Womanist theology, epistemology, and a
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.
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.
