BLACK
CHRISTOLOGY
Black Christology
refers to a varied group of theological approaches found mainly in the African
context but also in Africa- for example, in South Africa. These approaches
address Christology in light of the challenges faced by people of African
descent.
The starting point for
black theology in general and black Christology in particular is black
experience. The proponent of this contextual theological movement argue for the
uniqueness of black history and experience, which have to be taken into
consideration in doing theology. Often, they say, theology has been done by
white males of the West and Christianity has justified black suffering.
James Cone, the most
noted black liberationist, defines liberation as working so that that community
of the oppressed will recognize that it its inner thrust for liberation is not
only consistent with the gospel but it is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Christian hope stands
or falls with this conviction and that liberation is God’s irresistible will. The
task of theology is to identify with the humiliated and the abused. Biblical
starting points are found in liberationist passages are Exodus 3 and Luke
4:18-19.
Black Theology is a
creative, engaging, responsible dialogue with several sources and influences.
According to Cone, there are six sources:
- Black experience: the totality of black existence in a white world of oppression and exploitation.
- Black history: not only how the whites have treated them but also how the black resisted the oppression.
- Black culture: the self-expression of the black community in music, art, literature and other kinds of creative forms.
- Revelation: Not only in the past but also God’s present redemptive activity on behalf of blacks.
- Scripture: The Bible is a testimony and guide to blacks and God who acts as the liberator is the event of revelation.
- Tradition: a critical appropriation of how the church has understood the gospel in varying contexts.
It is based on African
heritage and cultural roots. The presentation of the gospel by white people has
to modify and shaped to meet their situation. To meet continuity between what they
knew of God in Africa and the God of the Bible.
Their folk stories are
means of expressing their fears, anxieties and struggles in their longing for
freedom and liberation. According to James Evans, “the two stubborn facts of
African American Christian existence are that God has revealed Godself to the
black community and that this revelation is inseparable from the historic
struggle of black people for liberation.”
Based on the starting
point and the sources of black theology, the foundation for doing black
theology may be summarized as follows: First, the people’s social location
conditions to their biblical interpretation. Second, what the Bible means today
takes priority over what the Bible meant in the past. Third, the story takes
priority over the text. Fourth, An African American theologian must articulate
the liberating hermeneutics that grants authority to Scripture in the
experience of black Christian.
The
“Figura” of Christ in African American Experience
The key to
understanding who Jesus Christ is for African American is the relationship
between the Biblical notion of the Messiah and the various heroic figure that
populate their cultural landscape.
What makes the idea of
“figura” even more appealing in African American religious and political
contexts is the existence of a pantheon of heroes and heroic figures. Maya
Angelou in her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing, she describes the powerful
effect on the black community of the victory of black boxer Joe Louis over a
white opponent. Heroic actions in the African American traditions are seen as
events that help blacks deal with obstacles and overcome the boundaries and
limitations of their present context.
Black
Messiah
In 1829, Alexander
Young’s “Ethiopian Manifesto” referred to the appearance of a black Messiah.
The first book that gives detail meaning of a black Messiah for African
American theology was Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited, published in
1949. Thurman underlines the fact that Jesus is able to identify with the oppressed
black people because he himself belonged to a people under oppression; Jews of
that time were threatened by Romans and subjugated under their tyranny.
Albert Cleage’s Black
Messiah from 1968 promotes a more politically and socially active approach. According
to Cleage, the idea of a white Christ is a product of the white dominant lass in society and has little to do with the
Bible. The most controversial claim of Cleage is that Jesus of Nazareth, as a
member of his people, was literally black. He insists that the Bible was
written by Black Jews and argues that Jesus identified himself with the ultra-nationalistic
Zealot movement, which was committed to bringing about a black nation of
Israel.
Tom Skinner’s How Black
is the Gospel? published in 1970 is more conservative and looks for a black
Messiah who is beyond racial divisions. Christ is liberator but does not
identify with a particular color of people.
J. Deotis and James
Cone are the most well-known, the former being less radical than the latter. Robert’s
Black Theology in Dialogue strikes more conciliar tone: Instead of promoting
parochialism, his black theology is ready to dialogue. Robert’s makes reference
to Paul Tillich’s idea of theology as correlation between revelation and
current questions. Robert regards the idea of a black Messiah as symbolic
rather than literal; he believes in an actual historical Jesus. Christ is the
redeemer of all, but he is also the redeemer of each and every groups. “The
Black Christ participates in the black experience, in some sense Christ makes
contact with what the black Christian is aware of in his unique history and
personal experience.”
The Black Messiah is
particular while the Messiah of the Bible is universal. The ultimate goal of
the black Messiah is reconciliation. He is the reconciler of both black and
white.
What to Do with the “White Jesus”?
For James Cone,
Christology begins and ends with Jesus Christ, who is the starting point for
talking about God and humankind. Christ is the center of Christianity and talk
about Christ can never take place abstractly. It has to be concrete and rooted
in the actual life situation of people. Because Christ of the dominate forms of
Christianity is presented as a white. Christ tailored to the values of modern
white society; there is a need for a black Christ.
Cone emphasize the
importance of knowing the historical Jesus. The New Testament pictures Jesus as
a man identified with and speaking for the oppressed. Jesus ministry focused on
the oppressed. The cross and resurrection confirmed his ministry: God is not
defeated by oppression but transformed it into the possibility of freedom. The
black Christ links the past and the present meanings of Jesus the Christ and
also points to the future coming of Christ and the victory of the kingdom over
all racial, social and political boundaries.
The
Reconciling Christ
Boesak is a South
African pastor who also became the President of the World Alliance of Reformed
Churches. For him, black theology is the theological reflection of black Christians
on the situation in which they live in South Africa.
Inline with Cone,
Boesak also affirms that the idea of liberation is not just part of the
Christian gospels: it is the gospel of Christ. For Boesak, Christ is the center
not only of Christology but also of all theology. He even uses the expression
“Christological theology.”
Boesak offers his
understanding of the terms “black consciousness” and “black power.” The central
figure of Boesak’s thought is the idea of Christ as the reconciler of both black
and white. “Liberation and reconciliation presuppose one another. For
reconciliation to happen, white racism must be abolished. In agreement with
Cone, he maintains that black must drops their internalized slave mentality and
accept themselves in their blackness. They can claim the promises of God for
their own dignity before God in Christ.
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