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“The First Dozen Years Are the Hardest”
Get PDFThis article is about an idea: the need to increase the number of theologically trained black clergy in the United States. It is also inextricably an autobiographical statement simply because, in pursuit of the idea, I have been drawn to the center of much of the contemporary ferment in theological education concerning the preparation of blacks for Christian ministry. The Fund for Theological Education, Inc., which I serve, has been and continues to be a very prestigious platform for a freelance critic, consultant, innovator and prodder in theological education and church circles. Thus the idea, the person and platform merge, and it is the story of a dozen hard years that I wish to record
The Need for a Black Christian Theology
Get PDFBlack Theology is a systematic interpretation of the meaning and significance of the Christian Faith for the worshipping, witnessing, and proclaiming Black Christian community. It seeks to analyze the condition of the Black man in the light of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. Its purpose is one of creating a new understanding of the dignity of Black men and women as children of God. Black Theology is Christian Theology precisely because it utilizes God’s revelation in Jesus Christ as its point of departure and also as a norm for the interpretation of the meaning and significance of human existence. Black Theology is a theology of, by, and for black people which has come out of their experience in America. It is a way of looking at God, the life and the teaching of Jesus Christ, self, and the world in the light of the Black Experience. Black theology emerged as a reaction against the so-called classical theologies which have been unable to realistically and authentically relate to the theological implications of the black experience; it is a reaction to the refusual of white theologians to come to grips with the theology of the disadvantaged, the disenfranchised and of the oppressed. Black theology, in essence, affirms the centrality of the Scriptures. Inthis affirmation it calls for reinterpretation of the Scriptures, whereby they can be seen not only as supporting the struggles for justice, freedom, and human dignity in times past, but also as a norm for the same endeavors in times present and for all times to come
Christian Education and the Black Church: A Contextual Approach
Get PDFChristian educators in the black church are beginning to recognize some new issues involved in defining their taste. Primary among these questions are not only the standard ones of objectives, content, curriculum, learning, teaching, leadership, and evaluation, but the more insistent and crucial question of the relationship of these to the black experience, the black community, the black church, black theology and black liberation. In other words, the new questions for Christian education as they are viewed by the black church are essentially contextual. From goal-setting to evaluating, black educators in black churchesare viewing the educational process in relation to the kind of learning and teaching that considers the black experience as central and the liberation of black people as its focal point. Briefly, then, the new definition of Christian education views it as that process which teaches concepts, attitudes and skills which facilitate meaningful learning in relation to the black experience and the church’s implicit taste of humanization and liberation
Race Relations and Reformation-Oriented Theological Ethics
Get PDFIt is the thesis of this essay that the influence of certain theological and ethical doctrines of the major reformers, e.g., “priders of creation,” the theory of “two worlds,” and the “doctrine of sin,” has had a crucially negative effect on the major white American Protestant Christian theological ethicists as they have responded to the historic plight of black Christians in America.2 We shall examine some of the influences of these major doctrines on white theological ethics by looking at some of their responses to “race relations.
The Black Religious Experience
Get PDFListening to Gwen Neville makes clear why we blacks have had so many problems all these many years. I am going to give a statement on the black religious experience in an effort to put in focus what that experience is all about. Black religion is the product of African culture and the cultural environment of the American slave system. It was created out of the encounter of African religion with Christianity. These elements were woven together as the black slave underwent a conversion experience in the presence of the Almighty Sovereign God. This experience provided the slave with a historical possibility for existence in a situation of contradiction. It opened up the slave’s inner being, enabling him to discern levels of reality not known before. The Almighty Sovereign God became the very foundation for every dimension of the slave’s life
Early Black Methodist Preachers
Get PDFThe first Methodist preachers proclaimed the Gospel to all men, white and black, bond and free. Many slaves welcomed the message and came as they could to hear it. The Methodist Gospel and pattern of religious experience was simple, personal and readily comprehended by blacks as well as whites. Richard Allen, himself a Methodist convert and preacher, said that the Methodist form of faith was the best for his people.1 A further reason for the popularity of Methodism among the slaves was the fact that the early preachers actively sought the slaves, made them welcome at the preaching services and took them into the "societies.
Some Preliminary Reflections on Authority in Black Religion
Get PDFWestern religious thought is perpetually anxious to legitimate itself — to undergird beliefs. Every school of theological thought has its own view of the authority of the Christian Gospel. The temptation and perhaps even the need exists for Black Religion to do the same. Yet the instant it consents even to deal with the “problem of authority,” it runs the risk of conceding both an alien set of criteria and a whole new frame of reference. Nevertheless, Black Religion, which is Christian, must ultimately eschew theological isolationism and walls of partition, especially after it has found itself. The solution to the danger and dilemma of conceding too much would seem to lie in a careful statement of what Black Religion is, in its own terms, followed by a statement of what it is not, possibly employing tentative comparisons with stereotypes of Western theology. It was this sort of statement and comparison that seized my mind on a flight far from these shores, and what follows was transcribed on landing. It is offered here as a start for the process just mentioned
A Critique of J. Deotis Roberts, Sr. A Black Political Theology
Get PDFSince the appearance of the phrase “Black Theology” in the late 1960’s, J. Deotis Roberts has been one of its chief advocates. He was one of the editors and contributors of the volume Quest for a Black Theology (Pilgrim, 1971) and the sole author of Liberation and Reconciliation: A Black Theology (Westminster, 1971). He also has written many articles and book reviews on the subject. Because I have been involved in the development of Black Theology and have discussed this subject with Professor Roberts, I am pleased to have this opportunity to register my appreciation of his efforts to make Black Theology relevant to black people’s struggle of liberation in America and throughout the world. Whatever criticisms we may make about Roberts’ version of Black Theology, we must not fail to express our appreciation for the risk he has taken to do theology in the light of black people’s fight for freedom. In this regard, black theologians in particular and black people generally are in his debt. Unless we have black theologians who are willing to try to make sense out of what it means to be black and Christian in the Euro-American context of racism, then we have no right to criticize the black church for its failures in the black liberationstruggle