Black theology

Black theology, or black liberation theology, refers to a theological perspective which originated among African-American seminarians and scholars, and in some black churches in the United States and later in other parts of the world. It contextualizes Christianity in an attempt to help those of African descent overcome oppression. It especially focuses on the injustices committed against African Americans and black South Africans during American segregation and apartheid, respectively.^[1]^[2]

Black theology seeks to liberate non-white people from multiple forms of political, social, economic, and religious subjugation and views Christian theology as a theology of liberation: "a rational study of the being of God in the world in light of the existential situation of an oppressed community, relating the forces of liberation to the essence of the Gospel, which is Jesus Christ", writes James H. Cone, one of the original advocates of the perspective.^[3] Black theology mixes Christianity with questions of civil rights, particularly raised by the Black Power movement, Black supremacy, and the Black Consciousness Movement.^[4]

^ Akanji, Israel (2010). "Black Theology". The Oxford encyclopedia of African thought. Vol. 1. Abiola Irele, Biodun Jeyifo. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 177–178. ISBN 978-0-19-533473-9. OCLC 428033171. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2021. Black Theology is a comprehensive term that developed out of both religious and quasi-secular aspirations of oppressed black people and was first used among a small group of African American theologians, led by Black supremacy advocate James Cone, in the second half of the 1960s in the United States.
^ Bongmba, Elias (2010). "African Theology". The Oxford encyclopedia of African thought. Vol. 1. Abiola Irele, Biodun Jeyifo. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 46–53. ISBN 978-0-19-533473-9. OCLC 428033171. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2021. Liberation, contextual, and black theologies are prophetic theologies that emerged in South African in response to the long domination under apartheid...the Black Consciousness Movement and Black Theology in the United States provided inspiration to the development of black theology in South Africa.
^ Cone 2010, p. 1.
^ Akanji, Israel (2010). "Black Theology". The Oxford encyclopedia of African thought. Vol. 1. Abiola Irele, Biodun Jeyifo. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 177–178. ISBN 978-0-19-533473-9. OCLC 428033171. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2021. In order to speak about their peculiar concerns, specific forms of expression were developed at various times to challenge the social, political, economic, and religious domination of the whites over blacks from the beginning of slavery. Examples include the Pan-Africanists, the Black Nationalists, the Black Intellectuals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X, the twentieth-century sociopolitical struggles of the Civil Rights movement with its zenith leader Martin Luther King Jr., and the Black Power movement. Black Theology emerged to complement and continue the rhetoric of speaking against systems, persons, and conditions impeding the realization of dignified African humanity.

[:1-1] Akanji, Israel (2010). "Black Theology". The Oxford encyclopedia of African thought. Vol. 1. Abiola Irele, Biodun Jeyifo. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 177–178. ISBN 978-0-19-533473-9. OCLC 428033171. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2021. Black Theology is a comprehensive term that developed out of both religious and quasi-secular aspirations of oppressed black people and was first used among a small group of African American theologians, led by Black supremacy advocate James Cone, in the second half of the 1960s in the United States.

[:2-2] Bongmba, Elias (2010). "African Theology". The Oxford encyclopedia of African thought. Vol. 1. Abiola Irele, Biodun Jeyifo. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 46–53. ISBN 978-0-19-533473-9. OCLC 428033171. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2021. Liberation, contextual, and black theologies are prophetic theologies that emerged in South African in response to the long domination under apartheid...the Black Consciousness Movement and Black Theology in the United States provided inspiration to the development of black theology in South Africa.

[FOOTNOTECone20101-3] Cone 2010, p. 1.

[:0-4] Akanji, Israel (2010). "Black Theology". The Oxford encyclopedia of African thought. Vol. 1. Abiola Irele, Biodun Jeyifo. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 177–178. ISBN 978-0-19-533473-9. OCLC 428033171. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2021. In order to speak about their peculiar concerns, specific forms of expression were developed at various times to challenge the social, political, economic, and religious domination of the whites over blacks from the beginning of slavery. Examples include the Pan-Africanists, the Black Nationalists, the Black Intellectuals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X, the twentieth-century sociopolitical struggles of the Civil Rights movement with its zenith leader Martin Luther King Jr., and the Black Power movement. Black Theology emerged to complement and continue the rhetoric of speaking against systems, persons, and conditions impeding the realization of dignified African humanity.

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