Pedagogy and Ontological Sameness

Abstract

We have noted the difficulty of Black and womanist theologies seeking to provide ways of knowing and being that foster empowerment for all members of the Black community. As the story of Black and womanist theologies unfold, we are told that Black theologians sought to fashion God-talk as a way of accessing the power of self-determination and liberation from the onslaught of White racism, and as a way to plan a new future for all members of the Black community. Most Black theologians spoke and acted out of the Christian tradition, and as a consequence sought to relate the message of Jesus to the search for freedom in the Black community. Some of the theologians who were preeminent in the articulation of this new Black theology of empowerment for the Black community were James Cone, J. Deotis Roberts, Major Jones, and Gayraud Wilmore. All of these theologians regarded the Black church as the locus and home of Black theology. We noted that one of the reasons given for the necessity of Black theology was that White religionists in their attempt to relate the message of Jesus to the existential situation in which they worked and lived did not include the Black religious experience of suffering and oppression as raw material for the construction of God-talk.