BLACK THEOLOGY
Introduction
Christian theology is a theology
of liberation. It is the rational study of the being of God in the world in the
light of the existential situation of an oppressed community, relating the
forces of liberation to the essence of the gospel, which is Jesus Christ. It is
impossible to speak of the God of Israelite history, who is the God revealed in
Jesus Christ, without recognizing that God is the God of and for those who
labour and are over laden. Christian theology is never a rational study of the being
of God. Rather it is a study of God’s liberating activity in the world, God’s
activity in behalf of the oppressed. The task of the Christian theology is to
analyze the meaning of hope in God in such way that the oppressed community of
a given society will risk all for earthly freedom, a freedom make possible in
the resurrection of Jesus. This paper is an attempt to reflect upon Black
theology and its relevance in our own context.
Black Theology
The consultation of the Theological
Commission of the N.C.B.C ( The National Committee of the Black Churchmen) on
June 13, 1969 in Atlanta, Georgia has stated black theology
as “Black theology is a theology of liberation. It seeks to plumb the black
conditions in the light of God’s revelation Jesus Christ, so that the black
community can see the gospel is commensurate with the achievement of black
humanity. Black theology is a theology of ‘blackness.’ It is the affirmation of
black humanity that emancipates black people from white racism, thus providing
authentic freedom for both white and black people….”[1]
Black theology reinterpreted every doctrine or idea of theology so that it
would say something to black people who are living under unbearable oppression.
As James H Cone has noted, “Black theology is not prepared to discuss the
doctrine of God, man, Christ, church, Holy Spirit- the whole spectrum of
Christian theology without making each doctrine and analysis of the
emancipation of black people.[2] It
believes that the liberation of the black community is divine liberation
History of Black theology
Theology cannot be separated from
the community which it represents. A community that doesn’t analyze its
existence theologically is a community that does not care what it says or does.
Black theology in the USA
is a product of black revolution in 1960’s. the black community in USA are the descendants of the Negroes imported
from Africa from 1618 onward for doing slave
work in American land during British colonialism. When we look through the history
of their life in USA,
we see a most miserable, oppressed, dehumanized and suppressed class of people.
Throughout the history of America
from the Puritans to the death-of-God theologians, the theological problems
treated in white churches and theological schools are defined in such a manner
that they are unrelated to the problem of black in a white, racist society. By
defining the problems of Christianity in isolation from the black condition,
white theology becomes a theology of white oppressors, serving as a divine
sanction from criminal acts committed against blacks.[3]
Relevance of Black theology
Black theology is relevant in the
context of oppression of black people. It is relevant because
1. There
can be no theology of the gospel which doesn’t arise from an oppressed community.
This is so because, God is revealed in Jesus as a God whose righteousness is inseparable
from the week and helpless in human society.
- Black theology is Christian theology because it centers on Jesus Christ.
The goal of black
theology is to interpret the Gods activity as related to the oppressed black
community.
Outstanding figures
James
Hal Cone (August 5, 1938
- )
He is
an advocate of Black liberation theology, a theology grounded in the experience
of African Americans. His work has been both utilized and critiqued inside and
outside of the African American theological community. He is currently the Charles
Augustus Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union
Theological Seminary in the City of New
York. Cone argues for God's own identification with
"blackness": According to him “The black theologian must reject any
conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing God as a
God of all peoples. Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point
that their experience becomes God's experience, or God is a God of racism....
The blackness of God means that God has made the oppressed condition God's own
condition. This is the essence of the Biblical revelation. By electing
Israelite slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in
Jesus Christ, the human race is made to understand that God is known where
human beings experience humiliation and suffering...Liberation is not an
afterthought, but the very essence of divine activity.[4]
He was
born on December 20, 1921 in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. He was a writer,
historian, educator, and theologian. He explains black theology is the speaking
out of the black ministers and theologians against the acculturated Christ of
Euro-American Christendom who was symbolized the spurious religious convictions
and ethical practices of a church and society which enslaved and discriminated
against black people all over the world. He observed that black people found key
to the biblical text as the revelation of the coherence between the historical
experience of the Jews and Afro-Americans. They found also and use it as a
means to understanding scripture, a coherence between Judeo-Christian
traditions, which emphasize struggle, retribution, justice and freedom and
those traditions of the black community in America which points in t e same
direction.[5]
Main Thoughts of Black Theology
1. Concept about Jesus
The phrase ‘Black Christ’ refers
to more than the subjective states and political expediency of Black people at
a given point in history. Rather, this title is derived primarily from Jesus’
past identity, his present activity and his future coming as each is
dialectic-ally related to others.[6]
Jesus Christ is the subject of black theology, because he is the content of the
hopes and dreams of black people. Black theology sees black life and occasion
mirrored in the incarnation and ministry of Jesus. The classic passage for
black theological reflection seems to be the “Nazareth Manifesto”, where Jesus
announced that he has been send to proclaim release to the captives and
recovery of the sight to the blind and to set at liberty those who are
oppressed (Luke 4:18, 19)[7] James H Cone is of the view that where human beings
struggle for freedom and refused to be defined by unauthorized earthly
authorities, there Jesus Christ is present among them. His presence is the sustaining
and liberating event in the lives of the oppressed that makes possible the
continued struggle for freedom.[8]
Black theology centered its axis solely on Christ and affirmed him as Black
Messiah, Black Christ and so on. Negroes became tired of a Jesus seen through
the eyes of white, pink or American. For black theologian the historical Jesus
who identified with the suffering of people is the one who emulated for
survival. In black theology Christ is the “liberator par excellence” who sets
forth oppressed and identified with himself with the black.
2. Concept about Freedom
Their radical understanding of
the relationship of the Gospel to black power is found in the concept of
freedom. The concept of freedom is presently expressed among black power
advocates by phrases such as “self-determination” and “self-identity” Jesus
lifted the burdens of black people and eased their pain, bestowing upon them a
vision of freedom that transcended historical limitation.[9]
They have spirituals that thereby that deals freedom as a structure of and also
beyond the historical context that is eschatological. There are spirituals with
the death and resurrection of Jesus as particular focal point. They have seen
death of Jesus as a symbol of their suffering.
3. Concept about Power
Black power means black people
carrying out their own destiny. Black power is the power to say No. It is the
power of blacks to refuse to co-operate in their own dehumanization. If black can
trust the message of Christ, if they can take him at his word, this power to
say No to white power and domination is derived from him. A man is free when he sees clearly the
fulfillment of his being and is thus capable of making the envisioned self a
reality. This is black power.[10] Galatians 5:1 says “for freedom, Christ has
set us free” As long as a man is a slave to another power, he is not free to
serve God with mature responsibility; he is not free to become what he is-
human. The call for black power, which was
issued for the first time in 1966 was a virulent reaction to the encapsulation
of the white establishment. According to its spiritual father, Malcolmx “Black
power was a religious movement and the central ideas of this black revolution
self-determination, dependence, cultural revelation, national unity and self
government.”
- concept about Salvation
Salvation
is freedom from the oppression and pertains to blacks in this life. Proponents
of black theology are concerned specifically with the political and theological
aspects of salvation more than the spiritual. In other words, salvation is
physically liberation from white oppression, or "The white enemy"
(James H. Cone) rather than freedom from the sinful nature and acts of each
individual person. Presenting heaven as a reward for following Christ is seen
as an attempt to dissuade blacks from the goal of real liberation of their
whole persons.
Criticism.
Black theology was born as a
response to important events in the Afro-American community. Wilmore and James
H Cone moved blackness to universal perspective on oppression in North America. Black theology was declined into level of
black awareness or black consciousness that finally resulted in the
glorification of black and negation of white. In course of time black
theology formulated black Christ to
build up combat with exploitative attitude of white theology. Both black
theology and consciousness advocated a euphemism for their willingness to use
violence if necessary to obtain their ends.[11]
Conclusion
To conclude, Christian theologies have its base in the
liberation of the marginalized, especially the injustice done towards blacks in
American and South African contexts. Black theology mixes liberation theology
and civil rights and black power movements. Contextual and indigenous
theologies formed out of the quest of the oppressed people to understand the
work of God and thereby to liberate themselves from oppression and dehumanized
condition in obedience of the word of God.
Black theology should show the courage to break the traditional epistemology
and unveil the traditional Western influence.
Bibliography
Cone, James H and Gayraud Wilmore
(eds). Black Theology: a Documentary History 1966- 1979. New York: Orbis Books, 1979.
Cone, James H. A Black
Theology and Black Power. New
York: Seabury, 1969.
----------------- . A
Black Theology of Liberation. New York: Orbis Books,
1986.
Kee, Alistair. Domination
or Liberation. London: SCM, 1986.
Williams, Preston N. “American
Black Theology and the Development of Indigenous Theology in India”, Indian Journel of Theology Vol. 30. April-June, 1981.
[1] James H.
Cone and Gayraud Wilmore (eds), Black
Theology: a Documentary History1966- 1979 (New York: Orbis Books, 1979),
p.101.
[2] James H.
Cone, A Black Theology and Black Power
(New York: Seabury, 1969), p.121.
[3] James H.
Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation (New
York: Orbis Books, 1986) , p.5.
[4] Ibid.,
p. 63-64.
[5] Gayraud
S Wilmore and James H cone, op.cit ., p.99.
[6] James H.
Cone, God of the Oppressed, op.cit., p.107.
[7] Alistair
Kee, Domination or Liberation
(London: SCM, 1986), p.49.
[8] James H.
Cone, God of the Oppressed op.cit ,
p.35.
[9] Ibid.,
p.30
[10] James
H. Cone, A Black Theology and Black
Power, op.cit., p.39.
[11] Preston
N Williams, “American Black Theology and
the Development of Indigenous Theology in India”, Indian Journel of Theology Vol. 30 (April-June, 1981), p.64.
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