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If You Live Right, Heaven Belongs to You – Radical Historicism, Prophetic Pragmatism, and Melancholic Utopianism in Cornel West and Pentecostalism
Full text linkThis essay aims to deepen the consideration of the intersection of West’s corpus with Pentecostal critical thought and praxis by Black-descended persons.Focusing on the U.S. context, this article argues for Pentecostalism as an example and exemplar of West’s intellectual priorities in at least two areas: radical historicism (or cultural analysis) and prophetic pragmatism (or social commentary). I will rehearse some essential aspects of West’s corpus on these two themes, focusing on Prophesy Deliverance! At the same time, this essay will distill these themes through the work of Pentecostal examples and exemplars. I will examine radical historicism or cultural analysis through the work of the late theological ethicist Leonard Lovett. I will probe prophetic pragmatism through the life and ministry of Pentecostal leader, the late Bishop Smallwood E. Williams. I conclude by considering perhaps the most challenging point of intersection – melancholic utopianism by returning to the work of Leonard Lovett and turning to constructive theologian and Black feminist/womanist scholar Keri Day
Who Are We as Theological Educators? How Do We Train for a Church of the Poor? The Situation of Women in Theological Education
Full text linkWho are we as theological educators? How do we participate in and train for a Church of the poor? This is the question I have been asked to address at this consultation. Is it impossible for me, as a feminist, to separate this question from my context as a woman theological educator? I am very aware that, as a woman, I belong to that half of the human race which has been traditionally excluded from ordination, from preaching, from teaching, in the sense of being a part of the Church’s public teaching ministry, and from the theological education that has prepared men for these roles. This is not a question of being a U.S. American, but a patriarchal culture that shaped all of Christianity
APPENDIX: CUBAN WOMEN: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION
Full text linkCuban women have always been characterized by their revolutionary attitude. The heroic tradition of struggle of the women Mambi fighters against Spanish colonial rule in the last century was maintained throughout the sad years of the compromised Republic in each battle to break the chains and put an end to the opprobium in which the nation was sinking. Beautiful pages in our history have been written in all eras by courageous daughters of this people who, as members of the fighting vanguard, took an active part in the underground struggle, joined the guerrilla forces in the mountains, served in the important networks thatcooperated with the revolutionary forces and carried out many other tasks that supported the resistance
America and Africa
Full text linkAMERICAYour struggle will not go unnoticed, not unnoticed, not unnoticed NOAMERICAAlready America, America, AmericaYour dream is my painAMERICASow your light, sow sow sow love.AFRICAAfrica bare your skin and begin to start.AFRICAuse the water wheels of your ancestryAFRICAdo not despair!!AFRICAThe change of the course of the river to love awaits youAFRICAthe fists raised like mountain ranges will be victoriousAFRICAIt may not be tomorrow butI promise one day we’ll get there,my arm, my mind, my guitar and soulhave already come together to that end.AMERICAAMERICA
Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The Ethics of Social and Spiritual Hospitality in Black Church Worship
Full text linkThe preacher tells of days long ago and of a people whose sufferings were like ours. He preaches of the Hebrews and the fiery furnace, of Daniel, of Moses, of Solomon and of Christ. What we have not dared feel in the presence of the Lords of the Land, we now feel in church. Our hearts and bodies reciprocally acting upon each other, swing out into the meaning of the story the preacher is unfolding. Our eyes become absorbed in a vision. . . . The preacher’s voice is sweet to us, caressing and lashing, conveying to us a heightening of consciousness that the Lords of the Land would rather keep from us, filling us with a sense of hope that is treasonable to the rule of Queen Cotton. As the sermon progresses, the preacher’s voice increases in emotional intensity, and we, in tune and sympathy with his sweeping story stay in our seats until we have lost all notion of time and have begun to float on a tide of passion. The preacher begins to punctuate his words with sharp rhythms, and we are lifted far beyond the boundaries of our daily lives, and upward and outward, until drunk with our enchanted vision, our senses lifted to the burning skies, we do not know who we are, what we are, or where we are. . . . We go home pleasantly tired and sleep easily for we know that we hold somewhere within our hearts a possibility of inexhaustible happiness; we know that if we could but get our feet planted firmly upon this earth, we could laugh and live and build. We take this feeling with us each day and it drains the gall out of our years, sucks the sting from the rush of time, purges the pain from our memory of the past, and banishes the fear of loneliness and death. When the soil grows poorer, we cling to this feeling; when clanking tractors uproot and hurl us from the land, we cling to it; when our eyes behold a black body swinging from a tree in the wind, we cling to it. Some say that, because we possess this faculty of keeping alive this spark of happiness under adversity, we are children. No, it is courage and faith in simple living that enables us to maintain this reservoir of human feeling, for we know that there will come a day when we shall pour out our hearts over this land
Colonial America: A Quest for Spiritual Values
Full text linkThe American saga is a strange and wonderful illustration of many streams of human history and experience: Yangtze, Niger, Duero, Thomas, Gota, Congo, Tiber, Seine, Danube—later there would be countless more—all flowing alongside each other to form a vast concourse of interwoven canals, tributaries, rivulets. Yet there was never a total merger into one boundless ocean morass may be the proper symbol. These divergent rivers of history retained much, at the same time they shared bountifully. There is no National American Church, albeit several communions regarded themselves as such. Instead, there are countless church/religious/ethnic/national streams. This is my thesis: the appropriate American figure would be that of an enormous delta, rich and fertile, well watered by many rivers; all contributing life sustaining moisture, yet each retaining a character and identity. In short, the old “melting pot” theory is neither relevant nor realistic. That pot cracked years ago. There is no American prototype, either in a single spiritual idea or an individual person. Marked differences were present “as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.” But there is hope. I agree completely with George Whitefield, when, from the courthouse balcony in Philadelphia, he lifted his melodious voice and cried, “Father Abraham, whom have you in heaven?” The rhetorical question deserved an eloquent reply, as Whitefield inquired: Any Episcopalians? No! Any Presbyterians? No! Any Independents or Methodists? No, no, no! Whom have you there? We don’t know those names here. All who are here are Christians . . . Oh, is this the case? Then God help us to forget party names and to become Christians in deed and truth
Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, Back Matter, 1986
No full textJournal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, Back Matter, 198
Spirituality and Leadership In The Afrikan Church in North America: A Reflection, 2006
Full text linkSince the formation of Afrikan Churches in North America, there has been “dis-ease” in Afrikan Zion. Far too many Afrikan-descended Christian leaders teach and preach the Bible as if it says nothing about the lived experiences of oppressed Afrikan peoples. The gospel, after all, proclaims liberty to the captives. While not denying the role that Afrikan-descended leaders have played in abolishing systemic forms of oppression through various protests and rebellions, there remains a self-deprecating consciousness among Afrikan followers of Christ. Why? It is the way teachers, preachers, and leaders in the Afrikan Church, image both God and Christ; fail to take our own agency seriously as we come to the texts of Scripture and governance of the Church; and insist on replicating the liturgical practices of our historic oppressors
'Til Death or Distance Do Us Part? Marriage Ideals and Family In Antebellum African America, 2004
Full text linkThis essay reflects current research on “Family, Marriage, and Sexual Morality in Antebellum African America” with conclusions different from those often espoused by scholars and the popular media. The best known and most often recited historical narratives are based upon official documents, objective reports, and expert opinion of lawyers, politicians, journalists, historians, philosophers, and clergy—most of whom were beneficiaries, outsiders, or onlookers to the system of slavery. There is another method to explore differing textures of understanding employed by the writer to reconstruct the ancestors’ history
God’s People, God’s Earth Project: The Interrelated Oppression Of Women and Nature, 2003
Full text linkA cry for environmental justice resounds with unabating fervency in twenty-first century black communities. This plea is for lasting actions, ending the presence of toxic environments and environmental practices that threaten the health of a disproportionate number of black people and other people of color at home, work, places of worship, school, and play. It is a cry that must reach our black-faith communities and mobilize them to act decisively to protect people from life-defying environmental hazards as well as to reestablish the sacredness of Mother Earth and the interdependence of humankind with her. Black-faith communities are called to “let justice roll down like a mighty stream.