Abstract
The birth of black liberation and womanist theologies in the United States should not have been unexpected. The theological discourse oriented around liberation arose during a period in which African Americans were wrestling with the question of identity and culture in a society that seemed intractable in its racism, classism, and sexism. This discourse arose in a period when new voices in black life were emerging and not only critiquing and challenging racism and white supremacy but also providing active leadership that challenged the entrenched power structures that supported racism and white supremacy. Further, the emergence of a black theology of liberation was made possible by the nascent critiques of blackness coming out of the black power movement.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Cornel West, Race Matters (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), 10.
James H. Cone, Risks of Faith (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Book, 1999), 76.
Rhonda Y. Williams, “Black Women, Urban Politics, and Engendering Black Power,” in The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era, edited by Peniel E. Joseph (New York: Routledge, 2006), 83, 84.
Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), 60, 61.
Gayraud S. Wilmore, “Introduction,” in Black Theology: A Documentary History, Volume I: 1966–1979, edited by James H. Cone and Gayraud S. Wilmore (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 15–16.
Joseph R. Washington, Jr., Black Religion: The Negro and Christianity in the United States (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984), vii.
Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, Volume I: Reason and Revelation, Being and God (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1951), 62.
James H. Cone, Risks of Faith: The Emergence of a Black Theology of Liberation, 1968–1998 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999), xvi.
James H. Cone, A Theology of Black Liberation, Twentieth Anniversary Edition (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990), 17.
Cornel West, Race Matters (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), 23.
Cornel West, “Subversive Joy and Revolutionary Patience in Black Christianity,” in The Cornel West Reader (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 1999), 436.
John Fiske, “Popular Culture,” in Critical Terms for Literary Study, 2nd Edition, edited by Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995), 327.
Stuart Hall, “What Is This ‘Black’ In Black Popular Culture?” in Black Popular Culture, A Project By Michele Wallace, edited by Gina Dent (New York: The New Press, 1998), 26.
James Cone, The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972) 32–33.
James H. Cone, Black Theology and Black Power (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997) 6–7, 42.
James H. Cone, Risks of Faith: The Emergence of a Black Theology of Liberation, 1968–1998 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999), 9.
Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice (New York: Delta Books, 1968), 33.
Delores S. Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 1.
Jacquelyn Grant, “Black Theology and the Black Woman,” in Black Theology, A Documentary History, Volume One: 1966–1979 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 325.
Stephanie Y. Mitchem, Introducing Womanist Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002), 8–9.
James H. Cone and Gayraud S. Wilmore, eds., Black Theology: A Documentary History, Volume II: 1980–1992 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 257.
Delores Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 205.
Katie G. Cannon, Katie’s Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community (New York: Continuum Publishing Company, 1995), 124.
Emilie Townes, In A Blaze of Glory : Womanist Spirituality as Social Witness (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 36.
Robert Joseph Taylor, Linda M. Chatters, and Jeff Levin, Religion in the Lives of African Americans: Social, Psychological, and Health Perspectives (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004), xii.
Emilie M. Townes, Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 3.
Winthrop D. Jordan, White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812 (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1968) 33–34.
Patricia Hill Collins, Black Sexual Politics (New York: Routledge, 2004), 27.
Michael Eric Dyson, Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 34.
Horace Griffin, “Their Own Received Them Not: African American Lesbians and Gays in Black Churches,” Theology and Sexuality, 12 (2000): 88–100.
Victor Anderson, “The Curious Body of the Black Homosexual,” in Loving the Body: Black Religious Studies and the Erotic, edited by Anthony B. Pinn and Dwight N. Hopkins (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 297–301.
Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Good News: Sermons of Hope for Today’s Families, edited by Jini Kilgore Ross (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1995), 83.
Dwight N. Hopkins, Introducing Black Theology of Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999), 11.
Copyright information
© 2010 Roger A. Sneed
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sneed, R.A. (2010). Black Liberation Theology, Cultural Criticism, and the Problem of Homosexuality. In: Representations of Homosexuality. Black Religion / Womanist Thought / Social Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106567_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106567_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-37502-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-10656-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)