Black Theology: An Appraisal of the Internal and External Issues

Abstract

W THE theological and cultural history of the sixties is written, the black renaissance will surely be considered one of the dominant factors in the period. Not only in civil rights but also in literature, history, culture, and theology, the black awakening has led to a new awareness of black peoplehood and personhood. From a theological standpoint the most striking aspects of this whole revolution have been the new appraisals of black religion and the emergence of a distinctive black theology. The catalytic book in the movement now appears to have been Joseph Washington's Black Religion (Boston: Beacon, 1964), which showed that there are elements of black history and church life which do not fit into the established categories of white theology, and that in fact white Christianity (in all of its diverse traditional forms) is sick unto death because of its deep intertwinings with paternalistic and/or oppressive societies. A second influential book which deepened the analysis of a distinctive black theology and which showed its affinities with the emerging mood of black militancy was James Cone's Black Theology and Black Power (New York: Seabury, 1968). Cone condemned the black churches for so docilely having subscribed to the white man's faith and thereby reinforcing the tentacles of racism in American society. The advocates of black power, he argued, have a more realistic appraisal of the black condition and hence offer a more viable alternative to blacks for the elimination of oppression. Black theology attempts to read the Bible from the distinctive perspective of black suffering and thereby provides a bridge between the Christian heritage and black militancy. The search for an authentic, indigenous black theology quickly spread beyond Washington and Cone, and soon a considerable body of literature was emerging which was analyzing the black church and the black religious heritage in a new light. Washington's The Politics of God (Boston: Beacon, 1967) and Albert B. Cleage, Jr.'s The Black Messiah (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1968) received considerable attention, and Cone provided the first systematic exposition of a black theology in his A Black Theology of Liberation (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1970). The strident antiwhite posture of Cone made him the foremost interpreter of black theology and indeed a controversial figure even in the black community. Recently, however, two other attempts at a black