The Intersection of Faith and Social Justice in Black Theology Today
We live in perilous times of hopelessness, despair, uncertainty, doubt, and tension. The question now for black liberation theology is this: What is next? What challenge must black liberation theology respond to? How can we, as black theologians, write in such a way that we are challenging the social fabric of this world by calling harmful and toxic theology into question and ultimately rejecting any theology that does not address race? According to James Cone , he proclaimed that “Black theology is a theology of liberation because it is a theology which arises from an identification with the oppressed blacks of America, seeking to interpret the gospel of Jesus in the light of the black condition.”
Cone was brilliant in establishing the correlation between the oppression of blacks in America and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet, without trying to erase his significance in the world of theology, I would argue that black liberation theology must not remain within the confines of an American lens; it needs to be a theology that wants to liberate all of our people across the African diaspora. African theology has done incredible work, and we must remember the impact of black theology, but what if there were an opportunity to combine the two? Why must these two be separate when both theologies seek to liberate their people?
As Dr. Dwight Hopkins says, “African Americans are not simply Americans—they are Americans with a difference, this African difference, that continually reminds black people of their origin in their motherland, which is Africa.” No matter how hard we try to separate ourselves from our heritage, our African homeland is incredibly linked to the spirit of every black person living in the United States of America. No black person has the excuse for not being merely concerned about the livelihood of our brothers and sisters in Africa. Our people in the Congo, Sudan, and Haiti are suffering due to social injustice and violence brought on by their corrupt governments. Black liberation theology must respond to the challenge of linking our struggle here in America to their battle for justice in Africa because they are intertwined. The question here will be this: will black theology respond?
The time is now for another phase in the black theology movement; this must be one of them if black theology wants to survive.
My theologian of choice and the reason why I am Coneian in my work. I highly recommend reading his works such as Black Theology and Black Power (New York: The Seabury Press, 1969), A Black Theology of Liberation, 50th Anniversary Ed. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2020), and God of the Oppressed (New York: Seabury Press, 1975)
Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation, 5.
Dwight N. Hopkins, Introducing Black Theology of Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999): 163
#BlackLiberationTheology #SocialJustice #Empowerment
