growing.
Civility is a natural outgrowth of gratitude.

Civility arises as well out of our awareness of the need for us to be reconciled
with one another. In his book, DISCIPLINES OF THE SPIRIT, Thurman writes of our
need for reconciliation. "The concern for reconciliation finds expression in
the simple human desire to understand others and to be understood by others."

Clearly such reconciliation cannot take place in the midst of anger, hatred,
violence, and segregation from one another. Thurman writes feelingly of how his
trip to India in the 1930's clarified the horrors of segregation against black
people in America. For he encountered person after person who told him that as a
Christian he had no moral standing in India much less in his own land.
Christianity was the religion of the imperial rulers of the Indian sub-
continent. Christianity, his hosts told him, was the religion, which in America,
allowed people to interrupt a church service to go lynch a black man, then
resume that service. Reconciliation between abused and abuser is possible but it
is very hard, it takes a very long time, and it must begin with civility.

Civility means mutual respect. It means that people listen to each other and do
not try to shout one another down. Civility is gentle, understanding, courteous,
fair. Between friends it is natural. Between those who are hostile to one
another, for whatever reasons, it is the necessary technique and attitude by
which reconciliation can be effected. Civility opens up the possibility that
people who are at odds will not take the next step down the road of hatred,
whose end point is always violence, but at least pause on that road, and maybe
look back.

Perhaps there can even be someday a commitment to nonviolence, which is a vital
part of civility. Violence of a physical or verbal kind keeps us distanced from
one another when our need-Thurman called it a hunger-is precisely to draw close
to each other. "How indescribably wonderful and healing it is to encounter
another human being who listens not only to our words, but manages, somehow, to
listen to us. Everyone needs this and everyone needs to give it as well-thus we
come full circle in love." When we live in love, we will be civil to all whom we
meet.

Civility grows out of humility, out of gratitude, out of our need for
reconciliation. It is necessary for freedom because it helps us to appreciate
the limits of our freedom and the ways in which our freedom is bound up with
that of others.

The final aspect of freedom I will discuss is community, what Thurman liked to
refer to as "the beloved community." Community was the essential element of
human life and of nature. Thurman liked to say that pantheism was appealing to
him in the sense that all nature is divine and thus it is a kind of holy
community of trees and plants and birds and insects and horses and humans. It
was the human collective, of course, that drew his most careful scrutiny and his
deepest praise.

In an essay on prayer, he comments that at first glance human relations seem to
be quite messy and chaotic. "It cannot be denied that a part of the fact of
human society is the will to destroy, to lay waste, and to spend...The bloody
carnage of fratricide is a part of the sorry human tale. And yet always against
this, something struggles. ...Always there is some voice that rises up against
what is destructive, calling attention to an alternative, another way. It is a
matter of more than passing significance that the racial memory as embodied in
the myths of creation, as well as in the dream of prophet and seer, points ever
to the intent to community as the purpose of life...There must be community."

He goes on to say in other essays that while we must not make an "idol of
togetherness," we suffer when we do not appreciate how much we need each other.
"The human spirit cannot abide the enforced loneliness of isolation. We
literally feed on each other; where this nourishment is not available, the human
spirit and the human body-both-sicken and die...The safeguards by which
individuals or groups of men establish the boundaries of intimate and collective
belonging are meant ultimately to guarantee self-nourishment...Life feeds on
life; life is nourished by life." When we thwart this mutual nourishment, we
thwart ourselves. That is why freedom is bound up with community, not at the
opposite pole from it. We nourish each other or we wither.

Thurman believed the American experience was essentially an experience of
community, community hoped for, community partly realized, community denied. We
began our existence as a nation on the basis of a community pulled together by a
common commitment that developed out of a common crisis. We embedded in our
founding documents-the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the
Bill of Rights-- our hopes for this community. We were geographically isolated
and blessed with abundant resources. We made two ghastly mistakes: to enslave
Africans and bring them forcibly here and to pretend that the people already
here did not matter.

The opportunity of genuine community across remarkably different lines of
thought and culture and experience has always been with us. Thurman speaks of
our being provided "the opportunity, not the necessity, mark my word, but the
opportunity, for growth in relatedness, for primary face-to-face discovery of
the secret of life far removed from one's own background and culture...It was as
if the Creator of existence wanted to discover whether or not a certain ideal
could be realized in time and space." That ideal was neighborliness, another
word for community, a willingness to get along with people different in so many
ways from us, to grow in the experience so that new understandings of community
might be developed.

Thurman spent a decade intentionally involved in an experiment to test these
ideas. From 1944-1953 he was co-pastor with a white Presbyterian clergyman of
The Fellowship Church of All Peoples in San Francisco. This was a unique effort
to create both an interracial and an intercultural congregation that would be
open to all branches and varieties of Christianity as well as people from other
religious traditions. Not only was the church founded with black and white
members-almost unheard of 60 years ago-but in the midst of a bitter war against
Japan this church also included Japanese Americans. This kind of religious
venture, crossing so many of the lines that at that time actively divided
people, is what Thurman meant when he spoke of the beloved community.

In the 1945 statement of commitment to the church which those who joined were
asked to affirm, there is this sentence: "I desire to share in the spiritual
growth and awareness of men and women of varied national, cultural, racial, and
creedal heritage united in a religious fellowship." This to Thurman was the
promise of America at its finest and the potential within all human beings and
human collectives.

Community is essential to freedom, for without it we expend huge quantities of
our time and energy hiding behind walls, living in fear, resisting what is most
natural and needed in us, to love and be loved by other human beings. Within
community, because we know where we belong and that we are cared for and that
what we have to offer is appreciated, there is freedom to learn and to grow and
to be all that it is within us to be.

The course of a sermon is far too brief to do justice to the treasury of ideas
that Howard Thurman left behind him when he died in 1981 at the age of 82. These
were the core ideas of his life, expressed in words and deed.

Mystics must sometimes be social activists and social activists must sometimes
be mystics; there needs to be a constant interplay between the ideal and the
real.

Jesus was at the heart of his religious understanding, but whatever form of
spirituality helps us to experience Love and to live in Love, follow that
whatever the words be.

Freedom is a necessary part of the good life, a freedom that is an inward sense
of option that is shaped and strengthened by a discipline of the mind and
emotions. Freedom is grounded in character, civility, and community.

The voice of Howard Thurman is a moral voice. It is an intelligent voice. It is
a voice we need to hear in the 21st century, a voice that was saying more than
70 years ago not to put our trust in things but in each other and in the spirit
of goodness that is the only sure path to a better world. May the spirit of
Howard Thurman be a part of our lives as we move into this challenging century
of opportunity for the human race.

Sunday’s Coming: Theodicy, Election, and Atonement in Black Theology Monday’s

2006-09-22T16:03:00.000-04:00

Introduction

The black theology movement, now about 35 years old, has from the beginning
demanded the right of black Americans to speak of God through their own
experience. The movement has affirmed the story of African America as a
legitimate, indeed privileged perspective upon God’s nature and work.
My thesis here is that this story points beyond where many black and womanist
theologians have been willing to take it. It is not only a story of survival “in
the wilderness,” but of survival and liberation ** in fact, of the further
blessing (in J. Deotis Roberts and Martin Luther King, Jr.) of liberation and
reconciliation. The soteriological themes of survival, liberation, and
reconciliation require an expansion of two categories in black soteriology that
are sometimes too narrowly developed. First, the cross is not merely a moral
influence on its observers, nor merely a victory of the just over evil, but a
redemptive sacrifice on behalf of those defeated by justice’s own victory.
Second, election is not God’s division of humanity into black and white, female
and male, oppressed and oppressor, or even blessed and cursed in order to save
one and condemn the other. Rather, it is God’s choice of Israel, a people often
oppressed and occasionally oppressive, and above all of its righteous son Jesus
** not only for its benefit or his, but for the benefit of all the families of
the earth.
Let me stress that this paper does not call black and womanist theologians to
accept the corrections of “white theology” (though such a call, like its
converse, would not necessarily be illegitimate). Instead, it tries to draw out
the resources of their own traditions, and particularly the resources of the
black Church’s deeply experiential and biblical visions of theodicy and
providence. It reviews the context of the black Church’s experience of God, then
considers the constructive black and womanist soteriologies of Major Jones and
Delores Williams. By locating their claims in the wide narrative context of
black faith, it supports their affirmations, but draws out implicit
soteriologies in both projects that require stronger affirmations of both the
Anselmian theory of atonement and the Pauline doctrine of election. Such
affirmations strengthen the black Church’s resources for negotiating Christian
life after liberation.
Is God a White Racist? The Providential Center of Black Faith
To be African-American is to be a member of a cultural and linguistic nation
(ethnos) defined in part by its West African cultural heritage, by its forcible
removal from Africa, by its estrangement from the cultures of both its mainly
white context and its own past, by the ultimately unintelligible modern European
concept of “race,” and by shared experiences in slavery and segregation.
These factors shaped African American faith in countless ways. Above all (for
our purposes), black America retained the deep faith in a supreme God that it
inherited from African religion.[1] White Christians have tended to think black
America’s African religious heritage was something that stood in the way of the
gospel. In fact, it was almost the opposite. Traditional African religions
usually worshiped a powerful, providential creator God, who once lived close to
humanity, but withdrew to the sky after an ungrateful and accidental human
act.[2] Black America’s continuing belief in this transcendent Lord saw it
through its encounter with the racist gospel of white America.
However, its faith in God the creator was put under incredible stress. White
supremacist theology in the nineteenth century posited that blacks were
biologically inferior, because they were children of Noah’s son Ham (Gen.
9:25).[3] Slaves were taught from both Testaments that the God who created them
had made them to be the perpetual servants of God’s superior white children.
Quite rightly, they reacted with shock and pain, not unlike modern-day Jobs: God
is still God; but can the God we have been worshiping really be a white
racist?[4]
Thus theodicy ** the problem of evil in a world created by a good God ** became
the fundamental frame of black Christian theology.[5] We need only slightly
expand this thesis by William R. Jones to claim that evil and providence take
central places in black American theologies. This profoundly distinguishes them
from patristic, medieval, and Reformation theologies, for whom questions of evil
and providence are more marginal.
Which Chapter in Which Story?
American Africans have offered a whole spectrum of answers to Jones’ question,
from acceptance of God’s racism to radical rejection. Most found the resources
to deny that God is a white racist.[6] Some rejected theodical assumptions along
with their conclusions, and lost their faith in God. Others associated their
status as outsiders with their withdrawn, present-yet-absent God, finding in
their otherness a reflection of God’s own.[7] An “Ethiopic” school of
interpretation found in biblical Egypt, Ethiopia, and Cush the glorious past of
African civilization, and used it to conduct its own triumphalist culture-war
against the white West.[8] Still others turned the slaveholders’ theology on its
head, literally reversing it, so that the original, unfallen humanity was black
(Eden is not in Europe, after all) and that sin caused the creation of white
people. White racist theology begat a black racist theology that drew equally
heavily on genetic pseudoscience.[9]
Slaveholders had shorn slaves and their descendants of their geographic home,
their ethnic heritage, and their family relationships. In effect, they had
“de-narrated” black America. Ironically, this de-narration became the foundation
of new African-American stories:
The Muslim’s “X” symbolized the true African family name that he never could
know. For me, my “X” replaced the white slave-master name of ‘Little’ which some
blue-eyed devil named Little had imposed upon my paternal forebears. … Mr.
Muhammad taught that we would keep this “X” until God Himself returned and gave
us a Holy Name from His own mouth.[10]
Yet God provided the black Church much more than the story of having lost their
story. As slaves and their descendants became Christians, they learned the
stories in Scripture, and in them many found their own story. And when God
re-narrated black Americans, God called them not the children of Noah’s cursed
son Ham, not even the culturally superior children of Ethiopia, but the children
of enslaved and liberated Israel. America was not the Promised Land after all,
as the Puritans had taught. America was Egypt. God was not the god of Pharaoh,
but the God of Moses, the God of the disinherited and denarrated. Thus black
America learned to see its destiny not in subjugation, but in exodus.[11]
Benjamin Mays’ The Negro’s God finds three African-American visions of salvation
proceeding from this common center. The first, which predominated from 1760 to
1860, envisioned God’s work as “liberative,” accomplishing the black struggle
for freedom as the God of Israel had lifted the Hebrews out of their Egyptian
slavery. The second, which predominated from 1865 to 1914, envisioned God as no
longer useful to the cause of justice and freedom for black America. Like
wandering, grumbling Hebrews, emancipated but still segregated black Americans
still knew God, but no longer as a liberator. The third, which predominated from
1914 to the time of Mays’ writing in 1937, envisioned God as promising divine
reparation for earthly suffering.[12] Here the hopes of black America shifted
from this world to the next, as the earlier optimism of the nineteenth century
came crashing down on both white and black America.
These are different answers to the question of how black America’s exodus
narrative fits into Israel’s exodus narrative. At their heart lie differing
doctrines of election, providence, and eschatology: How will black America’s
story conclude? Is the exodus a timeless principle of liberation, a manifesto
that applies to any nation experiencing oppression? Or is it a one-time event,
among whose beneficiaries one must belong in order to experience its freedom? Is
exodus past, present, or future? In what sense is it universal, and in what
sense is it particular to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
There was no lack of storytellers. Reading the land of their ancestors as the
Land of Promise (and making the same eschatological mistake as the Puritans),
some freed slaves went back to Africa and founded Liberia. Some, including the
Nation of Islam, looked forward to being separated from white America as the
Hebrews had been separated from Egypt and Canaan. Others, among them Martin
Luther King, Jr., awaited inclusion into the greater people of God, seeing black
America in terms of “the foreigner living in the land” (Deut. 24:18-22). Still
others found in black America lost tribes of Israel, and saw their redemption as
the direct fulfillment of God’s promises to Moses.
What Shape Salvation? The Soteriologies of Major Jones and Delores Williams
Black theology burst on the theological scene in the 1960’s as an heir to this
entire tradition of black reflection on God. Its theologians reclaim and reject
various strands of their heritage, answering these questions and retelling the
old stories in widely diverse ways. They overwhelmingly revive and intensify the
liberationist strand of African-American faith that had predominated before the
Civil War. James H. Evans, Jr. summarizes black eschatology in that one word:
“liberation.”[13] Practically every writer in James H. Cone’s and Gayraud S.
Wilmore’s two-volume historical survey embraces liberation as the overriding
category of salvation. J. Deotis Roberts is an exception that proves the rule **
not because he denies liberation as a central concern of black theology, but
because he goes so far as to place reconciliation alongside it as a necessary
(and secondary) dimension.[14]
Major Jones. It is in the liberationist cluster that we may place The Color of
God: The Concept of God in Afro-American Thought, by Major Jones, the late
president of Gammon Theological Seminary. Jones’s doctrine of God is a “radical
orthodoxy” (Gayraud Wilmore) that affirms ecumenical concepts of Trinity,
Christology, soteriology, and pneumatology. It treats them not as corrective
borrowings from a foreign, white theological tradition, as Joseph Washington
might,[15] but as authentic embodiments of the fundamentally healthy black
experience of God ** an experience Jones traces to a spiritual heritage not from
America, Geneva, Wittenburg, or Rome, but from sub-saharan Africa.
For Jones, Christology is the black Church’s historical answer to its particular
problem of evil. God’s providence culminates when the black messiah enters into
solidarity with the oppressed, assuming and redeeming suffering humanity. Jesus
disproves God’s racism without compromising either God’s power or goodness.
Soteriology seems to be one of the topics in which Jones is radically orthodox.
He claims that black Christians see Christ’s passion as securing God’s love and
release for them, in a “more or less classical representation of the traditional
doctrine of the atonement” that combines the concerns of Anselm and Abelard
(83). Yet all is not as conventional as it looks, for blacks appropriate these
categories according to their relevance to black faith: “We reformulate every
Christological question across the full range of God’s own experience in Jesus
Christ as he lived among us, when we ask: ‘What does this mean for Black
people’” (84)? This means Christology is reformulated according to black
doctrines of theodicy and providence. “Black theology believes in Jesus in all
the generic senses of traditional Christology; but more importantly, Black
theologians consistently revise the meaning of Jesus as specifically pertinent
to Black people, as specifically the Christ of their liberation” (86).
The result does look somewhat Abelardian, but it is not at all Anselmian. In a
key passage, Jones repudiates a category basic to that theological tradition **
“redemptive suffering.” He calls the cross “more burdensome example” of God’s
solidarity and identification with the oppressed, “than redemptive requirement”
to satisfy God’s wrath. It is neither expiatory nor propitiatory. Any
“sacrificial” dimension is only in the sense that it is costly to Jesus himself.
It cannot be the Son’s sacrifice to the Father.
This is because “Blackness … is not what it was said to be by generations of
White theologians ** a sign of God’s wrath. Blackness is not a sign of
punishment for being Black; it is rather a profound and mysterious assignment
from God by which Black people have been called to bear witness to the message
of his judgment and his grace to all nations, and especially to White America”
(98). In effect, Jones’ liberation Christology abandons the soteriology of the
Reformed and Arminian traditions from whose categories black American theology
has usually drawn, and returns to the theme of Christus Victor that (according
to Gustav Aulen) once dominated the Christian world, continues to dominate in
Eastern Orthodoxy and Lutheranism, and increasingly dominates among theologians
of liberation.
Delores Williams. Our second soteriology, Sisters in the Wilderness by Delores
Williams of Union Theological Seminary,[16] shares Jones’ theological method,
but arrives at radically different conclusions. Like her black Church, and like
Jones, Williams engages in what she calls a hermeneutic of
“identification-discernment” in which believers read the biblical stories to
discern where they belong in its narratives, and where and how God will meet
them in their predicaments. In the Tillichian tradition of correlation, Williams
looks for where the faith of oppressed black women resonates with Scripture and
tradition. Only there are Scripture and tradition allowed authority.
How do oppressed black women experience the work of God? Not as liberation.
Women remain at the mercy of racial, class, and gender oppressors. Where the
black (male) Church has identified with Israel in exodus as paradigmatic of
their own standing in America, she on behalf of oppressed black women identifies
with Hagar and Jesus in the wilderness. It is in the wilderness that modern-day
Hagars, chased out of their social world by oppressors both male and female,
meet the Jesus of the temptation narratives. In their survival rather than their
deaths, Hagar and Jesus offer ways for God’s most invisible and marginal people
to survive. Williams’ project best fits the middle era of Mays’ analysis, in
which God was no longer viewed as a liberator.
This has tremendous consequences for Williams’ interpretation of Jesus’ life and
death. Both are significant; but only the former aids the salvation of black
women. “Jesus … does not conquer sin through death on the cross. Rather, Jesus
conquers the sin of temptation in the wilderness by resistance” (166). Only the
ministry of the living Jesus offers resources for “the oppressed of the
oppressed” to survive the “double jeopardy” (Frances Beale) of their blackness
and femininity (144). “God through Jesus Christ gave [black women] new vision to
see the resources for positive, abundant relational life. … God helps [the
invisible] make a way out of no way” (198). Williams’ soteriology of the
wilderness holds up the temptation narrative as the paradigmatic saving event in
Jesus’ career, and the ethics of the Kingdom of God as portrayed in the Synoptic
Gospels as the font of social healing. The wilderness redefines even the
resurrection. It is not a manifestation of Jesus’ victory at the cross (cf. Col.
2:14-15), but a victory of Jesus’ ministerial vision over evil’s attempts to
kill it, of which the cross was only one example, and an unnecessary one at that
(164-165).
The significance of the cross lies in its purely negative symbolism. It is “the
image of human sin in its desecrated form … an image of defilement, a gross
manifestation of collective human sin” (166). Williams thinks this must be so
because any positive saving significance of the cross validates suffering and
sacralizes violence. It supports and intensifies the suffering African-American
women have endured for centuries. A cross-centered soteriology not only leaves
them invisible, marginal, and unliberated, but withholds the resources they need
to survive at the hands of patriarchs and racists. For Williams, the category of
atonement is one long exercise in underwriting oppression (162-164). “There is
nothing divine in the blood of the cross,” she claims. “God does not intend
black women’s surrogacy experience. Neither can Christian faith affirm such an
idea. Jesus did not come to be a surrogate. … As Christians, black women cannot
forget the cross, but neither can they glorify it. To do so is to glorify
suffering and to render their exploitation sacred. To do so is to glorify the
sin of defilement” (167). On these grounds, Williams accuses both the pioneers
of black theology and traditional theologians like Martin Luther King, Jr. of
leading black women “passively to accept their own oppression and suffering **
if the women are taught that suffering is redemptive.”[17] On the same grounds,
she dismisses all of the traditional atonement theories (ransom, satisfaction,
victory, and moral influence) as resting on the category of “redemptive
suffering,” even if they develop it in different ways.
Can These Visions Be Reconciled? Black and Womanist Theology in Panoramic
Perspective
At first the claim that Jesus in the wilderness and even Jesus’ broader career
offer hope of survival to God’s most invisible and marginal people may seem
puzzling, since by themselves they seem to offer less than complete liberation
for the marginal. For example, Jesus is sent to Israel, not to “Hagarenes.” His
survival in Egypt and his triumph in the wilderness bring him back out of these
God-forsaken places and back into Israel. The ethics of the kingdom specify
perfect obedience to the Law of Moses, which theocratically marginalizes both
women and non-Israelites. Its institutional organization restores an Israel with
twelve men under an eternal King. Jesus leaves scraps for Syro-Phoenician dogs,
but nothing like the inheritance he promises his Jewish followers. How can
Williams claim that Jesus’ career offers more than scraps as resources for women
in the wilderness?
Williams can do it because oppressed black women are implicitly identifying
Jesus’ and Hagar’s narratives from a panoramic, canonical perspective that ends
in the full inclusion of both Gentiles and women under God’s eschatological
rule. They interpret the wilderness narratives in the context of the whole
story. They follow God’s sustenance of Hagar and Jesus through to their happy
conclusions: “Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand,” the angel
tells Hagar, “for I will make a great nation of him” (Gen. 21:18); “Tell his
disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee,” the angel tells
the women at the tomb. “There you will see him, just as he told you” (Mark
16:6). Both the “survival” and “liberation” strands of biblical assurance are
for Williams’ people. That is why both are deeply embodied in the black Church’s
practical faith.
Occasionally this broader perspective peeks through in Williams’ analysis. Are
soteriologies of liberation universally illegitimate, or only ineffective for
black women? It is never completely clear. At times Williams seems to reject
other visions of the atonement entirely (166-169). At other times, she seems
merely to deny that the “liberative” strand in black biblical experience applies
to black women (2-6). Then perhaps ** since many in the predominantly female
black Church do experience God as a liberator, and do not reject faith in the
cross ** it applies also to those black women whose experiences of God are
liberative. The scope of Williams’ critique is hard to identify, because the
scope of her inquiry is purposefully limited to the experience of oppressed
black women, and this experience by definition excludes experiences of
liberation. While she admits that the Bible supports a soteriology of
liberation, she finds it not ultimately important to her people. The question is
not one of right or wrong, but of allowing “poor, oppressed black women and men
to hear and see the doing of the good news in a way that is meaningful to them”
(199).
Yet what poor, oppressed blacks hear and see is already theory-laden. It is
received as located within the context of the whole economy of salvation. It
facilitates survival because it ultimately promises more. Thus what Williams
affirms ultimately depends upon what she denies.
This is equally true of Jones’ account of how black America appropriates God’s
promises of liberation. During Jesus’ career, there is every indication of his
solidarity with Israel as its divinely accepted representative, but little
indication of his solidarity with Gentile sufferers, even those whose sufferings
resemble Israel’s. The conviction that Jesus has assumed and redeemed suffering
humanity, that Jesus’ blackness resembles the blackness of the nations, comes
only as Gentiles (in fact, Gentile centurions) believe promises that have only
reluctantly been addressed to them (Acts 10). Only on the basis of their faith
can Jones ultimately claim that Jesus did not “restrict partnership (with
humanity) to an elected people, so that they only by their obedience to a
covenant might enter into his fellowship. Rather, God lowered himself and freely
accepted the worst conditions of the human race, bar none” (99).
What we see in Jones and Williams is a black Church that appreciates the moments
of Christ’s career with different degrees of intensity, yet still depends on the
whole canonical story for their significance. Here the black Church does not
depart from classical or contemporary Christian practice, as many non-black
theologians allege, but resembles its fellow Christian traditions. All of us
have long engaged in Williams’ hermeneutic of “identification-discernment,”
whether or not we have admitted it. The black tradition’s polarization over
valuing nativity, wilderness, ministry, cross, and resurrection resembles the
greater Christian tradition’s polarization over the soteriologies of
deification, moral influence, satisfaction, and victory.
Yet along with the black Church’s long tradition of soteriological favoritism
comes a related tendency towards soteriological exclusivism. And this
exclusivism (like those of other traditions) ultimately contradicts the black
vision of salvation.
The solution is not for the black Church to adopt a supposedly “catholic”
synthesis of atonement theories, exchanging its theological distinctives for a
homogenized, even majoritarian “ecumenism.” Nor is it for black America to
follow the program of democratic liberalism and integrate with its neighbors.
Like Anabaptists and other beleaguered minorities, the black Church is right to
worry that these false universalisms would be further theological invasions by
the ones who marginalized them in the first place. (Besides, black and womanist
theology’s commitments to the privileged, even critically unassailable status of
their own people’s experiences make either proposal a tough sell, especially
coming from a white, male, American, Republican theologian!)
There is a better reason for soteriological inclusiveness: The canonical setting
in which Christian traditions, including black Church traditions, implicitly
read their texts in order to support their particular visions of salvation. This
is not merely a “white” hermeneutical strategy, but is built into the practical
faith of the black Church. Williams brings the panoramic perspective of
Galatians and Ephesians to her reading of the Hagar narratives, in locating
families’ wilderness experiences in a greater narrative that looks beyond
wilderness to another time (160). Major Jones appeals to the entire scope of
God’s economy of salvation for an adequate answer to the fundamental question of
whether God is a white racist.
Monday’s Coming: Beyond Survival and Liberation
Here my own mainly white theological tradition offers an illustration. A century
ago, evangelicals considered the doctrine of penal-substitutionary atonement one
of the five “fundamentals” essential to authentic Christian faith. This
soteriology was often developed exclusivistically in evangelical theology.
Today, however, internal as well as external forces increasingly push
evangelicals into affirming soteriologies of moral influence, victory, and
deification. These usually take places alongside Calvin’s vision of atonement,
often qualify and inform it, and sometimes critique it.[18] We have learned to
see them not as alien branches that need to be resisted to preserve our
insights, or grafted in to save our faith from its own weaknesses, but (also) as
growths of our own vine that we have been too quick to prune.
Similar dynamics characterize black and womanist theology. If pursued and
followed, the internal logics and panoramic narrative contexts of these two
theological traditions provide further divine gifts of what Williams calls “new
vision to see survival and quality-of-life resources where we have seen none
before” (203). They deepen and widen the liberation that Jones’ black Messiah
brings those who suffer. They do this by pointing to a fuller appreciation of
black faith that is more than survival, and more than liberation. They keep the
black Church alive and flourishing and unceasingly restless until it receives
what was promised (Heb. 11:39). Furthermore, they ultimately undercut both
Jones’ blanket denial of the redemptive quality of suffering, and Williams’
denial of the soteriological value of the cross. Why? Because in their different
ways, both these traditions locate black men and women’s salvation with respect
to Israel.
In the gospel, the nations have histories that are both already theirs, and
fundamentally new. The primordial and patriarchal narratives announce that the
creation of the nations, including both Israel and black America’s ancestors, is
protologically significant: They are part of the plan. The prophetic and
apocalyptic narratives announce that God’s inclusion of the same nations in the
faith of Israel is eschatologically significant: It is through Jacob that all
will be blessed.
Thus, along with the first-century Jewish and Gentile Church, black Americans
experience the Hebrews’ call, enslavement, liberation, wandering, conquest,
apostasy, exile, return, and apocalyptic future as in some sense their own.[19]
They remember signs and wonders past, and learn a confident expectation of signs
and wonders to come. Rather than splintering divine liberation into an exodus
and conquest for every nation, which would simply perpetuate the cycle of
violence among nations, the gospel emancipates the black Church through the one
exodus Jesus accomplished at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). The survival and liberation
of the African-American nation, like that of all the nations, is its unearned
but long promised share in the survival and liberation of the nation of
Israel.[20]
Black and womanist theologies justly highlight and reclaim chapters of the
Christian story that many Christians have chosen not to hear. But the scope of
Israel’s story points black theology beyond securing liberation for the
oppressed, and points womanist theology beyond gaining resources for survival in
the wilderness, because Israel’s canonical story is only begun in its opening
chapters of exodus and wandering.[21] God’s promise is that all will eventually
take part in the story’s culmination. When these storytellers choose not to hear
other chapters of what is after all still their story, or when they conduct
theological “dialogues” with only some chapters and not others, they undermine
their own places in the story.
This brings us back to theodicy and providence. Each new context for God’s
people requires different resources. In the wilderness, evil’s most pressing
problem is the threat it poses to survival itself; and God’s provision is
sustenance ** water for Hagar’s and Moses’ people, food from Ishmael’s bow and
from heaven. In slavery, the problem is whether God is fundamentally against
Hagar or the Hebrews; and providence is the promise and fulfillment of life
together in freedom for both bedouin Ishmaelites and emancipated Israelites. In
the former case, this comes in God’s gift of the social space needed to grow a
nation away from Abraham’s and Sarah’s oppression. In the latter case, it comes
through the liberating blood of paschal lambs, which point back to a lamb God
would provide to spare Jacob’s life (Gen. 22:8), and forward to a lamb slain for
the sins of the entire world.
Then, in freedom, theodicy gains new occasions, in the evil perpetuated among
God’s people. Soon after Abraham’s promise is fulfilled, Ishmael mocks Isaac,
laughing at the second-born son of laughter (Gen. 21:9, cf. Gen. 21:6). This
calls down the wrath of the protective mother through whose folly he was named
(Gen. 18:12-15).[22] Soon after the exodus, the sins of newly freed Israel
accumulate: Oppression of fellow Hebrews, oppression of new Canaanite neighbors
(not all of which is divinely sanctioned, Deut. 16:9-12), and the oppression of
God that is idolatry.
This is the Israel into which Jesus is born. Joseph A. Johnson, Jr. claims that
Jesus’ ministry liberates those on the fringe of society: the sick, the
possessed, the gentiles, and even the guilty, “the prostitutes, the thieves, the
murderers, the robbers.” Johnson passes over the most poignant group of all **
the tax collectors ** but his point remains: Jesus is the liberator of all. But
how does liberation happen after God’s people have themselves engaged in further
oppression? Johnson says that Jesus “makes himself accessible to those who need
him.”[23] But how? (And what about those not on society’s fringes?)
For Ishmael and his mother, providence comes as fellowship in Egypt (Gen.
21:21). For Israel, it comes as a Law to preserve the nation’s holiness, and a
sacrificial system that cleanses it after the Law is violated. To be a liberated
people is to be under a new, just master (cf. Rom. 6-7). After the gospel of
exodus comes the law of Sinai. The survival strategy for wilderness wanderings
includes the legal and priestly resources that continue to regulate the new life
in and out of the Promised Land. When the new master’s law is broken and the
cycle of violence is unleashed inside the camp, the law demands reconciliation.
This takes the form of sacrifice ** even the sacrifice of innocent blood in
exchange for the lives of the guilty. The tabernacle and temple are systems for
the liberation needed after liberation. They maintain God’s identification with
the oppressed after they themselves engage in oppression. They are resources of
reconciliation. They point forward to the cross, which now liberates not as
Israel’s paschal lambs liberated the innocent, but as its sin offerings
liberated the guilty.
Israel’s history in and out of its promised land proves that survival and
liberation ultimately depend on reconciliation as much as reconciliation depends
on them. How then do law, sin, and priesthood work among the liberated black
people of God? Here black theology seems to stammer. Cone and Wilmore’s
two-volume Black Theology: A Documentary History pays remarkably little
attention to life after exodus. It offers much liberation, but precious little
law.[24] In concentrating on justification, it often ignores the process of
sanctification.[25]
This theological and practical vacuum has understandable historical reasons, in
black theology’s reaction to a history of whites characterizing themselves as
“noble, manly, wise, strong, courageous” and characterizing blacks as “patient,
long-suffering, humble, self-effacing, considerate, submissive, childlike, [and]
meek.”[26] Arranged in this way, white and black “virtues” excused and even
glorified systematic oppression. In reclaiming the “white” virtues, black
theologians have seemingly abandoned the “black” ones. Yet these are no less
crucial to forgiveness and reconciliation.[27] White oppression and black
capitulation have pushed black theology into pursuing a theology of glory that
has little practical to offer when the violence is black-on-black. Here black
and womanist theology neither lead nor follow the black Church, but get in its
way.
The first Christians found many dimensions of providence in the cross, each of
which echoes an earlier chapter in the world’s history of salvation, and depends
on other dimensions for its work. One, a means of victory, takes on the imagery
of Passover (1 Cor. 5), envisioning the cross as freeing captive Israel and
recreating a people holy to God. This is the image with which black theology
consistently resonates (for instance, in the work of James H. Cone).[28]
Another, a means of healing, takes on the imagery of the serpent Moses lifts up
in the wilderness for healing (John 3:14), seeing the cross as conferring
eternal life on the world. It is an obvious point of contact between the cross
and womanist soteriology. Yet another, a means of identification, takes up the
imagery of God’s presence in the tabernacle (John 1:14-18), envisioning the
cross as the incarnate God’s universal communion with sinning and sinned-against
humanity. This is the basis of Roberts’ twofold soteriology of liberation and
reconciliation.[29] Still another, a means of satisfaction, takes up the imagery
of sin offerings and Temple, envisioning the cross as freeing sinners through
the shedding of innocent blood.[30]
Williams rejects this last vision as endorsing a surrogacy that must interpret
black women’s suffering as redemptive and sacred. Jones rejects it by
translating it in trans-national categories, as a claim that the cross frees
whites by the blood of blacks. But the Temple was not an institution for
forgiving Canaanite or Babylonian or Roman sins through Jewish blood; it was an
institution for atoning for Jewish sins through the blood of animals. It was not
a substitute for righteousness that allowed sinners to continue life as usual,
but a sign of new righteousness that made a life of sin unthinkable. We would
better translate the sacrificial cult by claiming that the sacrifices of
innocent animals maintained the holiness of black America, disinfecting it from
the depravity of white America. This culminated in one, and only one, atoning
human sacrifice, which did not merely rehearse the old sacrificial arrangements
and endorse their contradictions, but superseded the system by resolving them.
It was performed not by a high priest against the victim’s will, but of a high
priest according to his will. Its most important feature is also its closest
parallel with the old system: It was not performed on behalf of the innocent,
but of the guilty (Rom. 8:3-4). This act reconciled Israel so fully to God that
it rendered the sacrificial system not only unhelpful but misleading (Heb.
5-10), and opened a way even for the nations to enjoy God’s blessings. The
sacrifice of the cross is not a justification for lynchings, but an act of
radical inclusion that warns the world never to lynch again in light of God’s
vindication of Jesus its victim.[31]
“Friday’s here,” the black Church has long reminded itself, “but Sunday’s
coming.” The middle chapters of Israel’s saga remind us all that Monday is
coming too ** a day after liberation, when yesterday’s victims become today’s
repentant sinners.[32] It is on that day that freed slaves and mothers surviving
on the margin learn that they too are capable of injustice, and that the life of
their nation depends on both law and forgiveness. It is on that day that they
find a new taste in the blood they drink at Church ** the taste of freedom even
for oppressors.
The common lesson of these visions of atonement is not simply that the work of
Christ is multidimensional, nor simply that different people may legitimately
identify with different aspects of God’s work on their behalf.[33] It is that
the coherence and happy resolution of the narratives of God’s people depend upon
the harmonious interplay of all of these visions of salvation (along with
others), in order to bring survival and liberation and forgiveness and
reconciliation to people in different stages of need. Only a soteriology of
careful harmony can affirm what Miroslav Volf calls “solidarity in sin” without
mistaking it for “equality of sin.”[34] Jesus’ death and resurrection bring new
life for the dying, vindication for the innocent, amnesty for the guilty, and
peace for all.
This harmony of soteriologies is not a confusion of soteriologies. It is crucial
to the exodus story not to turn Passover into a sin offering. Any soteriology
that relies too exclusively on Anselmian atonement theory (as feudal, colonial,
and postcolonial European soteriologies conveniently have) risks doing just
that. It levels the world into a mass of common guilt, falsely condemns those
God has judged and acquitted, and showers a cheap grace on oppressors that
leaves them unjustified, unholy, unreconciled, and unsaved. Jones’ and Williams’
rejections of redemptive suffering have great force against such soteriologies.
Their critiques point traditional Western theologies toward more discerning
theodicies and accounts of suffering, and toward more just visions of
providence. But the converse is also true: It is equally dangerous to reduce
salvation to a paschal acquittal for the innocent. This would polarize
communities into camps of apparently absolute innocence and guilt, overlook the
sins of the supposedly innocent, nullify guilty verdicts on the basis of the
“victimhood” of perpetrators, and leave hardened oppressors no recourse but
further oppression and renewed cycles of violence.
Chosen to Suffer? The Problem of Election
The black Church faces a similar challenge on the matter of election. Confronted
with racist, Calvinist, and Arminian doctrines of election, American Africans
reinterpreted election according to their experience of their good but distant
creator. In response, the black Church typically taught variations on a theme
that identifies black America with Israel, as the elect people of God. Whether
African-Americans are elect as suffering servants whose mission is to witness to
God’s humanity,[35] or as people chosen along with Israel to share in Yahweh’s
liberation,[36] or as fellow blacks whose connection is genetic and whose task
is to achieve their own liberation,[37] they are elect with respect to Israel.
This causes friction when black doctrines collide with doctrines that depend on
other visions of election.
Jones affirms against Joseph Washington’s doctrine of black election to
suffering servanthood, a kenotic vision of atonement rooted in incarnation: “God
lowered himself and freely accepted the worst conditions of the human race, bar
none.”[38] God’s identification with humanity would be Barthian in its scope,
but for Jones’ stress on the Christological particularity of Jesus’ blackness.
Jesus’ identification with the oppressed over against their oppressors is
essential to the victory his life wins on their behalf. In such a vision of
salvation, election as nationhood and atonement as redemptive suffering are a
fatal combination. So Jones rejects the idea of election as national and
covenantal. He denies that God would “restrict partnership (with humanity) to an
elected people, so that they only by their obedience to a covenant might enter
into his fellowship.” His rejection of redemptive suffering likewise depends on
a context of national election: “We reject any identification of oppression and
suffering with redemption. … Blackness is not a sign of punishment for being
Black.”[39] We can more clearly see the logical fallacy he has uncovered by
transposing “Jewish” for “black”: “Jewishness is not a sign of punishment for
being Jewish.”
National election and redemptive suffering are equally fatal to Williams’ vision
of survival in the wilderness, but for opposite reasons. From their common
theodical starting point, “Is God a white racist?” black and womanist
theologians reason differently. The traditional male identification with elect
Israel-in-exodus ignores the traditional female identification with Hagar as
non-elect. For black women who “read the entire Hebrew testament from the point
of view of the non-Hebrew slave,” she says, “there is no clear indication that
God is against their perpetual enslavement.” When male black theologians make
the exodus narrative normative, their patriarchalism marginalizes the non-elect
people whom God sustains in the wilderness of their exclusion and
invisibility.[40] For Williams, national election combines with redemptive
suffering to glorify women’s surrogacy ** the defiling of the non-elect for the
benefit of the elect.
Against the idea of election as nationhood, Jones describes a soteriology of
participation in Christ’s blackness, and Williams describes a conviction that
God’s favor takes familial rather than narrowly racial shape (e.g., Hagar and
Ishmael helping each other survive in the wilderness). Yet these affirmations
are actually quite close to a Pauline doctrine of election ** when Romans and
Ephesians are read as answering the question of Jewish/Gentile relations rather
than offering individualized salvation-histories of justification by grace
through faith, as they usually are in the Lutheran, Reformed, and Arminian
traditions.[41]
Indeed, Jones’ and Williams’ affirmations depend on such a doctrine of election.
The meek, poor, and oppressed are happy (makarioi, Matt. 5:3-12 and Luke
6:20-23) not because they are oppressed, but by virtue of their Christlikeness.
God’s providence is for them, in a community overflowing with spiritual gifts.
They belong to a body liberated in Christ’s death and resurrection, brought
together for its own edification in the Spirit, as a new creation in the midst
of the old. Even Hagar’s story ends happily because of her relationship to
Abraham, and not merely in spite of it: “As for the son of the slave woman, I
will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring” (Gen. 21:13). This
connection is not made clear to Hagar,[42] but it is clear to the reader: All
the families of the earth, even the “non-elect,” are beneficiaries of God’s
choices. Only the God of Abraham and Jesus can be both the God of the wilderness
and the God of the exodus, both the God of the desert and the God of New
Jerusalem. Only this God can liberate those who survive, and forgive those who
oppress after their liberation.
Election, properly developed, is the qualification that can support biblical and
traditional accounts of the cross and resurrection, yet repudiate their abuse in
underwriting further injustice. While Romans punished Jesus ** in part for being
Jewish ** God did not. Rather, Jesus took on the sin of Israel as a living
sacrifice, at the Jordan and at Golgotha, and God accepted that sacrifice, and
liberated and exalted both the chosen Son (Luke 9:35) and the chosen people he
represents. While Sarah punished Hagar ** in part for being Egyptian? ** God did
not. Rather, God had mercy on her by virtue of the universal promise to Abraham.
Conclusion
In renarrating African America, God has been telling more than short stories.
God has given this suffering people parts in the story. Unless Christians can
tell where people’s sufferings fit into which parts of that whole story, the
gospel will fail to sustain, liberate, reconcile, or glorify. A doctrine of
providence centered in a panoramic vision of atonement and a truly biblical
doctrine of election properly locates the concrete sufferings of God’s oppressed
people in the one story of their salvation. It confuses neither America nor
Liberia with New Jerusalem.[43] It respects the redemptive power of suffering in
Christ (Col. 1:24, Eph.1:4, Rom. 8:28) without sacralizing the suffering God
sent Jesus to end. It enables theology to respect the problem of evil without
falling into a false dilemma that classifies all suffering as glorifying and
self-redemptive, or as defiling and oppressive. It honors the internal logics
and narrative forms of both black and womanist theology, while telling more than
these traditions currently tell by themselves. It also eases their tensions with
traditional theology, even as it refines their critiques in order to correct
others more effectively. The full story of God’s deliverance of African America
reflects a black American faith that speaks faithfully and truly from its
privileged perspective on God.

[1] Major Jones, The Color of God: The Concept of God in Afro-American Thought
(Macon, GA: Mercer, 1987), 17-20.
[2] James H. Evans, Jr., We Have Been Believers: An African-American Systematic
Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), 56.
[3] Evans, 36-38.
[4] William R. Jones, Is God a White Racist? (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973),
115-117, quoted in Major Jones, 23-24.
[5] Major Jones, introduction.
[6] William R. Jones himself embraces an existentialist variety of free-will
theodicy he calls “humanocentric theism.” He claims that God’s gift of human
freedom makes humanity the co-creator of its existence, relegates God’s
involvement to persuasion rather than coercion, and leaves African-Americans in
charge of whether to resist or endure suffering. To alleviate suffering, they
“must desanctify it by taking it out of the hands of God. African-Americans must
rely only on themselves and seek their own liberation.” See Evans, 64-65,
referring to William R. Jones, 193.
[7] Evans, 57-58, calls this “the ungiven God” of African-American theology.
[8] Evans, 41-44, notes that this hermeneutic “decentered” the Bible’s own
salvation narrative (43).
[9] An example is the teaching of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. See
Malcolm X and Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: Grove Press,
1966), 164-166.
[10] Malcolm X, 199.
[11] Evans, 41: “By identifying themselves with the Hebrews, African slaves
declared themselves as insiders in the scriptural drama. … While slaveholders
focused on ancient Israel as a slaveholding society, the African slaves saw
ancient Israel first as a nation descended from slaves.”
[12] Evans, 58, quoting Benjamin Mays, The Negro’s God: As Reflected in His
Literature (New York: Atheneum, 1969).
[13] Evans, 152. He develops a soteriology that is entirely liberative, calling
Jesus both “a political messiah or liberator, and spiritual mediator/healer”
(97). Jesus as healer and Jesus as liberator are essentially comparable
categories, especially in the gospels.
[14] J. Deotis Roberts, Liberation and Reconciliation: A Black Theology
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971), and “Black Theology in the Making,” in Cone
and Wilmore, 1:118-119.
[15] Joseph R. Washington, Jr., “Are American Negro Churches Christian?” in
James H. Cone and Gayraud S. Wilmore, Black Theology: A Documentary History, 2nd
ed. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1993), 1:92-100.
[16] Delores Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist
God-Talk (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1993).
[17] Williams, 200. These claims leave me utterly confused about another claim
she makes of the black Church: “The black church cannot be made respectable
because it is already sacralized by the pain and resurrection of thousands upon
thousands of victims” (205). If sacralization by pain and resurrection is not
redemptive suffering (cf. 1 Peter 3:17-4:2, etc.) what is?
[18] In my opinion, they rescue it.
[19] Jones and Williams sometimes imply and others allege that African-American
Christianity is incompatible with Pauline soteriology. But the black soteriology
of incorporation into Israel matches Paul’s hermeneutical strategy for the
Corinthians. Because the nations are adopted into Israel when they are adopted
into Christ, Paul can tell the mainly Gentile, uncircumcised Corinthian
believers that “our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through
the sea” (1 Cor. 10:1). This resemblance should give black theologians pause
before they disown other Pauline tropes. See Williams, 4-5, 164; Jones, 98-99
(though without naming Paul). See also, for example, Orlando Patterson, Rituals
of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries (Civitas, 2000),
helpfully reviewed in “Dionysus and Jim Crow,” The New Republic 223 (8/28 and
9/4/2000), 9-10:42-49, here 46.
[20] God’s act of inclusion thus blesses all people, whether they are narrated
by powerful and sinful discourses, denarrated and atomized by modernity, or
renarrated by postmodern acts of their own fragmented and misdirected wills.
[21] Though for Williams wandering is first Hagar’s wandering, in appropriating
the Israelite and temptation narratives, her tradition identifies also with
Israel’s forty years of wilderness wanderings.
[22] Williams does not develop this pun in the narrative, instead focusing on
Sarah’s repression in terms of the threat Ishmael posed to Isaac’s inheritance
(cf. 27-28). The effect is a clean distinction between victor and victim. Yet
the text presents Ishmael’s “playing” (mtsakheq, “laughing”) as the occasion for
Hagar’s and his exile, and Paul interprets Ishmael’s action as persecution (Gal.
4:29). Here the effect is the depressing moral ambiguity of a troubled
household.
[23] Joseph A. Johnson, Jr., “Jesus, the Liberator,” in Cone and Wilmore,
1:203-213, here 212.
[24] Perhaps this comes from black theology’s birth as a reaction to the
integrationism of Martin Luther King, Jr., which is deeply interested in the
ethical shape of life after liberation.
[25] Evans characterizes Cone’s central concern as justification of the
oppressed before God and the grounding of true humanity in the freely given
acceptance of the oppressed by God ** “autonomy,” and Roberts’ as sanctification
of the oppressed in their relationships with God and the human family **
“community.” These are two functions of empowerment (112). Evans himself
proceeds to concentrate on liberation.
[26] Kyle Haselden, The Racial Problem in Christian Perspective (New York:
Herper & Row, 1959), 42-43, quoted by Joseph A. Johnson, Jr. in Cone and
Wilmore, 207.
[27] See Gregory L. Jones, Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995).
[28] See for instance, “The White Church and Black Power,” in Jones and Wilmore,
1:68-69.
[29] Roberts in Cone and Wilmore, 121-122: “The Incarnation is the Atonement.”
[30] It is perhaps this sense that Cone can affirm in citing Mark 10:45’s
“ransom for many” as evidence that God’s freedom for the poor is more than the
liberation of slaves from bondage. See “Biblical Revelation and Social
Existence,” in Cone and Wilmore, 1:173.
[31] Cf. Patterson.
[32] Cf. Roberts in Cone and Wilmore, 1:119: “I do not accept Black liberation
versus White oppression as an adequate formula to cover the human condition of
estrangement. Therefore, I do not hesitate to suggest liberation between Blacks
and Blacks as well as between Blacks and Whites. It is unwise to make these
structures too ironclad, for suppose the oppressed became the liberated? What
happens to our theology then?”
[33] It is on these grounds that Wilmore is open to other visions of atonement,
affirming that there may be “several valid approaches to the One Eternal God,”
even white ones. See “Black Power, Black People, Theological Renewal,” in Jones
and Wilmore, 1:132.
[34] Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of
Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), 81-82.
[35] Joseph Washington, The Politics of God (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969), 158,
quoted in William R. Jones, “Theodicy and Methodology in Black Theology,” in
Cone and Wilmore, 1:144.
[36] James H. Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation (Philadelphia: Lippincott,
1970), 181. Cone redefines the Church as “that grouping [of all men] which
identifies with the suffering of the poor by becoming one with them” in “The
White Church and Black Power,” in Cone and Wilmore, 1:78.
[37] Albert B. Cleage, Jr., “The Black Messiah,” in Cone and Wilmore, 1:103.
[38] Jones, 99.
[39] Jones, 98-99.
[40] Williams, 145-148.
[41] I justify these claims more fully in Living and Active: Scripture in the
Economy of Salvation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), and The Reason for the
Season: Christology through the Liturgical Year (in progress).
[42] While Williams uses source criticism to keep this “Elohist” passage
artificially separate from chapter 16’s Yahwist passage (31), and even to imply
that the god of Abraham and the god of Hagar may be different gods (22-29), this
is surely not how African American women typically read Hagar’s story!
[43] Cf. Evans, 154: “In thought coming out of the African Diaspora, heaven is
often referred to as ‘home,’ and home often means ‘Africa.’ Hell meant the
plantations of the American south and the Caribbean, the physical and temporal
alienation that characterized slavery and colonization. Heaven meant the return
to a state of community, mutuality, and wholeness.”

Womanist theology, epistemology, and a

2006-09-22T15:56:00.000-04:00

Womanist theology, epistemology, and a
new anthropological paradigm

African American Theology

Black Theology and Black Women

Introduction – James Cone:
Black women make up more than half of the population in the black community and 75% of the Black Church. Yet, Cone sadly states that their experiences are not reflected in what we know as Black Theology today. Although the emergence of a feminist consciousness has made Black male theologians more sensitive to the contributions of noted Black women, the contributions of these women and countless of other women who labor in the Black church remain silent.

Cones gives a confession in his introduction that when he began his work in the development of a black theology he had not given much thought if any to the contributions of Black women.. It was only when he traveled to third world countries and was challenged by Third World women that he began to recognize there was much truth in what these women were saying and that these truths were applicable to what he thought kept Black men and black women in tension with one another.

After being challenged on several occasions by women who questioned him about the subordinate roles of women and the silence of black theologians concerning the oppression of women, Cone had to ask himself, “how long will men from oppressed communities continue to remain indifferent to the special oppression of their sisters?

Cone further states that few Black men including theologians, preachers and seminary students truly care about the pain they inflict upon their sisters with their sexist behavior. If Black men are sincere when they say they love their Black sisters then they will be willing to break the silence and hear the cries of the black woman’s pain and to experience with them their physical as well as the physical suffering.

Cone states that the Black church is one of the most sexist institutions in the Black community and while Black male ministers support Biblical passages that reject slavery and obedience to their masters they fail to take that stance with reference to Paul’s comments about women. They are more inclined to accept those passage when they refer to women and their submission.

Cone encourages black preachers to listen to the voices of Black feminists, such as Theressa Hoover, whose article is included in this volume. Cone says his own silence was broken when he was asked to address a women’s conference on the limitation of the Black church and Black Theology in respect to the Black Church dealing with the oppression of Black women and did not know what to say about it.

Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female – Frances Beale:

Frances Beale speaks from the standpoint of the black woman being the victim of double jeopardy. She relates how the capitalistic system of America purports to destroy the humanity of all people and particularly black people.

Capitalism created situations where the Black man could not find employment and then manipulated and exploited the Black woman by making her the sole breadwinner of the family which led to psychological problems of both and contributed to the turmoil found in the Black family structure. Frances Beale states that neither the Black man nor the Black woman understood these principalities working against them.

Frances Beale discredits the Black males claim that feminism is a white woman’s issue and that capitalism works to the disadvantage of both women and Black people, therefore it is necessary that these two groups work together towards a liberation of all oppressed people in the world.

Frances Beale also touches on the subject of Bedroom Politics and how the United States has used sterilization of non-white women as one of the most outlandish acts of oppression in modern times.

Beale calls for the development of a high political consciousness regarding capitalism and its enslavement of women and non-whites and that the two groups must come to bring about its total destruction. Black men and black women are called to a mutual commitment towards liberation of all oppressed people and that total involvement of each individual is necessary. Black men and women must begin to rewrite their understanding of traditional personal relationships.

Black Women and the Churches – Theressa Hoover:

Theressa Hoover contends that to be a woman, black and active in religious institutions in America is to labor under triple jeopardy. This is evident where black women are confronted with the inequity of being black, a woman and having responsibility of a dedication to the church. Hoovers states that despite the debates going on in religious institutions concerning women, their role, their access to privileges and responsibilities in the priestly hierarchy, and their representation in decision-making places, the black woman remains invisible.

Hoover describes the black woman as the “glue of the black church as opposed to the backbone of the black church. Black women have always been a part of the black church, during the midst of protest when the church pulled away from white mainstream denominations, during the civil rights struggles in the mission context at home and abroad and during the black power movement. They have come together and formed women’s missionary groups in the main Methodist denominations and they have been major participants in women’s groups and are actively involved in feminist activities within the Christian community today although all the categories within the feminist movement do not support nor reflect the view of many black women.

Hoover points out that unlike their white female counterparts the economic necessity of the black woman’s effort on behalf of her church has not pressured her to accept the prevailing theological view of women; and secondly that in predominantly black churches women are not excluded from ordination by law, although they may be in practice, and thirdly, most of the black denominations are financially incapable of maintaining a minimal staff outside of the clerical hierarchy – where there is staff, women already know the necessity of insisting on comparable salaries.

Hoover calls for the black churchwoman to challenge her sisters in other denominations and the clerical male hierarchy in her own. The black woman has been the most oppressed and the least vocal – she has given the most and gotten the least. As Hoover puts it her foresight, ingenuity and “stick-to-itiveness,” has kept many black churches open, many black preachers fed, and many parsonages livable.

See page 302 – quote “she has borne her children…

It has been the strength and faith of the black woman that has enable the black church to survive in the midst of oppression and economic enslavement. Black women must continue to work within the walls of the church, challenging male theologians and continuing push outward so that the black church can truly serve the black community. The black woman must be freed from the triple barrier of sex, race, and church into a community of believers.

Black Theology and Feminist Theology: A Comparative View – Pauli Murray:

Pauli Murray speaks to a comparative view of Black Theology and Feminist Theology. She describes the task of liberation theology and the emergence of the parallel movements for black liberation and women’s liberation in the United States. Her essay examines the relationship between the two theologies, their common perspectives, the points of tension and the potential for both movements as effective forces within the context of the Christian message.

She describes the focus of black theology as that of the black experience under white racism and feminist theology being concerned with women against male-chauvinist structures of society. In comparing the two theologies she relies primarily upon the works of James Cone, J. Deotis Roberts, and Major J. Jones in Black Theology, and Mary Daly, Letty M. Russell and Rosemary Radford Ruether in Feminist Theology.

Cone states in his introduction that while both these groups have touched on the relationship between sexism and racism in theology, neither have the experience that enable them to do justice to this issue. It is only the black feminist theologians who attain the experience needed in analyzing these complexities. Jacqueline Grant’s article serves as an introduction into the area of a black Feminist theology.

Black Theology and the Black Woman – Jacquelyn Grant:
(323-335)

Contends that before liberation theology can be faithful it must first listen to the voices coming forward from the perspective of the Black woman, who in Jacquelyn Grant’s words are perhaps the most oppressed of the oppressed. Concerned with how the experience of the Black woman questions certain assumptions in liberation theology in general and black theology in particular. The purpose of this article by Grant is to look critically at Black Theology from the black woman’s perspective and determine the adequacy of its conception of liberation for the total Black community.

Grant says that liberation theology in general has failed to speak to the oppression of those by the political establishment. She states that in liberation theology many times racism is rejected but sexism is embraced, and where classism is questioned, racism an sexism are tolerated, and where sexism is repudiated, racism and classism are often ignored. Grant states that although any one analysis on race, class or sex is insufficient to embrace the needs of all people they have at least been presented and are pertinent areas of liberation theology. But in order for liberation theology to be faithful to its task Grant suggest that it must listen to the critique from the perspective of the Black woman.

Grant begins with the question “Where are Black women in Black Theology? And she is emphatic that they are indeed invisible and states we need to know why this is the case.

Two important assumptions: either Black women have no place in liberation theology or black men are capable of speaking for us. Both of these assumptions rise out of a male dominated culture that restrict women to certain areas of society.

Grant says that a dualism has arisen between black men and black women which makes it not difficult to see why Black women are invisible in Black theology. Black men have deemed it proper to speak for the entire black community, male and female. She states that in a sense the Black man’s acceptance of the patriarchal model is logical and expected since black male slaves were unable to reap the benefits of patriarchy and after emancipation they were not given the opportunity of protecting and providing for Black women and children. It seems only natural that after emancipation these black viewed it as primary importance to reclaim their property – their women and children – their natural right to the man’s world. But Grant expresses this is only natural and logical if one accepts the terms and values of patriarch – the concept of male control and supremacy.

Grant raises another important question dealing with the invisibility of black women in Black theology. If Black men have accepted these patriarchal structures, is there any reason to believe that they would be any more liberating of Black women than White theology was for white women? It would seem natural that in view of the oppression that blacks have suffered that black men would be particularly sensitive to the oppression of others.

Sexism in the black church and the black community represents a peculiar form of oppression suffered by black women at the hands of black and it is crucial that this reality of sexism be examined. Grant looks at to what extent this task has been accomplished by Black Theology in both the Black Church and the Black Community.

If the liberation of women is not proclaimed by the Black church then the church’s proclamation cannot be about divine liberation. Read paragraph on page 328. “It if often said …”

Richard Allen and Jarena Lee – Oppression of Women in the Ministry.

C. Eric Lincoln states that as far as the issue of women is concerned the Black Church as not fared much better than the Negro church. If there is no word for black women in Black theology then like the church is conception of liberation is unauthentic.

Fredrick Douglass was a notable exception among black churchmen who dealt with oppression of Black women in the church and in the community. He advocated women’s against the contradiction between preaching “justice for all” and practicing oppression of women.

The status of black women in the community parallels that of Black women in the church. Since black theology does not include sexism as an injustice within the black community and many theologians have remained silent it suggests that many do not understand sexism to be an oppressive reality of the Black community. It is difficult to understand how as Cone puts it many black male minister can hear the message of liberation in the gospel when related to racism but remain deaf to a similar message in the context of sexism.

Black women working in the black power movement were also faced with this dualism which exists in the black community. Because of the invisibility in leadership of the movement they, like women of the church provided the “support segment of the movement.” Katherine Cleaver talks about the fact that when leadership was given to woment, sexism was right around the corner.

Grant refers to Pauli Murray and Theressa Hoover

In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens – Alice Walker:
(340-346)

Alice Walker – founder of the term womanist. – story of our mothers and grandmothers and how their creativity though silent and to some non-existent provides the creative sparks for black women today. Black women must examine their own identities and lives that have come out of the living creativity that our great grandmothers were not even aware existed within them.

How do you feel about Sexism in the Black Church today? Does it truly exist? If so what can be done by Black Males about the invisibility of their black sisters?

What do you think about the statement “Women in the church are not ready for a woman pastor?”

What is the role of the Black church in the woman’s struggle for liberation?

Womanist theology is an emergent voice of African American Christian women in the United
States. Employing Alice Walker's definition of womanism in her text In Search of Our Mothers'
Garden, black women in America are calling into question their suppressed role in the African
American church, the community, the family, and the larger society. But womanist religious
reflection is more than mere deconstruction. It is, more importantly, the empowering assertion of
the black woman's voice. To examine that voice, this essay divides into three parts. First, I look at
the overall state of womanist theology. Its development denotes a novel reconstruction of
knowledge, drawing on the abundant resources of African American women since their arrival to
the "New World," as well as a creative critique of deleterious forces seeking to keep black
women in "their place." Next, I sort through a womanist reconstruction of knowledge. In an
intentional manner, I unpack the contours of the knowledge-formation claims which undergird
womanist theology. And last, based on womanist theology as an instance of new knowledge and
based on a conceptual investigation of some epistemological presuppositions, I advance a new
anthropology of religion paradigm for the continued development of womanist theology.

Womanist Theology in the USA

Womanist theology is critical reflection upon black women's place in the world that God has
created and takes seriously black women's experience as human beings who are made in the
image of God. The categories of life which black women deal with daily (that is, race,
womanhood, and political economy) are intricately woven into the religious space that African
American women occupy. Therefore the harmful and empowering dimensions of the institutional
church, culture, and society impact the social construction of black womanhood. Womanist
theology affirms and critiques the positive and negative attributes of the church, the African
American community, and the larger society.

Womanist theology's goals are to interrogate the social construction of black womanhood in
relation to the African American community. The normative discourse among African American
women creates the space for an energetic claiming of the life stories of African American women
and their contribution to the history of the United States and the African diaspora. An additional
way of achieving this goal is to engage in a critical conversation with black (male) theology so that
a full theology for the African American community can emerge from that dialogue. Likewise the
pursuance of the black family's sanctity ranks high on the womanist's theological agenda. Another
the goal of womanist theology is to unearth the ethnographic sources within the African American
community in order to reconstruct knowledge and overcome subordination. And, finally, womanist
theology seeks to decolonize the African mind and to affirm our African heritage.

Womanist theology engages the macro-structural and the micro-structural issues that affect black
women's lives and, since it is a theology of complete inclusivity, the lives of all black people. The
freedom of black women entails the liberation of all peoples, since womanist theology concerns
notions of gender, race, class, heterosexism, and ecology. Furthermore, it takes seriously the
historical and current contributions of our African forebears and women in the African diaspora
today. It advances a bold leadership style that creates fresh discursive and practical paradigms
and "talks back" (hooks 1988) to structures, white feminists, and black male liberation
theologians. Moreover, womanist theology asserts what black women's unique experiences mean
in relation to God and creation and survival in the world. Thus the tasks of womanist theology are
to claim history, to declare authority for ourselves, our men, and our children, to learn from the
experience of our forebears, to admit shortcomings and errors, and to improve our quality of life.

Womanist theology assumes a liberatory perspective so that African American women can live
emboldened lives within the African American community and within the larger society. Such a
new social relationship includes adequate food, shelter, clothing -- and minds which are free from
worries so that there can be space for creative modalities.

Womanist theology draws on sources that range from traditional church doctrines, African
American fiction and poetry, nineteenth-century black women leaders, poor and working class
black women in holiness churches, and African American women under slavery. In addition, other
vital sources include the personal narratives of black women suffering domestic violence and
psychological trauma, the empowering dimensions of conjuring and syncretic black religiosity, and
womanist ethnographic approaches to excavating the life stories of poor women of African
descent in the church.

Womanist theology, moreover, grasps the crucial connection between African American women
and the plight, survival, and struggle of women of color throughout the world. Womanist theology
intentionally pursues and engages the cultural contexts of women who are part of the African
diaspora, for instance. To enhance the dialogical networking among women of color all over the
globe, the methodology of anthropology, a key discipline within the social sciences, aids womanist
theology in this engagement. Anthropological methodology encourages womanist religious scholars
to embrace the cultural, symbolic, and ritual diversity dispersed throughout the religious lives of
women of color on this earth.

Womanist theology takes seriously the importance of understanding the "languages" of black
women. There are a variety of discourses deployed by African American women based on their
social location within the black community. Some black women are economically disadvantaged
and suppressed by macro-structures in society. Other African American women are workers
whose voices are ignored by the production needs of the capitalist world order. Some other
voices are dramatically presented in the faith speech of black women preachers. And still other
articulations are penned in the annals of the academy. Womanist theology showcases the
overlooked styles and contributions of all black women whether they are poor, and perhaps
illiterate, or economically advantaged and "Ph.D.'ed." Womanists bring forth the legacy of our
grandmamas and great grandmamas and carry their notions in the embodiment of life that we
create daily. This language of black women is understood by black women; it accentuates
intra-group talk. It is a language of compassion, and yet it is no-nonsense. The words and actions
of this language oppose sexism, racism, classism, heterosexism, and abuse to any of God's
creation. It is a language that respects the natural environment in the fullness of creation.

The method of womanist theology validates the past lives of enslaved African women by
remembering, affirming, and glorifying their contributions. After excavating analytically and
reflecting critically on the life stories of our foremothers, the methodology entails a construction
and creation of a novel paradigm. We who are womanists concoct something new that makes
sense for how we are living in complex gender, racial, and class social configurations. We use our
foremothers' rituals and survival tools to live in hostile environments. Moreover, we gather data
from a reservoir of bold ideas and actions from past centuries to reconstruct knowledge for an
enhanced and liberating quality of life for black women today. The weaving of the past into present
knowledge construction produces a polyvalent self-constituting folk-culture of African American
women. In other words, the past, present, and future fuse to create a dynamic multi-vocal tapestry
of black women's experience inter-generationally.

In addition to unearthing the sources of the past in order to discover fragments to create a
narrative for the present and the future, womanist methodology comprises active engagement with
marginalized African American women alive today. Ethnographic methodology necessitates our
entering the communities of these women, constituting focus groups and utilizing their life
experiences as the primary sources for the development of questions which establish a knowledge
base from everyday people. These questions are then refined by the womanist scholar as she
reflects on the initial conversations with her focus groups. Further refining takes place when the
womanist scholar conducts a pilot study in which she ascertains whether the questions asked fit the
context of poor black women and where she also learns the nuances needed for the sensibilities of
the culture in which she is operating. Employing the context and knowledge base derived from the
focus and pilot groups, she launches a larger and more comprehensive ethnographic research
study by living among the people, thereby encountering their symbolic cosmology. In this living and
learning process, these women evolve into the womanist scholar's teachers. The task thus
becomes the production with integrity of the story of these poor people's lives and the reflection of
their polyvalent voices. They have created space for the scholar in their communities, and now she
creates space for their stories in their own words reflected in her publications. The womanist
ethnographer entrusts to the reader these narratives for interpretation, assuming that many truths
will emerge, transformation will occur, and readers will learn from those not usually given voice.
Furthermore, the African American female scholar risks becoming emotionally connected to these
people's lives as she reenters the community on a regular basis, and understands that she has
familial obligations to the people about whom she writes. Thus womanist theology is a longitudinal
theology.

Names associated with the emergence of womanist theology in the U.S.A. are Katie Cannon,
Emilie Townes, Jacqueline Grant, Delores Williams, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Kelly Brown
Douglas, Renita Weems, Shawn Copeland, Clarice Martin, Francis Wood, Karen
Baker-Fletcher, Jamie Phelps, Marcia Riggs, and Cheryl Kirk-Duggan. We are university,
seminary, and divinity school professors. We are ordained and lay women in all the Christian
denominations. Some of us are full-time pastors; some are both pastor and professor. We are
preachers and prayer warriors. We are mothers, partners, lovers, wives, sisters, daughters, aunts,
nieces -- and we comprise two-thirds of the black church in America. We are the black church.
The church would be bankrupt without us and the church would shut down without us. We are
from working-class as well as middle-class backgrounds. We are charcoal black to high yellow
women. We love our bodies; we touch our bodies; we like to be touched; we claim our created
beauty. And we know that what our minds forget our bodies remember. The body is central to
our being. The history of the African American ordeal of pain and pleasure is inscribed in our
bodies.

Womanist theology associates with and disassociates itself from black (male) theology and (white)
feminist theology. The point of departure for black theology is white racism. Since white
supremacy is a structure that denies humanity to African American people, black liberation
theology examines the gospel in relationship to the situation of black people in a society that
discriminates on the basis of skin color. Within black theology, the exodus story is a hermeneutical
device used to draw a parallel between the oppressed Israelites and the oppressed African
American community. Consequently, the liberation of the Israelites represents symbolically God's
freeing of black people. First generation black (male) theologians did not understand the full
dimension of liberation for the special oppression of black women; this was its shortcoming. To
foster the visibility of African American women in black God-talk, womanist theology has
emerged.

Unlike black theology with its emphasis on race, feminist theology addresses the oppression of
women, though primarily white women. The project of feminist theology did not deal with the
categories of race and economics in the development of its theological discourse. As important as
the work of feminist theology has been, its shortcoming is its lack of attention to the everyday
realities of African American and other women of color. It is therefore not a universal women's
theology and does not speak to the issue of all women. In a related fashion, too often white
feminist theology creates a paradigm over against men; it is an oppositional theological discourse
between females and males. In contrast, womanist theology recognizes patriarchal systems as
problematic for the entire black community -- women, men, and children. Moreover certain
feminist theological trends regard the institutional church as a patriarchal space anathema to
women, thus advising women to abandon the ecclesiastical mainstream. For African American
women however, the black church has been the central historical institution which has helped their
families survive. Womanist theology, at the same time, would critique the black church, particularly
black male pastors' inappropriate relations with black female members.

Womanist theology concurs with black theology and feminist theology on the necessity of engaging
race and gender in theological conversation. But womanist theology demands a God talk and God
walk which is holistic, seeking to address the survival and liberation issues of women, men,
children, workers, gays and lesbians, as these relate to local and global economies and the
environment.

A Womanist Perspective on Reconstructing Knowledge

Womanist theology is in the midst of reconstructing knowledge, not only for the broad
"mainstream" parameters of knowing but even for black male and feminist theologies. Thus, as
womanist scholars of religion advance a new epistemology of holistic survival and liberation, a
more intentional understanding of reconstructed knowledge processes is warranted.

Admittedly, reconstructing knowledge is like tearing down a formidable edifice that has been built
over an extensive number of years. The structure was designed by architects who had a clear
vision of what the end product would be like and used only the most advanced technical devices
for its erection. The architects guaranteed that the materials used would be permanent and
indestructible. The building is, of course, our minds and the architects are those who historically
have represented patriarchal, white European cultures. A womanist, in her reconstruction of
knowledge, must not only be a diligent craft person, she must develop an approach that utilizes the
kind of technology that can dismantle the seeming indestructibility of the original building materials.

Human beings acquire knowledge through culture, most often obtaining it through the culture into
which we are born. We procure knowledge in the same manner that our lungs receive oxygen. It is
a conscious and unconscious process that systematically and deliberately pervades our minds and
senses. Amassing knowledge is the process of becoming persons who "know." Who know what?
It is knowing the things that are essential for living. For white patriarchal culture in the North
American context, it is knowing how to dominate. In an adverse manner, for most people of color
in the United States, it is knowing how to survive in white culture.

The people with whom we interact and the environment in which we mature, especially during our
formative years, determine the kind of knowledge we acquire. Hence, to get a sense of the
attitudes and assumptions that were and are the bricks of the building which houses our
knowledge, we have to revisit whom and what has impacted our lives from the earliest days. I call
this foundational period our encounter with our "culture of origin." Therefore the culture of origin of
excluded voices becomes an important aspect of reconstructing knowledge.

As Andersen and Collins suggest, the primary question that must be asked in considering the
reconstruction of knowledge is: "Who has been excluded from what is known and how might we
see the world differently if we acknowledge and value the experiences and thoughts of those who
have been excluded?" (1992:1). The knowledge we acquire from formal institutions derives from
the ideas, philosophies, and histories of the privileged; more specifically, it is information about
people who wrote down their histories and their ideas. Chroniclers of the human historical record
did not consider people with oral traditions to be essential for cultivating the Western mind set.
Even when non-western people had written texts, such as the Aztecs, they were ignored. Thus,
the knowledge that we have gained is knowledge by and about the privileged. How do we know
this is the case? Let us turn once again to Andersen and Collins, who ask:

How else can we explain the idea that democracy and egalitarianism were defined as
central cultural beliefs in the nineteenth century while millions of African-Americans
were enslaved? Why have social science studies been generalized to the whole
population while being based only on samples of men? The exclusion of women,
African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, gays and lesbians, and other groups
from formal scholarship has resulted in distortions and incomplete information not
only about the experiences of excluded groups but also about the experience of more
privileged groups. (1992:1)

Our knowledge base has been exclusionary and now the building that houses our knowledge is
being meticulously dismantled, a dynamic which will eventually fashion a more diversified and
inclusive edifice, even if it takes several generations. For instance, there are scholars of all
persuasions and backgrounds who are committed to adding diversity to the way that knowledge is
constructed. Thus, scholars adhering to a transformation and reconstruction of knowledge
paradigm are discovering and accenting those marginalized ways of knowing which have been
suppressed and dominated by the discourses which govern our societies.

What are the dominant cultural themes with which we are living? We may believe that the culture
with which we are most familiar is the dominant one, but that is not always nor necessarily the
case. Renato Rosaldo in Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis examines a
university in California that was reviewing its first-year core curriculum.(1) There was an
assumption on the part of many faculty, who had been teaching for several years, that the course,
"Introduction to Western Civilization," would naturally be continued without any revisions. When
faculty members with alternative pedagogical perspectives began to raise questions about whether
this was the best course to undergird first year students living in a rapidly changing world, many
who sought to maintain the status quo were surprised. The latter posed adamantly the following
query: Why shouldn't that which had worked over many years be continued? In response, those
who proposed a revamped curriculum argued: Mainly, because what was assumed to work may
have worked for some, but not for all.

From such a highly charged intellectual debate, we can discern how marginalized and locked-out
voices are speaking up in a forceful manner. Consequently a radical shift must take place in our
thinking because monovocal myth is being dislodged and a truth of inclusivity is being restored.
Reconstructing knowledge means tearing down myths that have paralyzed communities, and
recreating truths which have been buried in annals that contain vast sources of knowledge. In brief,
I am talking about knowledge construction that is inclusive. Inclusive construction of knowledge
denotes exploring sources that culturally may be vastly different from our own epistemological
points of departure. It may be knowledge based on human experience as well as theory; and it
decidedly involves inclusion of the ideas, theories, orientations, experiences, and worldviews of
persons and groups who have previously been excluded. When such views are included, we infuse
the Eurocentric and male construction of knowledge with other vitally important constructions. The
normative Eurocentric male construction of knowledge, while construed to be universal, is but one
perspective now undergoing supplementation and correction.

Womanist theologians bring to the center the experience and knowledge of those marginalized by
a complex layering and overlapping by race, gender, and class experiences of all groups, inclusive
of those with privilege and power. Thus, as we explore this multiple effect dynamic, we pose the
question: If historically suppressed voices were central to our thought processes, would our
conception of the world and analytical sensibilities be any different? If we pursue such
epistemological dynamics as the personal/experiential or theoretical/scholarly, what influence
would this endeavor have on the reconstruction of knowledge? (See Andersen and Collins
1992:2). Womanist theologians, in a word, retrieve sources from the past, sort and evaluate
materials, and thereby construct new epistemologies that effect change in the space and time
occupied by black women.

A New Paradigm for Womanist Theology

The overwhelming majority of contemporary womanist religious scholars rely primarily on written
texts, such as, fiction, biography, and autobiography. I agree with the value of these crucial
sources and methodological approaches; however, I urge that we examine further our procedural
tools of analysis. Not only should womanist scholars include historical texts and literature in our
theological constructs and reconstruction of knowledge, but we should also embrace a research
process which engages poor black women who are living human documents. This is a very
appropriate way to access the direct speech (e.g., the primary textual narrative) of subordinated
African American women who are in our midst. That is to say, we must view books written about
poor black women as secondary sources and employ anthropological techniques to collect stories
and publish ethnographies of women who are still alive. The direct speech of marginalized black
women invites a community of readers to participate in the interpretive process. For instance, by
providing the unedited testimonies of poor African American women, readers can thereby glean
for themselves that which is important for them. Such a hermeneutical undertaking removes the
monopolizing interpretive power of the ethnographer.

Moreover, such an approach would utilize what Amilcar Cabral of Guinea Bissau called in the title
of his book A Return to the Source (Cabral 1973), which positions culture as an integral
component of the history of a people and which also explores the dynamic between culture and its
material base (e.g., its class position). The level and mode of production determine dominant
cultural forms. Thus, he asserted that: "A people who free themselves from foreign domination will
not be free unless they return to the upwards paths of their own culture" (142-43). From this
perspective, culture is a historically contested resource struggled over by those working for or
against social change to justify their respective standpoints (Thornton 1988:24). This definition
supports the earlier notion of knowledge being distributed and controlled. Therefore, if womanist
scholars would collect data out of the context of the poor and working-class culture of black
women who are living, womanists would act as intentional agents in the control and distribution of
knowledge. Such a project would be greatly enhanced by a critical interchange of and solidarity
with the narratives of similar women on the African continent as well as others in the third world or
"two-thirds world."

A womanist anthropology of survival and liberation is a new paradigm for the twenty-first century.
This novel model deploys a self-reflective sensitivity about the historical factors giving rise to
oppressed voices, specifically for my purposes, the production of political economy and its impact
on marginalized African American women. An interpretive anthropological approach (e.g., the
intentional assertion of poor and working-class black women's voices) therefore augments an
analytical methodology for the womanist scholar that invokes the African American woman's
perspective and clarifies how diverse cultural productions of everyday life influence the decisions
and practices which womanists make and implement in their lives.(2)

For womanist scholars who wish to employ the ethno-historical approach, there are
anthropological theories that may be applied to the historical text which conveys knowledge about
the womanist subject. The histories of poor and working class black women arise out of specific
contextual locations. Interpretive anthropological conceptual frameworks, therefore, guard against
ahistorical methods and magnify the particular textures of these women's social and cultural
locations. This process of theoretical application to primary data will enable the womanist religious
scholar to access the subject's systems of cultural meaning in order to let as much of the subject's
life story in historical context emerge as possible.(3)

In addition to the interpretive anthropological approach, with its accent on specificity of cultural
location, an anthropological concern for political economy is warranted. Within the historical
contexts of poor and black women, the womanist religious scholar must interrogate the nature of
the power and resource configurations present; that is, who has influence derived from ownership
and distribution of wealth? At the same time, we must not be provincial in our analysis, for local
economies themselves are contextualized and implicated in global political economies. It is
imperative for womanist scholars to "find effective ways to describe how [marginalized African
American women] are implicated in broader processes of historical political economy" (Marcus
and Fisher 1986:44).(4)

Ideally the womanist religious scholar is an indigenous anthropologist -- that is, one who reflects
critically upon her own community of origin and brings a sensitivity to the political, economic, and
cultural systems which impact poor and working class black women being studied. At the same
time, she gives priority to the life story of the subject in a way that underscores the narratives of a
long line of subjugated voices from the past to the present.

Conclusion

Womanist theology is the positive affirmation of the gifts which God has given black women in the
U.S.A. It is, within theological discourse, an emergent voice which advocates a holistic God-talk
for all the oppressed. Though centered in the African American woman's reality and story, it also
embraces and stands in solidarity with all suppressed subjects. In a word, womanist theology is a
theory and practice of inclusivity, accenting gender, race, class, sexual orientation, and ecology.
Because of its inclusive methodology and conceptual framework, womanist theology exemplifies
reconstructed knowledge beyond the monovocal concerns of black (male) and (white) feminist
theologies.

Such a reconstructed knowledge (e.g., an epistemology of holistic inclusivity, survival, and
liberation) serves as a heuristic for the broader notion of recreating knowledge and thereby offers
some elements for a theoretical conversation. Womanist epistemological insights suggest the
importance of commencing with all who have been left out of reflection upon a society, both its
past and present.

The current state of womanist theology and its implications for larger reconstructed knowledge
conversations are advanced further with an imaginative womanist anthropological paradigm. Here
we note the importance of secondary materials about African American women, but underscore
the decisive role of fieldwork among poor and working-class black women living today. Out of an
emphasis on their historical and cultural specificities and the impact of political economy, a creative
model emerges where the voices and meaning of the anthropological subjects themselves move to
the foreground. And simultaneously the power of the womanist religious scholar, as researcher,
does not impede the presentation of data which invites the reader of ethnographic work to enter
the interpretive dialogue with the voices of marginalized black women.

Bibliography

Andersen, Margaret L., and Patricia Hill Collins, eds. Race, Class, and Gender: An
Anthology. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing, 1992.
Cabral, Amilcar. Return to the Source. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1973.
hooks, bell. Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston: South End
Press, 1988.
Marcus, George E., and M. Fischer. Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An
Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1986.
Rosaldo, Renato. Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis. Boston: Beacon
Press, 1989.
Thornton, R. "Culture." In South African Keywords, ed. E. Boonzaier and E. Sharp. Cape
Town: David Philip, 1988, pp. 17-28.
Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1983.

Notes

1. [Back to text] See Rosaldo 1989:x for details about Stanford University's "Western Culture
Controversy."

2. [Back to text] See Marcus and Fischer 1986:25 for an analysis of interpretative anthropology.

3. [Back to text] For an explanation for how anthropological theory has accented the subject's
own life story, see Marcus and Fischer's discussion of the "native point of view" (1986:25).

4. [Back to text] Marcus and Fischer (1986:25-44) summarize two approaches to
anthropological methodology. One deals with interpretation which accents culture (i.e., values) and
the other underscores the relationship between particular ethnographies and global economies.

God's Grace Resources for Coping with Suffering: God's Overall Policy of Grace

2006-09-22T15:46:00.000-04:00

The scripture tells us that we are saved "by grace, through faith", and that this is "a gift which comes from God" and not "from our own works" (Eph.2:8-9). Grace is God's perfect policy of dealing with sinful man. He does the work, we reap the benefits; and the scripture is quite clear about the fact that our work contributes nothing to salvation, but that salvation is available only because of the work of Jesus Christ. On the cross, Christ suffered and died for us all. This God did for us as a matter of "grace", that is to say He did it freely and graciously, giving us a gift rather than rewarding us for anything we had done.

Consequently, we are saved when we believe in Jesus Christ. As a result of this salvation, we can look forward with confident expectation (elpis, "hope") to the day when we shall never have to suffer again. By being judged for our sins and in our place, Jesus Christ accomplished the only truly meritorious work in the Plan of God, and thus opened up the great "treasure chest" of God's grace to all believers. God deals with us after salvation in the same essential way in which He dealt with us before salvation: in grace. After salvation we enjoy a multitude of wonderful blessings as His children. The first and greatest blessing is salvation and the confidence it imparts of eternal life (a blissful future existence where all pain and hardship will be forever absent). But, on account of Christ's work (and our non-meritorious acceptance of His work through our faith in Him), we believers are now beneficiaries of God's grace in this life as well (Rom.6:14-15). The Greek work for "grace" is charis, and charis means "favor", and "goodwill". As human beings, we are born sinful (our heritage resulting from the Fall of Man; cf. Rom.7:20), but when we accept Jesus Christ as our savior, God's attitude towards us is transformed from one of hostility to one of kindliness (Eph.2:3-7). We are now His children, and He looks after us in love. The psalmist puts it this way: "I have been young, and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread" (Ps.37:25). It would be difficult to delimit the power and scope of the "grace" or favor of God in which we believers now stand, for it touches every aspect of our lives. God now treats us as His beloved children, constantly providing for and attending to all of our needs (Matt.6:25-34). There has never been a time when God has not been faithful to us in supplying all of our needs. He never fails to do His part; our part is merely to remember this fact and to trust that He never will.

God's Primary Grace Means of Coping with Suffering: Truth is the primary tool whereby we may effectively meet and deal with life's problems. This requires a bit of explanation. The type of "truth" which helps us through our difficulties is the "truth" in our hearts, fully understood, believed, and applied to those difficulties. Doctrinal information located in the Bible but not in our hearts will be of no use when the hard times come. Furthermore, if we are familiar with Bible verses and biblical principles, but choose not to believe them, they will be of no use to us in coping with adversity. How could we know how to cope with suffering or what to think or how to act in times of trouble if God had not made provision for us (Rom.10:14-15)? But God has made provision for us. He has supplied the food, shelter, and clothing, the textbook (the Bible), places of assembly, teachers, and a vast array of support staff (every believer, afterall, has some spiritual gift designed to promote the spiritual growth and welfare of the whole Body of Christ) to deal with all of our needs. We have, therefore, everything we need to pursue spiritual growth. All we need to do is contribute the faith. God intends for all of the Truth of His Word to mix with faith in our hearts (in the same way it did when we believed in His Son, Jesus Christ). So in order to handle adversity in the way in which God desires, we need to find out what He says about this subject (and all others), believe what He says, and apply His words to the problems which confront us. Ultimately, spiritual growth requires that we set ourselves to learning all of God's counsel, rather than confining ourselves to selected topics that happen to apply to our current situation or pique our interest. God intends for us to prepare ourselves for all of the circumstances of life (including suffering) by hearing, believing, and using the truth contained in the Bible. He has provided us with the Bible, teachers, and the means and opportunity to learn His principles of truth.

Principles of Truth Relating to Suffering:
1. God is working everything in our lives (including suffering) for our good
(Rom.8:28; Gen.50:20).

2. We can have happiness in the midst of suffering, knowing that our endurance is producing spiritual growth and will be rewarded (Jas.1:2-4; 2Cor.4:17; Rom.5:3-4; 1Thes.5:18; 1Pet.4:13; 2Pet.1:5-8).

3. We can take comfort in the knowledge that the Lord will never ask us to bear any burden which we are unable to bear, and will always provide us with a way out, whether that "escape hatch" leads around or, perhaps, through ,the current suffering (1Cor.10:13).

4. The Lord often has a purpose in allowing suffering which may not be readily apparent at the time. The death and resuscitation of the widow's son lead to her belief in the Lord (1Kg.17:24). The death and resuscitation of Lazarus was very painful for our Lord, but he was glad for it because of the belief it fostered (Jn.11:15). The cripple of John 9 was not born so because of anyone's sin, but to manifest the glory of God when he was healed (Jn.9:3). Job underwent such suffering that his patience in enduring it has become proverbial, but he was unaware that the Lord was using him to manifest His power and glory (Job 1:8; 2:3; and see Job 42:10). We may not fully understand the reasons for all the suffering that we and our fellow Christians undergo in this world, but we must remember that the Lord does have the best reasons for permitting it. Let's continue to trust Him.

5. The suffering which we undergo does pay a certain dividend: it gives us an experience out of which we can help others in their hour of trial, for all of us will have to endure hardships of some sort in this life (1Cor.1:3-4; 1Pet.4:12; 1Pet.5:9). 6. We can also draw encouragement in our suffering from the examples in the Bible.

The scripture is replete with case studies of fellow believers, many of whom had to undergo suffering beyond our own imagination. We need only read of the troubles of Job and Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel, or one may almost say, of practically every believer of note with whom God was pleased. These believers not only managed to survive personal hardships, but also to thrive in that they continued to love and trust the Lord, and to maintain their spiritual progress in spite of suffering. The writer of Hebrews catalogs this phenomenon in chapter 11, telling us that "by their faith", all the great believers of the past were able to overcome the various trials and tribulations life offered them, knowing that God had something better for them than all the riches the world could offer. After all, our Lord suffered for us, so that we might live forever in peace and happiness in eternity (1Pet.2:21; 4:1).

Conclusion: Finally, let us not forget that God has given us his comforter, the Holy Spirit (Jn.14:16). If we only relax and trust the Lord, His Spirit will help us, comfort us, and fill our hearts with a joy that transcends our present pain, no matter how deep the pain, no matter how intense the suffering (1Pet.4:14; Rom.5:3-5).

Illustrations of Suffering

“It may be cancer or a sore throat. It may be the illness or loss of someone close to you. It may be a personal failure or disappointment in your job or school work. It may be a rumor that is circulating in your office or your church, damaging your reputation, bringing you grief and anxiety.”40 It can be anything that ranges from something as small and irritating as the bite of a mosquito or the nagging of
a gnat to the charge of an elephant or having to face a lion in the lions’ den as with Daniel (Dan. 6).

Suffering is Predetermined and Inevitable

1 Thessalonians 3:3 so that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions; for you
yourselves know that we have been destined for this.

1 Peter 4:19 Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust
their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.

The question we must each face is not, “if” we are going to have trials in life, but how will we
respond to them.

Suffering is a Struggle

It’s going to be a battle all the way. That’s why they are called “trials” and “testings.” Even when we
understand the purposes and principles of suffering, and we know the promises of God’s love and
concern given in the Word of God for handling suffering, dealing with the trials of life is never easy
because suffering hurts. Trials simply give us the capacity to cooperate with the process (Jam. 1:4).
They allow the process to work and allow us to experience inner peace and joy in the midst of the
trials.

In order to handle suffering with inner joy and tranquillity, we must be able to look ahead to God’s
purposes and reasons for suffering. This requires faith in the eternal verities of God.

Compare the blessings of affliction as seen in the testimony of the Psalmist in Ps. 119:

Before affliction:
Straying and ignoring (vs. 67a)
During and in affliction:
Learning and turning (vs. 71, cf. vs. 59)
When under affliction we need
to:
Determine Causes if we can (Is it because of something I have
done?)

Determine Objectives (What is God wanting to do in my life or in
others?)

Determine Solutions (How does God want me to handle this?)
After affliction:
Knowing and changing (vss. 67b, 97-102)

Resting and valuing (vss. 65,72)

The following questions are designed to help us “consider” in the day of adversity:

(1) How am I responding to it?

(2) How should I respond to it?

(3) Am I learning from it?

(4) Does my response demonstrate faith, love for God and for others, Christ-like character, values, commitment, priorities, etc.?

(5) How can God use it in my life?

Black and Liberation Theology Cluster Publications -Contextual Theology in South Africa Black ecumenical History Cluster Publications sets out to

2006-09-22T15:41:00.000-04:00

http://www.unp.ac.za/UNPDepartments/theol/CLUS-PUB.HTMunp.ac.za Black Catholic Resources Nameci Internet Productions Contents Home Dedication Kwanzaa Curriculm Resources from Full Service Providers Black Catholic Resource Page Links Contacting us Stills Form Native American Catholic Resource Page BLACK CATHOLIC RESOURCES Several years ago we began searching for multicultural HYPERLINK: http://www.cyberia.com/pages/ahalliwell/pages/OLRS.html http://www.cyberia.com/pages/ahalliwell/pages/OLRS.html cyberia.com BLACK CHRISTIAN STUDIES An examination of the historical roots of black theology with special attention to the treatments of traditional themes and problems in theology by black theologians and their HYPERLINK: http://registrar.duke.edu/ACES/course_descrip/BCS.html http://registrar.duke.edu/ACES/course_descrip/BCS.html Liberation Theology: a Cancer in our Clergy Liberation Theology on the Move in the United States By Bill McIlhanyLiberation Theology owes much of success to its allies among American clergy. Unable to withstand contemporary currents of power, these liberal religious leaders are swept up in the race to trade theology for http://members.tripod.com/BioLeft/libtheo.htm THEOLOGY (in MARION) THEOLOGY Theology. (about) (33 titles) Search also note: subdivision Theology under individual monastic and religious orders, e.g. Jesuits--Theology. Search also under: Apologetics. Search also under: Bible. Search also under: Buddhism -- Doctrines. Search also under: Church http://stafla.dlis.state.fl.us/MARION?S=THEOLOGYstate.fl.us African American-Old Time Religion Synopsis: The "Old Time Religion": A Wholistic Challenge To The Black Church Author: Dr. Gyasi Foluke In The "Old Time Religion," the author provides a broad range of spiritual and social commentary in challenging the Black Church--more specifically its Ministers and leaders http://www.charweb.org/organizations/kush/oldtime.htmlcharweb.org Antonio's Home Page - Iliff School of Theology Antonio's Home Page Edward P. Antonio, Ph.D. Born in Zimbabwe and educated in England and Scotland, Edward is Assistant Professor of Theology and Social Theory at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. http://www.du.edu/~eantonio/ Black Theology -- A Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography-Black Theology, Compiled by James H. Evans, Jr. G.E. http://info.greenwood.com/books/0313248/0313248222.html Black Theology (by Ron Rhodes) - "Black Theology, Black Power, and the Black Experience" Part Two in a Three-Part Series on Liberation Theology by Ron Rhodes Between 1517 and 1840 it is estimated that twenty million blacks were captured in Africa, transported to America, and brutally enslaved. http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/BlackTheology.html Systematic Theology - SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY Systematic Theology is being offered for the present only on second and third year levels and therefore operates as a two-year major. http://www.text.ru.ac.za/departments/divinity/sys.htm Body-DALIT THEOLOGY: AN INDIAN CHRISTIAN ATTEMPT TO GIVE VOICE TO THE VOICELESS Rev. Dr. The emergence of dalit theology in India can be considered as a significant event in the history of Indian Christian thinking as it is very much related to the historical experiences of an oppressed and down trodden people. http://www.wwa.com/~sak777/dalit.htm Untitled - UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY MASTER OF ARTS PROGRAM THEOLOGICAL STUDIES BIBLIOGRAPHY This bibliography is designed to introduce students to the main areas of Theological Studies. http://www.coins.nd.edu/~theo/bib/TS.Bib.html Christianity Books -- Fundamentalism. - Christianity Books -- Fundamentalism. Books on Christianity or the Christian faith. Includes the teachings of Jesus and the Bible. All Christianity or Christian books are featured on Soul to Spirit Online Bookstore http://www.agelessinitiatives.com/soul2spt/chrfndbok.htm Taking you on a Journey - Hello. You've made it to my homepage. First, a little about me and why I began this project. As a student at Santa Clara University, I studied two majors: English and Religious Studies. http://www-acc.scu.edu/~kgawrych/ About the Shrine of the Black Madonna - Shrines of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman (Rev. Albert Cleage) Holy Patriarch Shrine of the Black Madonna #9 Atlanta, GA http://www.shrinebookstore.com/aboutshrine.html African-American Religion - Hamiltonbook.com contains a huge selection of discount books including new publications, overstocks, and remainders in all categories with a money back, no questions asked, guarantee http://www.hamiltonbook.com/subject2/aar.html The Theological Forum is a quarterly publication of the Commission for Theological Education and Interchange, of the Reformed Ecumenical Council, edited by Pieter Potgieter HYPERLINK http://www2.gospelcom.net/rec/TF-Dec98blei.html http://www2.gospelcom.net/rec/TF-Dec98blei.html ELEMENTS OF A POSTMODERN HOLINESS HERMENEUTIC ILLUSTRATED BY WAY OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION by John E. Stanley Utilizing the Biblical book of Revelation to illustrate its thesis, this paper explores some features of a postmodern Wesleyan/Holiness hermeneutic. http://wesley.nnc.edu/theojrnl/28-2.txt Calvin Mercer - CALVIN R. Department of Philosophy East Carolina University pymercer@ecuvm.cis.ecu.edu TEACHING POSITIONS HELD East Carolina University, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Professor of Religion, Spring 1981-Fall 1984 Florida A & M University, Instructor of... http://www.ecu.edu/phil/mercerv.html Theologians of the Second Half of the 20th Century - By Miles Hod... - Christian Fundamentalism Christian Liberalism Roman Catholicism Christian Social Activism/Liberationism Martin Luther King Jr. World Council of Churches Uppsala Conference (1968) Bankok Conference on World Mission and Evangelicalism (1973) Nairobi Conference (1975) Confessing Christ Today (more truly evangelical) Vancouver Conference (1983) Second Latin American Episcopal Conference... http://www2.cybernex.net/~mhodges/reference/20b-theology.htm CALVARY CHAPEL WEST VALLEY: ONLINE LIBRARY-Write To Us At: CCWV@Hotmail.com http://www.calvarychapel.com/westvalley/library/index.htm Stuff I wrote - Attempts at Humour A Marxian Analysis of Capitalism and the Oppression of the Wiccan Religion (the topic was "All witches should be burnt." for Intro to Philosophy) http://www.nd.edu/~akreider/writings.htm Religion & Philosophy Resources at the Eden-Webster Library - This bibliography lists primarily reference sources and databases available on the subject at the Eden-Webster Library in St. Louis, Missouri. HYPERLINK http://library.websteruniv.edu/elwrelig.html http://library.websteruniv.edu/elwrelig.html Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center -An ecumenical center for Palestinian Liberation Theology which seeks to make the Gospel contextually relevant.In Arabic Sabeel means 'The Way' and also a 'Spring of Water'. http://www.sabeel.org/ National Catholic Reporter begin quote- INSIDE NCR-JOHN PAUL REFLECTION: LIBERATING THE POOR Pope John Paul II, traveling to Latin America earlier this monthhttp://www.mosquitonet.com/~prewett/nolongeraprob.html Liberation Theology - Liberation theology, a term first used in 1973 by Gustavo Gutierrez, a Peruvian Roman Catholic priest, is a school of thought among Latin American Catholics according to which the Gospel of Christ demands that the church concentrate its efforts on liberating the people of the world from poverty and oppression. http://www.mb-soft.com/believe/txn/liberati.htm Stef's Links about Liberation Theology - Beautiful background was provided by: Ace of Space Are you LOST? LIBERATION THEOLOGY: The Future of Liberation Theology by Daniel H. Liberation Theology: Basis - Past - Present - Future by Manfred Davidmann http://www.pitt.edu/~sasst33/LIBERATION/liberation.html Religion in Latin America- Theology-Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Vatican II documents, especially: Church in the Modern World Catholic Social Teaching, see, for example: David J. http://www.providence.edu/las/theology.htm Theology - Theology Library Theology 22 links Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian. http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFTHEO.HTM Catheo.Net-Theology For Thinking Catholics - In this area, we archive the many and varied discussions that have taken place on a variety of topics on the Catheo.Net Messageboard. The messages have a life on the board of twenty days, after which time they are transferred here. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/8558/archives.html Gustavo Gutirrez: non-believers and non-persons : religious at-a guide to nontraditional & multicultural sources regarding atheism and liberation theology. http://www.hypertext.com/atheisms/gutierrez.html Atheism of suspicion: psychology, economics, sociology : religious ath...- a guide of nontraditional & multicultural sources regarding the atheism of suspicion in psychology, economics and sociology. http://www.hypertext.com/atheisms/suspicion.html Critical Issues in Modern Religion - Roger Johnson Ernest Wallwork Paul Santmire Clifford Green Harold Vanderpool Sign up for future mailings on this subject. Critical Issues in Modern Religion. http://www.prenhall.com/books/hss_0131939963.html Religion in Latin America- Theology-Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Vatican II documents, especially: Church in the Modern World Catholic Social Teaching, see, for example: David J. http://www.providence.edu/las/theology.htm Liberation Theology (by Ron Rhodes)-"Christian Revolution in Latin America: The Changing Face of Liberation Theology" Part One in a Three-Part Series on Liberation Theology by Ron Rhodes http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/Liberation.html Theologians of the Second Half of the 20th Century - By Miles Hod... - Christian Fundamentalism Christian Liberalism Roman Catholicism Christian Social Activism/ Liberationism Martin Luther King Jr. World Council of Churches Uppsala Conference (1968) Bankok Conference on World Mission and Evangelicalism (1973) Nairobi Conference (1975) Confessing Christ Today (more truly evangelical) Vancouver Conference (1983) Second Latin American Episcopal Conference... http://www2.cybernex.net/~mhodges/reference/20b-theology.htm Option for the Poor-John Carr thinks ". . .we in the United States are in some trouble." Carr's conclusion is based on his reflection on our society and on the fifth principle of Catholic Social Teaching - the 'option for the poor.' In an interview published in the March/April 1996 Salt of the Earth, Carr, Secretary for Social Development and World Peace, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, reminds us that,... http://rrnet.com/~sedaqah/option.htm Vol. 76, No. 1-The Journal of Religion Volume 76, Number 1, January 1996 Modern and Ancient Jewish ApocalypticismJOEL MARCUS "Solitary" Mysticism in Plotinus, Proclus, Gregory of Nyssa, and Pseudo-DionysiusKEVIN CORRIGAN http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JR/v76n1toc.html Body-DALIT THEOLOGY: AN INDIAN CHRISTIAN ATTEMPT TO GIVE VOICE TO THE VOICELESS. Rev. Dr. The emergence of dalit theology in India can be considered as a significant event in the history of Indian Christian thinking as it is very much related to the historical experiences of an oppressed and down trodden people. http://www.wwa.com/~sak777/dalit.htm Thomas F. O'Meara: Modern Art and the Sacred -Modern Art and the Sacred: The Prophetic Ministry of Alain Couturier, O.P.by Thomas F. Thomas F. O'Meara, O.P.is the William K. Warren Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. http://www.op.org/Domcentral/library/spir2day/86381omeara.ht... Untitled - Gustavo Gutierrez in Poststructuralist Critique: Toward a Postmodern Liberation1 Jaime R. Introduction to the Problem: Objectivist Rhetoric and Oppression HYPERLINK http://www.uts.columbia.edu/~usqr/BALBOA.HTM http://www.uts.columbia.edu/~usqr/BALBOA.HTM Option for the Poor (Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, Baker Book House, forthcoming 2000) While there has long been a recognition that the poor hold special attention and affection in God's eyes, the phrase "option for the poor" or "preferential option for the poor" is of relatively recent coinage. http://www.wheaton.edu/Missions/Moreau/Articles/Option.htm PEVA Worship Resources -Abuse of Power, The James Newton Poling Abingdon Press, Nashville TN And Show Steadfast Love Lewis H Merrick Body Theology James B Nelson Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, KY 1 http://www.makwoods.org/peva/bible.htm Straight Talk on Shining Path and the Catholic Church in Peru (June 92...-The following is reprinted with permission from the weekly Revolutionary Worker newspaper by the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru: Circa June 1992. http://www.csrp.org/rw/rwchurch.htm News of Theological Institutions -PC(USA) News release 96122 http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/oldnews/1996/96122.htm Raschke & Taylor: Deconstruction and theology: religious atheism-a guide to nontraditional & multicultural sources regarding atheism and the death of God. http://www.hypertext.com/atheisms/raschketaylor.html With Head and Heart. Howard Thurman Jesus and the Disinherited. Howard Thurman, Vincent Harding. 1949 First published in 1949, "Jesus and the Disinherited" is a brilliant and compassionate look at God's work in our lives. Its powerful and influential message helped to shape the civil rights movement. As we continue to struggle today with issues of racism, poverty, and spiritual disengagement, Howard Thurman's discerning reading of the message of renewal through self-love as exemplified in the life of Jesus resonates once again. Challenging our submersion into individual and social isolation, Thurman suggests a reading of the Gospel that recovers a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. He argues that within Jesus' life of suffering, pain, and overwhelming love is the solution that will prevent our descent into moral nihilism. For although scorned and forced to live outside society, Jesus advocated a love of self and others that defeats fear and the hatred that decays our souls and the world around us. Thurman's work reaches toward a vision of unity--a welcome epistle as we approach the next century. Disciplines of the Spirit. Howard Thurman Awake, Arise, & Act : A Womanist Call for Black Liberation. (African American Studies/Women's Studies). Marcia Y. Riggs. 1994 An important womanist voice speaks clearly to the volatile race and class dynamics that continue to shape the debate over the African-American experience. Riggs argues that social stratification has not only seriously damaged social cooperation among blacks, but has also encouraged social dysfunction by nurturing irrational class competition. In this probing analysis of the history and future of the African American experience, Marcia Y. Riggs explains how social stratification has not only damaged cooperation among Blacks, but has also nurtured a dysfunctional class competition - competition that continues to dim hopes of justice, solidarity, and liberation in the black community. Riggs proposes the nineteenth-century black women's club movement as a model for approaching the contemporary crisis in black America. These reformers, Riggs demonstrates, recognized that the ongoing problems of racism, sexism, and classism discouraged the development of intragroup responsibility. By rejecting oppressive images and roles, the club movement challenged African Americans to strive for communal liberation and social betterment. Awake, Arise, and Act skillfully weaves together sociology, theology, and history to create a brilliant tapestry of hope and promise for African Americans in the twenty-first century. Can I Get a Witness?: Prophetic Religious Voices of African American Women: An Anthology. Marcia Riggs(Editor). Barbara Holmes (Editor). 1997 This anthology gathers the religious words of Afro-American women from Sojourner Truth to Harriet Tubman and Fannie Lou Hamer, assembling a variety of witnesses to the Gospel and examining the links between faith and the struggle for civil rights and justice. This juxtaposes the reflections of both famous and lesser-known black women. Assembling a chorus of voices from history, Can I Get A Witness? chronicles African American women's lives as faithful witnesses to the prophetic dimensions of the Gospel, from slavery times to the present. Using touchstones of significant moments - slavery and emancipation, the Great Awakening and suffragism, women's clubs and missionary movements, and the great Civil Rights struggles - Can I Get A Witness? documents the crucial links between faith and the struggle for justice that forms the basis of the contemporary womanist movement. Many African American women, famous or not, are represented, including Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary McLeod Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, Shirley Chisholm, and many others. Whether confessional, homiletic, political, or poetic, their voices bear witness on the part of African American women to the God who created, redeemed, and sustained them for the work of liberation. . Empowerment Ethics for a Liberated People: A Path to African American Social Transformation. Cheryl J. Sanders. 1995 Living the Intersection: Womanism and Afrocentrism in Theology. Cheryl J. Sanders(Editor). 1995 Womanism and Afrocentrism are the two most influential currents in contemporary African American culture. Yet are the two compatible? Social ethicist Cheryl Sanders marshals some leading womanist thinkers to take the measure of the Afrocentric idea and to explore the intricate relationship between Afrocentric and womanist perspectives. Ministry at the Margins: The Prophetic Mission of Women, Youth & the Poor. Cheryl J. Sanders. 1997 The author issues a call for the church to update the idea of ministry and mission by moving away from condescension and towards inclusion of marginalized groups seeking justice. For centuries women, youth and the poor have been seen as objects of Christian ministry, but rarely as those who do ministry themselves. This is so much the case that in some quarters today ministry and mission are bad words, reeking of older and paternalistic models of Christian "service." In this challenging book, Cheryl Sanders demonstrates how mission can be updated. Far from being regressive or irrelevant in a multicultural, nonpatriarchal world, Christian mission can come alive when it is not just ministry to but ministry by marginalized groups seeking justice. Ministry at the Margins is an important Christian ethicist's rousing call to "find grace to articulate a theology of inclusion and to establish inclusive practices and multicultural perspectives that harmonize with the gospel we preach and honor the Christ we proclaim." Essential reading for pastors, church leaders, students, urban missionaries and campus ministers. Saints in Exile: The Holiness-Pentecostal Experience in African American Religion and Culture (Religion in America). Cheryl J. Sanders. 1999 My Sister, My Brother: Womanist and Xodus God-Talk (Bishop Henry McNeal Turner/Sojourner Truth Series in Black Religion, Vol 12). Karen Baker-Fletcher, Garth Kasimu Baker-Fletcher.. Somebodyness: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Theory of Dignity. Garth Baker-Fletcher. Xodus: An African American Male Journey. Garth Kasimu Baker Fletcher, et al. Written in a bold, inventive style, Xodus aims at a new, positive "reconstruction" of African American maleness in light of the black womanist movement, the men's movement, the recent vision of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., and the theological sensibilities of Howard Thurman. Black Theology and Black Power. James H. Cone. 1997 A Black Theology of Liberation. James H. Cone. 1990 For My People: Black Theology and the Black Church. James H. Cone. 1984 God of the Oppressed. James H. Cone. 1997 My Soul Looks Back. James H. Cone. 1986 Risks of Faith: The Emergence of a Black Theology of Liberation, 1968-1998. James H. Cone. 1999 Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology. James H. Cone. 1999 Black Faith and Public Talk: Critical Essays on James H. Cone's Black Theology and Black Power. Dwight N. Hopkins(Editor) 1999 James H. Cone and Black Liberation Theology. Rufus, Jr. Burrow. 1994 Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life. Bell Hooks, Cornel West (Contributor). 1991 Critical Race Theory : The Key Writings That Formed the Movement. Kimberle Crenshaw(Editor), et al. 1996 The Future of the Race. Cornel West(Contributor). Henry Louis, Jr. Gates. 1997 Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America. Cornel West. 1994 Prophesy Deliverance! an Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity. Cornel West. 1982 Race Matters. Cornel West. 1994 Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black America. Cornel West, et al. 1998 Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism. Cornel West. 1993 Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism (vol 2): Prophetic Reflections: Notes on Race and Power in America. Cornel West. 1993 Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life. Bell Hooks, Cornel West. 1991 The Courage to Hope: From African-American Experience to Human Community. Quinton Hosford Dixie (Editor). Cornel West (Editor). 1999 The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought. Cornel West. 1991 Post-Analytic Philosophy. John Rajchman(Editor). Cornel West (Editor). 1985 Prophetic Reflections: Notes on Race and Power in America (Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism, Vol 2) . Cornel West. 1993 Prophetic Thought in Postmodern Times (Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism, Vol 1). Cornel West. 1993 Race Matters. Cornel West. 1993 The Soul Knows No Bars : Getting Out of Prison. Drew Leder, Cornel West. 2000 Prophetic Fragments: Illuminations of the Crisis in American Religion and Culture. Cornel West Regarding Malcolm X: A Reader. Paula Giddings. Cornel West Theology in the Americas: Detroit Two Conference Papers. Cornel West(Editor) Mending Fences: Renewing Justice Between Government and Civil Society (Kuyper Lecture Series). Glenn C. Loury, et al. 1998 Moral Values: The Challenge of the Twenty-First Century. W. Lawson Taitte (Editor), et al. 1997 One by One from the Inside Out: Essays and Reviews on Race and Responsibility in America. Glenn C. Loury. 1995 Transforming Welfare: The Revival of American Charity. David Beito, et al. 1997 The Spirituality of African Peoples: The Search for a Common Moral Discourse. Peter J. Paris. 1994 Black Religious Leaders: Conflict in Unity. Peter J. Paris. 1992 Secondary Sources Making the Gospel Plain: The Writings of Bishop Reverdy C. Ransom (African American Religious Thought and Life). Reverdy C. Ransom, Anthony B. Pinn (Editor) The book focuses on Bishop Reverdy Ransom of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historically significant figure whose life and work provide a much fairer view of the richness of black religious life in the second quarter of the twentieth century than has heretofore been available. Making the Gospel Plain is a unique collection of Ransom's writings that are presently out of print or little known. After outlining Ransom's life and involvements, the book moves into the actual documents: sermons and speeches, articles and editorials, and pamphlets and excerpts from his books. Explanatory notes are included where necessary. African-American Social and Political Thought 1850-1920. Howard Brotz (Editor). The previous edition of this collection of writings by Booker T. Washington, William du Bois, and Marcus Garvey, among others, was published in 1966 under the title, Negro social and political thought, 1850-1920. Black and Catholic: The Challenge and Gift of Black Folk Contributions of African American Experience and Thought to Catholic Theology Christianity on Trial: African-American Religious Thought Before and After Black Power (Bishop Henry McNeal Turner/Sojourner Truth Series in Black Religion. Mark L. Chapman, Marc Chapman Since slavery times African-American religious thinkers have struggled to answer this question: Is Christianity a source of liberation or a source of oppression? In a study that reviews representative thinkers over the last fifty years, Mark Chapman reviews the variety of ways that African-Americans have addressed this problem and how it has informed their work and lives. Beginning with Benjamin Mays, the leading "Negro" theologian of the post-World War II period, Chapman explores the critical implications of this question right up to the present day. The pivotal turning point in this period is the emergence of the Black Power movement in the 1960s. Sparked in part by the challenge of the Black Muslims, for whom Christianity was simply "the white man's religion," inherently racist and oppressive, the era of Black Power saw the rise of militant Black theologies as well. After analyzing the work of the Muslim Elijah Muhammad, Chapman turns to the pioneering work of Black theologians Albert Cleage and James H. Cone. Chapman demonstrates the differences but also uncovers surprising lines of continuity between the older "Negro theologians" and the later "Black theologians" particularly in their efforts to uncover the truly liberative potential of Christianity. Christianity on Trial concludes by exploring the recent emergence of womanist theology. As articulated by Delores S. Williams and other African-American women, "womanist theology" challenges not only the patriarchal aspects of historical Christianity, but the same limitations in previous Black theologies. Detroit, I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution. Dan Georgakas, et al. 1998 Since its original publication in 1975 by St. Martin's Press, Detroit: I Do Mind Dying has been widely recognized as one of the most important books on the black liberation movement and labor struggle in the United States. Detroit: I Do Mind Dying tells the remarkable story of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, based in Detroit, and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, two of the most important political organizations of the 1960s and 1970s. The new South End Press edition makes available the full text of this out-of-print classic along with a new foreword by the African-American scholar Manning Marable, interviews with participants in the League, and reflections on political developments over the past three decades by Georgakas and Surkin. The new edition includes commentary by Detroit activists Sheila Murphy Cockrel, Edna Ewell Watson, Michael Hamlin, and Herb Boyd. All of them reflect not only on the tremendous achievements of DRUM and the League, but on their political legacy for Detroit, for U.S. politics, and for them personally. Dying tells a different story; one of a core of revolutionaries in the industrial heart of America within a union with a radical past. These black revolutionaries take on the racism of the bosses, as well as the racism of the union beauracracy, in a daring and valliant attempt to bring about real social change. Some lessons for activists, trade unionists, and socialists today are included by the authors. Questions of organizing white workers; the need for a national party; wildcat strikes to take on both the company and the union beauracracy; and the need to have an international perspective. All of theses lessons are brought forth from the struggles of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and all of the Revolutionary Union Movements in the Detroit area. A must read for activists today. This is simply the best book written on the radicalization of the Black (and white/arab/latino) industrial working class in the late 1960's and early 1970's. It is also rich in lessons for radical unionists and socialists today. With all the academic presses churning out tome after tome on "race relations" why doesn't one of them pick up this fascinating book? --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. An International History of the Black Panther Party (Studies in African American History and Culture). Jennifer B. Smith. 1999 Leadership, Conflict, and Cooperation in Afro-American Social Thought. John Brown Childs. 1993 Liberating Vision: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African-American Thought. Robert Michael Franklin. 1990 Stirrings in the Jug: Black Politics in the Post-Segregation Era. Reed Jr Adolph, et al. 1999 Adolph Reed Jr. has been called ìthe smartest person of any race, class, or gender writing on race, class, and gender (Katha Pollitt, Mother Jones) and ìrefreshing and radical. . . . Serious, even courageousî (Adam Schatz, The Nation) well as many less polite termsófor his bare-knuckled approach to political analysis. In Stirrings in the Jug, Reed offers a sweeping and incisive analysis of racial politics during the post-civil rights era. Skeptical of received wisdom, Reed casts a critical eye on political trends in the black community over the last thirty years. He examines the rise of a new black political class in the aftermath of the civil rights era, and bluntly denounces black leadership that is not accountable to a black constituency; such leadership, he says, functions as a proxy for white elites. Reed debunks as myths the ìendangered black maleî and the black underclass,î and punctures what he views as the exaggeration and self-deception surrounding the black power movement and the Malcolm X revival. He chastises the Left, too, for its failure to develop an alternative politics, then lays out a practical leftist agenda and reasserts the centrality of political action. In the early 1960s, Reed writes, Ralph Ellison lamented the disposition ëto see segregation as an opaque steel jug with the Negroes inside waiting for some black messiah to come along and blow the cork.íî In Stirrings in the Jug, Reed challenges us to advance emancipatory and egalitarian interests in black political life and in society at largeóìto look within the jug, examine its varied contents, and pour them freely into the world. Under the Kapok Tree: Identity and Difference in Beng Thought. Alma Gottlieb.1996 In this companion volume to Parallel Worlds, Alma Gottlieb explores ideology and social practices among the Beng people of Cte d'Ivoire. Employing symbolic and postmodern perspectives, she highlights the dynamically paired notions of identity and difference, symbolized by the kapok tree planted at the center of every Beng village. "This book merits a number of readings. . . . An experiment in ethnography that future projects might well emulate." --Clarke K. Speed, American Anthropologist "[An] evocative, rich ethnography. . . . Gottlieb does anthropology a real service." --Misty L. Bastian, American Ethnologist "Richly detailed. . . . This book offers a nuanced descriptive analysis which commands authority." --Elizabeth Tonkin, Man "Exemplary. . . . Gottlieb's observations on identity and difference are not confined to rituals or other special occasions; rather she shows that these principles emerge with equal force during daily social life." --Monni Adams, Journal of African Religion "[An] excellent study." --John McCall, Journal of Folklore Research The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper: Including a Voice from the South and Other Important Essays, Papers, and Letters (Legacies of Social Thought). Anna J. Cooper, et al. 1998 W. E. B. Du Bois and American Political Thought: Fabianism and the Color Line. Adolph L. Reed. 1999 In his own time, W.E.B. Du Bois was a controversial figure, and now, more than 30 years after his death, he continues to be so. Born in 1868, Du Bois was a central figure in African American intellectual life during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, yet many of his positions are difficult to reconcile with current African American thought. Du Bois, for example, was an elitist who believed that black society was divided between "the talented tenth" and everybody else. Yet in his later years, he joined the communist party and moved to Africa, where he lived out the remainder of his life. Since his death in 1963, a generation of African American intellectuals have tried to interpret, explain, or revise him according to their own beliefs; now Adolph Reed Jr. weighs in with W.E.B. Du Bois and American Political Thought. Reed's approach to Du Bois is simple: he believes that what you read is what you get. When, for example, Du Bois wrote movingly in The Souls of Black Folk of a feeling of "twoness," a sense of warring natures, Reed suggests that, far from embracing a notion of double consciousness, Du Bois was actually following precepts of early 20th-century social theory which described the split between primitive and civilized societies. In addition to his discussion about Du Bois, Reed comments on many other African American critics at work today, from Houston Baker to Henry Louis Gates, making the author of W.E.B. Du Bois and American Political Thought as controversial as his subject. The New York Times Book Review, Alan Wolfe To enter the world of Adolph Reed is to return to that time when intellectuals believed that they held the keys to history.... Most intellectuals have left that world behind. In an odd way, Reed is to be admired for not having done so; the quality of our intellecutal life would be poor indeed if everyone thought the same way. Still, one has to wonder where Reed's self-confidence--his total lack of doubt about his rightness and everyone else's wrongness--comes from. In this pathbreaking book, Adolph Reed, Jr. covers for the first time the sweep and totality of W.E.B. Du Bois's political thought. Departing from existing scholarship, Reed locates the sources of Du Bois's thought in the cauldron of reform-minded intellectual life at the turn of the century, arguing that a commitment of liberal collectivism, an essentially Fabian socialism, remained pivotal in Du Bois's thought even as he embraced a range of political programs over time, including radical Marxism. Exploring the segregation-era political discourse which informed Du Bois's texts and identifying the imperatives which triggered Du Bois's strategic political thinking, Reed reveals that Du Bois's core beliefs concerning such issues as the relationship between knowledge and progress, social stratification among blacks, and proper social organization, endured with little change from their early formulation in The Philadelphia Negro (1899). While tracking Du Bois's response to shifting political and economic contexts over nearly six decades, Reed also refines our understanding of twentieth-century progressive thought, discovering fresh continuities and tensions between fin de siecle and later socialist and Marxist discourses. Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. Beverly Guy-Sheftall(Editor), Johnnetta Cole (Contributor). 1995 This anthology of African-American feminist thinking is an outstanding collection written by a pioneer of the modern black feminist movement. This is the first collection of black women's philosophy from the 1830s to modern times, revealing an intellectual tradition which is historically significant, revealing black women's struggles in this country since their arrival. Elizabeth Spelman, Professor of Philosophy, Smith College. The indefatigable Beverly Guy-Sheftall has put together a breathtaking sweep of African American feminist thought in one indispensable volume. "In this groundbreaking collection of articles, Dr. Guy-Sheftall has taken us from the early 1830s to contemporary times. Only since the seventies have black women used the term 'feminism.' And, yet, it is that concept that she uses to bring into the same frame the ideas and analyses of Maria Stewart, Sojourner Truth, and Frances Harper of the early nineteenth century, and the work of women such as Audre Lourde, Barbara Smith, and Bell Hooks, who stand on the threshold of the twenty-first century.--from the epilogue by Johnnetta B. Cole, President, Spelman College Tracing African-American feminist thought from the early1800s to the present, an anthology combines the works of more than sixty African-American women, including Sojourner Truth, Lorraine Hansberry, and Shirley Chisholm. African American Political Thought 1890-1930: Washington, Dubois, Garvey, and Randolph. Cary D. Wintz (Editor). 1996 Selected writings from four major figures in African American history demonstrate different and often conflicting approaches to dealing with issues of race in the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The articles, essays, letters, and public statements also dispel any notion of simplification or stasis in African American political thought. Could be an invaluable reader for a history course at any level from high school to graduate. Midwest Book Review-Essays, letters, speeches and editorials produced by Washington, DuBois, Garvey and Randolph form the foundation of a fine examination of the ideas and evolution of African American political and social thinking from the 1890s through the 1920s. An excellent overview of black concerns and evolution is created through the juxtaposition of documents by the four prominent thinkers. African-American Thought: Social and Political Perspectives from Slavery to the Present. Manning Marable(Editor), Leith Mullings (Editor). 1999 Black American Intellectualism and Culture: A Social Study of African American Social and Political Thought. (Contemporary Studies in Sociology). James L. Conyers (Editor).1999 Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Patricia Hill Collins. 1990 From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen In her introduction, Patricia Hill Collins states that her work is informed by the totality of her experience as the daughter of working-class parents, her education as a sociologist and educator, and her daily "non-scholarly activities" as wife, mother, community activist, sister, and friend. Black Feminist Thought is the first history and analysis of "Black women's ideas" told in a voice that is "both individual and collective, personal and political, one reflecting the intersection of my unique biography with the larger meaning of my historical times." In it we discover new meanings for selected and neglected traditional female themes like gossip, hair, TV, movies, food, and clothing; get a fresh look at where and how knowledge is produced; learn about self-definition and about kitchens, factories, and neighborhoods as "alternative locations for intellectual work." The implications of her chapters, "The Ethic of Caring," "The Ethic of Personal Accountability," and "Reconceptualizing Race, Class, and Gender as Interlocking Systems of Oppression," are enormous and compelling. For readers interested in the sources and definitions of knowledge-especially those whose history and intellectual tradition has been lost, denied, or denigrated - Black Feminist Thought is one of the most inspiring, exciting, and valuable books you'll ever read. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls. In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins explores the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals, as well as those of African-American women outside academe. She not only provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, Alice Walker and Audre Lorde, but she shows the importance of self-defined knowledge for group empowerment. In the tenth anniversary edition of this award-winning work, Patricia Hill Collins expands the basic arguments of the first edition by adding several important new themes: a new discussion of heterosexism as a system of power, an expanded treatment of images of Black womanhood, U.S. Black feminism's connections to Black Diasporic feminisms, and more attention to the importance of social class and nationalism. In addition, the new edition includes discussion of recent developments in black cultural studies, especially black popular culture, as well as recent events and trends such as the Anita Hill hearings and the backlash against affirmative action. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Cedric J. Robinson. 2000 Detroit: I Do Mind Dying (South End Press Classics, 2). Dan Georgakas, et a. 1998 The Fragmented World of the Social : Essays in Social and Political Philosophy (Suny Series in Social and Political Thought). Axel Honneth, Charles W. Wright (Editor). 1995 The essays in this book weave together insights and arguments from such diverse traditions as German critical theory, French philosophy and social theory, and recent Anglo-American moral and political theory, offering a unique approach to the political and theoretical consequences of the modernism /postmodernism discussion. Through an analysis of central themes in classical Marxism and early critical theory, the author shows how recent work in a variety of traditions converges on the need to question familiar distinctions between material production and culture, the public and the private, and the political and the social, and to reconsider the conceptions of agency and power that have informed them. I Answer With My Life : Life Histories of Women Teachers Working for Social Change (Critical Social Thought). Kathleen Casey. 1993 Race, Women, and Revolution: Black Female Militancy and the Praxis of Ella Baker. Joy James. 1999 Without Justice for All : The New Liberalism and Our Retreat from Racial Equality. Adolph L. Reed (Editor) Without Justice for All questions, examines, and explains the way a new orthodoxy among American leaders and opinion-makers has contributed to the social stratification and inequality that plagues America today. Contributors look at the history of our social policies since the New Deal, as well as the status of specific policy arenas and political shifts over the past fifty years. Throughout, the central thread is a critical response to a now conventional argument that liberalism must be reconfigured in ways that retreat from immediate identification with the interests of labor, minorities, and the poor. Without Justice for All, written for both students and general readers, is a timely and important contribution to the dialogue on race in modern America. Race Men (W.E.B. Du Bois Lectures). Hazel V. Carby Race men is a term of endearment used by blacks to signify those high-achieving African American men who "represent the race," disproving bigoted notions of black inferiority. In this engaging study, Yale African American Studies Professor Hazel V. Carby seeks to ask "questions about various black masculinities at different historical moments and in different media: literature, photography, film, music, and song." She does so by discussing the lives and works of myriad types of race men. Frederick Douglass's uncompromising fight against slavery, W.E.B. Du Bois's masterful The Souls of Black Folk, Martin Luther King's nonviolent struggles, and Malcolm X's fiery rhetoric articulate the intellectual-political prisms of black activism, for example, while actor Danny Glover represents the dilemma of the black/white sidekick and the fight for a more multidimensional Afro-American image. Carby compares Toussaint L'Ouverture, the ex-slave who liberated Haiti from the French in the 19th century, to Trinidadian writer C.L.R. James, whose Marxist interpretation of the Haitian Revolution, The Black Jacobins, unveiled the complexities of colonialism, class, and the sexist aspects of radical black leadership. She discusses jazz icon Miles Davis's quest for freedom and his misogynistic persona articulated in his autobiography, then praises science fiction writer Samuel R. Delany's Motion of Light in Water as "an effective counterpoint to Miles ... a magnificent attempt to reject the socially created obstacles separating desire from its material achievement, and in the process demolishing and transcending the limitations of heterosexual norms." Indeed, for Carby the major flaw of race men is that their upholding of "the race" does not prominently address the concerns of African American women as well. --Eugene Holley Jr. From Booklist , September 15, 1998 Carby takes a decidedly feminist view as she examines the social, cultural, and political implications of how white Americans view black men, and how black men react to those visions. The images--and reactions--are linked to the troubled history of black people in the U.S. Despite their relative powerlessness, black men have managed to engender among whites a fear of their potential physical violence and a fascination with their mythic sexual potency. Carby traces reactions by black male writers: W. E. B. Dubois' emphasis on intellect and C. L. R. James' emphasis on sport (particularly cricket) as the arena to do battle with white men. She examines the career of Paul Robeson, beloved for his voice and athleticism, but reviled for his politics. She contrasts the masculinity of Miles Davis, who viewed women as emotional drains, to that of Samuel R. Delaney, whose homosexuality somehow allowed for a more encompassing view of women. Her basic conclusion is that black men are men, who think and act like men, often to the exclusion or even detriment of women's interests. Synopsis-Carby, author of "Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman", offers a searing critique of definitions of black masculinity at work in American culture. "Race Men" shows how these defining images play out socially, culturally, and politically for black and white society--and how they exclude women altogether. Who are the "race men" standing for black America? It is a question Hazel Carby rejects, along with its long-standing assumption: that a particular type of black male can represent the race. A searing critique of definitions of black masculinity at work in American culture, Race Men shows how these defining images play out socially, culturally, and politically for black and white society - and how they exclude women altogether. Carby begins by looking at images of black masculinity in the work of W. E. B. Du Bois. Her analysis of The Souls of Black Folk reveals the narrow and rigid code of masculinity that Du Bois applied to racial achievement and advancement - a code that remains implicitly but firmly in place today in the work of celebrated African American male intellectuals. The career of Paul Robeson, the music of Huddie Ledbetter, and the writings of C. L. R. James on cricket and on the Haitian revolutionary, Toussaint L'Ouverture, offer further evidence of the social and political uses of representations of black masculinity. In the music of Miles Davis and the novels of Samuel R. Delany, Carby finds two separate but related challenges to conventions of black masculinity. Examining Hollywood films, she traces through the career of Danny Glover the development of a cultural narrative that promises to resolve racial contradictions by pairing black and white men - still leaving women out of the picture. Yo' Mama's Disfunktional! : Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban American. Robin D. G. Kelley. Beacon Press. 1999 More praise for "Yo' Mama's Disfunktional!" "Kelley's crafted a funny, fast-paced tour of recent and long-standing debates about the quality, form, and function of black life, an interdisciplinary performance that has him kicking up dust across all kinds of boundaries." Village Voice Literary Supplement. "This important, fluid book makes it clear that Kelley's genius is his ability to bring complex ideas down to earth and simultaneously make them transcendent."--Jill Nelson, author of "Straight, No Chaser: How I Became a Grown-Up Black Woman" The publisher, February 9, 1998 Latest Review Robin G. Kelley's new book was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education: ". . .YO' MAMA's DisFUNKtional!, published last fall by Beacon Press, has been named by The Village Voice as one of the best 25 books of 1997... [It is] Dr. Kelley's first trade book, and the reviews have been positive... Publisher's Weekly called it "eloquent" and "a blast of common sense."" -- Karen J. Winkler, The Chronicle of Higher Education --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title The publisher, February 9, 1998 Latest Review "Kelley . . . has made a name for himself by stressing the importance of day-to-day acts of resistance to racism. . . [He] is masterful in dealing with what he calls the "neo-Enlightenment Left"- Todd Gitlin, Michael Tomasky, and others who argue that "identity politics" are to blame for the left's failures and the ascendancy of rightwing politics. . . Kelley has achieved one purpose, which is to sweep up some rightwing garbage (the "underclass" is ending Western Civilization as we know it) and some neo-left garbage (black people should shut up about racism so that we can deal with the big picture). He's helped clear the dust so that we can see more clearly who's on our side and what we are up against." "I'm warning you, once you open this compact collection of six razor-sharp essays, you're going to have to stand back! Yo' Mama's Disfunktional presents a tight, terse skeletalizing of most, if not all, of the misrepresentations that warp Western society's perceptions of non-White, non-male, non-heterosexual images. And boy, does Kelley pick the bones clean. . .what makes him most outstanding among the "young turks" in his field is his ability to synthesize the unsyncopated, to grasp full hold of those slippery and often under-scrutinized aspects of African American culture and make them gel in the minds of diverse readers. Scholarship that is impressive and impressively lurid, personally political and politically personal." Kamili Anderson, in Black Issues in Higher Education "...[A] provocative and illuminating look at the culture wars in America today. . .written with authority and with an intelligently clear narrative Yo' Mama's Disfunktional smashes the urban tapestry rendered by just about everyone from scientists to the Nation of Islam.--Critic's Choice. "It is not too much or too early to call Robin D. G. Kelley a leading black historian of the age. But it may not be enough." The Souls of Black Folk. W. E. B. Dubois, et al. 1903 First published in 1903, this extraordinary work not only recorded and explained history, it helped to alter its course. A collection of 14 essays contain both the academic language of sociology and the rich lyrics of African spirituals, which Du Bois called "sorrow songs" and records the cruelties of racism, celebrates the strength and pride of Black America, and explores the paradoxical "double consciousness" of African-American life. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) is the greatest of African American intellectuals--a sociologist, historian, novelist, and activist whose astounding career spanned the nation's history from Reconstruction to the civil rights movement. Born in Massachusetts and educated at Fisk, Harvard, and the University of Berlin, Du Bois penned his epochal masterpiece, The Souls of Black Folk, in 1903. It remains his most studied and popular work; its insights into Negro life at the turn of the 20th century still ring true. With a dash of the Victorian and Enlightenment influences that peppered his impassioned yet formal prose, the book's largely autobiographical chapters take the reader through the momentous and moody maze of Afro-American life after the Emancipation Proclamation: from poverty, the neoslavery of the sharecropper, illiteracy, miseducation, and lynching, to the heights of humanity reached by the spiritual "sorrow songs" that birthed gospel and the blues. The most memorable passages are contained in "On Booker T. Washington and Others," where Du Bois criticizes his famous contemporary's rejection of higher education and accommodationist stance toward white racism: "Mr. Washington's programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races," he writes, further complaining that Washington's thinking "withdraws many of the high demands of Negroes as men and American citizens." The capstone of The Souls of Black Folk, though, is Du Bois' haunting, eloquent description of the concept of the black psyche's "double consciousness," which he described as "a peculiar sensation.... One ever feels this twoness--an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." Thanks to W.E.B. Du Bois' commitment and foresight--and the intellectual excellence expressed in this timeless literary gem--black Americans can today look in the mirror and rejoice in their beautiful black, brown, and beige reflections. The New York Times Book Review-Sentimental, poetical, picturesque, the acquired logic of the evident attempt to be critically fair-minded is strangely tangled with these racial characteristics and racial rhetoric.

Political Foundations Model/Notes

2006-09-22T15:35:00.000-04:00

Democracy means that you view issues of race, gender, sexuality, the environment, the workplace and the like to be crucial spheres where the negotiation over identity, equality, and emancipation takes place.

Democratic principles commit me and should commit you to a relentless quest for the sort of political behavior that speaks to race, class, gender, economic arrangement, and social conditions that promotes a full productive life for the common citizen. This translated means "Good public policy and progressive politics.”

Insert Figure 1

Pathetic Recollections: The span of a person’s memory to remember situations, which arouse sympathy, sorrow, pity or contempt.

Selective Memory: The ability to remember only those things, which justify ones action; brings a level of comfort and resolutions to issues of critical importance, which you failed to act upon.

Passive Objects Of History: When Afro Americans are viewed as passive objectives of history; Afro Americans history is a record of exclusion of a distinct racial group from the economic benefits, and cultural dilemma of modern society.

Politically, this exclusion has ment white ownership of Afro Americans persons, possessions; server discrimination reinforced by naked violence; urban enclaves of unskilled unemployables and semiskilled workers. Culturally, this has ment continual attempts to undermine Afro Americans self esteem.

Insert Figure 2

"It is not well to forget the past. Memory was given to man for a wise purpose. The past is the mirror in which we may discern the dim outlines of the future

"Well the nation may forget, it may shut its eyes to the past, and frown upon any who may do otherwise, but the colored people of this country are bound to keep the past in lively memory till justice sail be done them.” Frederick Douglass

Active Objects Of History: When Afro Americans are Viewed; as active subjects of history, Afro Americans the story of a, gallantly persistent struggle, of a desperate racial group fighting to enter modernity on their own terms.

Politically, the struggle consist of courageous revolts against white paternalism; institutional building; a cautious reformist strategies.

Culturally, this has ment the maintaince of self-respect and esteem.

Collective Memory: is a metaphor that formulates a people’s retention and loss of information. Every member of society, from, the youngest to the oldest, learns most of what the know through social institutions, oral chronicles, observations collecting, etc. Every one has a story to tell Knowledge is power. Collect and share this data or information with others.

Political Conversation: Purposeful conversation, Conversation which will empower.

Collective Thought: Critical thinking, Evaluate Comprehensively and Strategy development.

Focus Social Action: Purposeful and deliberate action, something planned Formula

Collective Memory + Political Conversation + Collective Behavior + Focus Social Action = A Strong Political Foundation.

Collective thought and social action helps us answer a couple of questions.

1. How are we/I affected
2. What can we /I do to alter the outcome
3. How can we/I become a part of the solution?

Theory 1: Bushnell Hart of Harvard University conceived the Germ Theory, which was taken from the Germans in world war two. The notion of white Anglo Saxton superitiory.

Dubois in the Soul of Black Folks introduces the "Germ Theory” this concept takes the position that each race maintains it's own "race idea and race sprit” embodying its unique gift of humanity.

Dubois in his 1924 essay "of our spiritual Striving" asked the Question "Will America be poorer it replaces it's historical blunders with race compassion and reality."

Theory 2: The Exceptionalist Tradition is one of pride, self-congratulation and often heroism. Afro American is considered to be more humane, meek, kind, creative, spontaneous and nonviolent then members of other races.

Examples of this can been seen:

James Brown and his Song " Say it Loud I'M Black and Proud"
The Music of Public Enemy and Chuck D.
The Poetry of Maya Angelou
The writings of Carnel West and Michael Eric Dyson
The Rap Styling of Common and Laren Hill

In early American history Black religious leaders opposed this tradition because it puts one race over the other and this was against their religious training.

Theory 3: Critical Race Theory grow out of the concept of Collective Memory

It's not wrong to expect justice. It’s not wrong to expect freedom. It’s not wrong to expect equality. Malcolm X

The rules may be, color-blind, but people are not. The question remains, therefore, whether the law can truly exist apart from the color-conscious society in which it exists, as a skeleton devoid of flesh; or whether law is the embodiment of society; the reflections of a particular citizenry's arranged complexity of relations. Patricia J. Williams. 1991

Critical Race Theory

The chief proponent Derrick Bell author of “Faces at the bottom of the well"

Patricia Williams, Charles Lawrence, Lani Gunier to only mention a few, of our brightest legal mind

What is the critical race theory? Critical Race Theory is a new legal approach to legal theory pioneered by minority legal scholars. Critical Race Theory is the discussion of law and race.

Critical race theory borrows from other academic disciplines such as philosophy, literacy criticism and the social sciences. This generally happens through the use of short stories, personal anecdotes or fictional tales, which shows the relationship between race and law. Race perspectives in the law ha been lost until now.

The OJ Simpson case was one by using the critical race theory, because of this historic trail there is a new area of law called Chorcrinism named for Johnny Corcorin.

Black people are the magical faces at the bottom of society's well. Even the poorest whites, those who must live only a few levels above, gain their self-esteem by gazing down on us. Surely, they must know that their deliverance depends a letting down the ropes. Only by working together is escape passable.' Over time, many reach out, but most simply watch, mesmerized into maintaining their unspoken commitment to keeping us where we are, at whatever cost to them and us. Derrick Bell

I feel their are three main reasons of the nation's racial crisis and they are:

Black Rage, Given the intensity of black rage and its appeal to a wide constituency, whites are right to be nervous.

White backlash, How can we protect what we have?

Liberal Despair, the debate over multiculturalism and its opponents has encouraged reactionary elements to seize the upper hand in the battle to describe the contemporary social landscape.

But often these critics fail to highlight their own direct complicity in racism, sexism or classism, or their participation in traditions of thought that supply the rational for these problems.

Despite substantial progress over the past few decades, blacks continue to show evidence of despair or a lack of movement, i.e., Texaco, problems in colleges and university admissions, i.e., Prop 205 in California.

I submit to you the following evidence:

The annual income of blacks that are employed in full time jobs amounts to about 60 percent of that of whites.

The black unemployment rate is nearly doubled that of the whole nation.

One third of blacks are poor, compared with just over 10 percent of whites.
Infant mortality rate for blacks is more than is more than double that of whites.

The proportion of black male high school graduates who go on to college is lower today than in 1975.

More young black males are in prison than in college

Homicide is the leading cause of death for black males between the ages of fifteen and thirty-four.

Although blacks make up 12 percent of the population they account for more than 35 percent of all AIDS cases.

The life expectancy black men is sixty-five years, a rate lower than any other group in America and comparable to that of some Third World countries.

Single women head 48 percent of all black families.

66 percent of black children born each year are out of wedlock.

Taken together, these hardships and inadequacies virtually assure that blacks will not achieve equality of earnings and status with other groups anytime soon. Even more seriously, this threatens to destroy black communities and endanger the economic and physical integrity of the society as a whole.

Cornel West writes in Race Matters, “it is a virtual certainly that racial and sexual discrimination would return with a vengeance”

Columnist, Carl T Rowan accuses opponents of affirmative action of apoplectic spasms of bigotry, which seeks to roll back to a time of segregation and rabid racial discrimination, Al

Willie Brown, Mayor of San Fran then speaker of the Calif. Assembly denounces Prop.205 as " totally and completely racist.

Jesse Jackson accused Ex. Calif. Gov. Pete Wilson and supporters of a color-blind policy of being contemporary incarnations of slave owners and segregationist.

Kweisi Mfume warns that affirmative action advocates will not II go down quietly " and that the battle could " tear the country apart. "

What are we to do, and how can each of us in our own way help to resolve the problems of race in our society. We all must find a way.

Voting and Political Participation: What we fail to understand is that with out guarantees of equal protection and just representation, the interest of black Voters will remain largely unrepresented. The supreme Court's judgments underscores a dilemma the court has failed to successfully address: how our nation can overcome racism without taking race into account.