Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2022.2039857
Marcus Grohmann
To suggest that opposition to racism could be problematic might seem outrageous in times where more and more attention is given not just to the problem of blatant hate-speech but also to persisting structural inequalities to the detriment of people of colour. At best it could be seen as breaking a taboo; at the worst as trying to defend one’s “fragile” white identity in an increasingly race-aware, globalising world. Harries, though, a white, British theologian with a strong leaning towards ethnolinguistics, while commending the intentions of antiracism, offers a passionate yet sober critique of contemporary anti-racism’s presuppositions and implementation. His main concern is with what he regards as anti-racism’s detrimental impact on African societies. Having gained insights into African ways of life by intimately sharing life in rural parts of Africa for the last three decades while exclusively using local languages, he addresses what he perceives to be a fundamental flaw in today’s anti-racism: its close entanglement with Western secularism. Why, if his analysis proves to be pertinent, should this be problematic? Harries’ provocative answer in this collection of ten essays is thatWestern anti-racism defeats itself and risks undermining the very idea of equality by inadvertently contributing to the perpetuation of white/ Western superiority. The problem, he writes, is that anti-racism is rooted in a secular worldview – although “that which is distinct from religion” (8) is a notion that arose on the back of a long tradition of Christianity and can hardly be found outside of ‘the West’. Striving for cultural diversity while assuming equality thus means expecting people to function in secular systems while ignoring the ‘religious’ foundations of people’s ways of life in the majority world. This, according to the author, “conceals and delegitimises non-Western culture” while perpetuating “the supremacy of the West” (172-173). Harries’ critique is therefore not of opposition to racism per se. Rather, it points out anti-racism’s inherent secular norm which, in his view, ends up keeping African people in dependency on what is foreign. This he sees playing out e.g. in a reliance on little-contextualised education offered in colonial languages, and development initiatives propped up by significant funding from the West. Harries’ intention with this book is to reconsider the central role of Christianity in bringing about prosperity and freedom in the West (echoing Tom Holland’s or Vishal Mangalwadi’s theses) while denouncing the assumption that these achievements could become universal on a secular basis. He does so by drawing heavily on René Girard: envy (which Harries equals to ‘witchcraft’ in Africa) is identified as a key-inhibitor to progress before retracing how the practice of scapegoating as a result of envy was overcome in the West, allowing inter-human conflict to be contained and truthfulness to be valued. This transformation of society is re
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Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2022.2038911
A. Armstrong
ABSTRACT This paper argues that W.E.B. Du Bois’ short stories are a rich source of apocalyptic theology. Reading them apocalyptically, I argue, illuminates how Du Bois employed Christian theological material in order to negate its White supremacist order. Reading Du Bois apocalyptically shows the significance of black cultural production in apocalyptic terms and illuminates the exilic character of black people in modern history, which has led to a unique imbrication of the theological and cultural in black writing. Through a close reading of 3 short stories by Du Bois, I show how his sense of apocalyptic draws the prophetic, messianic, and eschatological together in anticipation of a world ungoverned by White supremacy and free from anti-black violence. Finally, I argue that Du Bois sees the black apocalyptic event as both a failure and a glimpse of possibility in the fleeting moments of recognition and touch that occur in the stories.
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Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2022.2042062
Anthony G. Reddie
One of the central issues with which Black theology has had to wrestle is the way in which our perception of reality has been shaped by coloniality and Whiteness. I work in the prestigious climes of Oxford university, in what is a predominantly White privileged space. Upon meeting a young Black woman student as a new, informal mentee, I was forced to confront my inbuilt prejudice that was far too ready to assume that she was an affirmative action or an access student for whom some sort of compensation had been made to allow her entry into Oxford. Within a couple of minutes of talking with her my prejudices were decimated. The question that lingered in my brain, long after the student had departed, was how could an experienced, anti-racist, critical pedagogy infused, Black theologian still be trapped in an internalised colonised world view that assumed that Black people were inherently less capable than their White counterparts? On further reflection I was reminded that conscientisation and liberation are best understood as ongoing processes rather than just static, one-off events. Yes, I had read lots of books inculcating a radical and revolutionary view of the world into my consciousness, but all of us are ongoing works-in-progress, as new knowledge and truths confront us through our ongoing maturation as human beings. The five peer review articles (and one accompanying review article) in this issue are linked in the way they challenge us to ‘think again’ and see the world and others differently. Each, in their own way, remind us that the task of consciously knowing is not a static or purely abstract affair, but rather, is an embodied and often affect driven enterprise, where we learn to see, be and feel differently. Gordon Dames provides the first piece in this issue of the journal. His article offers a contextual analysis of the contemporary challenges facing education in South Africa that are framed in terms of the concept “wounds of humanity”. In addressing these wounds, the author proposes a Christian religious leadership pedagogy that provides a form of subversive education and a new prospect for leadership education that is illuminated in this work. This mode of educational praxis is developed in order to teach leaders the disposition for ethicaljustice and peace, followed by a proposal for a new cultural heritage of humanity; namely, the quest for a true humanity that is our collective destiny. Amaryah Shaye Armstrong’s paper argues that W.E.B. Du Bois’ short stories are a rich source of apocalyptic theology. Reading them apocalyptically, she argues, helps to illuminate how Du Bois employed Christian theological material in order to negate the White supremacist order. Reading Du Bois apocalyptically shows the significance of Black cultural production in apocalyptic terms and demonstrates the exilic character of Black people in modern history. Through a close reading of 3 short stories by Du Bois, the author shows how his sense of the apo
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"Anthony G. Reddie","doi":"10.1080/14769948.2022.2042062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14769948.2022.2042062","url":null,"abstract":"One of the central issues with which Black theology has had to wrestle is the way in which our perception of reality has been shaped by coloniality and Whiteness. I work in the prestigious climes of Oxford university, in what is a predominantly White privileged space. Upon meeting a young Black woman student as a new, informal mentee, I was forced to confront my inbuilt prejudice that was far too ready to assume that she was an affirmative action or an access student for whom some sort of compensation had been made to allow her entry into Oxford. Within a couple of minutes of talking with her my prejudices were decimated. The question that lingered in my brain, long after the student had departed, was how could an experienced, anti-racist, critical pedagogy infused, Black theologian still be trapped in an internalised colonised world view that assumed that Black people were inherently less capable than their White counterparts? On further reflection I was reminded that conscientisation and liberation are best understood as ongoing processes rather than just static, one-off events. Yes, I had read lots of books inculcating a radical and revolutionary view of the world into my consciousness, but all of us are ongoing works-in-progress, as new knowledge and truths confront us through our ongoing maturation as human beings. The five peer review articles (and one accompanying review article) in this issue are linked in the way they challenge us to ‘think again’ and see the world and others differently. Each, in their own way, remind us that the task of consciously knowing is not a static or purely abstract affair, but rather, is an embodied and often affect driven enterprise, where we learn to see, be and feel differently. Gordon Dames provides the first piece in this issue of the journal. His article offers a contextual analysis of the contemporary challenges facing education in South Africa that are framed in terms of the concept “wounds of humanity”. In addressing these wounds, the author proposes a Christian religious leadership pedagogy that provides a form of subversive education and a new prospect for leadership education that is illuminated in this work. This mode of educational praxis is developed in order to teach leaders the disposition for ethicaljustice and peace, followed by a proposal for a new cultural heritage of humanity; namely, the quest for a true humanity that is our collective destiny. Amaryah Shaye Armstrong’s paper argues that W.E.B. Du Bois’ short stories are a rich source of apocalyptic theology. Reading them apocalyptically, she argues, helps to illuminate how Du Bois employed Christian theological material in order to negate the White supremacist order. Reading Du Bois apocalyptically shows the significance of Black cultural production in apocalyptic terms and demonstrates the exilic character of Black people in modern history. Through a close reading of 3 short stories by Du Bois, the author shows how his sense of the apo","PeriodicalId":42729,"journal":{"name":"BLACK THEOLOGY","volume":"20 1","pages":"1 - 2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44859303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2022.2039858
M. Millner
the outright rejection of suggestions of racism of the political right. His concern is with the instruments used to address racial inequalities. And although his solution is to promote Christianity in well-contextualised ways, he regards this as relevant beyond the missiological community, as it is particularly secular development initiatives or scholars that are prone to (dis)miss non-secular orientations among the societies in which they seek transformation. Harries’ concern to undermine Western superiority by critiquing the way anti-racism functions displays an unlikely but nonetheless intriguing overlap with decolonial theory. His perspective on the defects of contemporary anti-racism shows similarities e.g. with Jennings’ views on colonialism and the effects thereof. Colonialism, writes Jennings, could be regarded as showing some kind of “cultural intimacy and joining, but this is surely the kind of joining that is assimilationist and that created what Walter Mignolo, following the insights of Frantz Fanon, termed the ‘colonial wound’.” While sharing the critique of the assimilationist West as voiced by the protagonists of decolonial thought, Harries argues for an alternative to the blanket dismissal of a Christianity which some experience (d) as oppressive and Euro-centric. Insofar as contemporary scholarship, along with other sought-after aspects of Western civilisation have roots in Christianity, Harries makes a case for an indigenously-owned appropriation of biblical faith and a Western contribution to that on a humble, vulnerable basis. The book, having an explicitly Western readership in mind, may at first cause some bewilderment to those who thought that they had finally got a grip on the why’s and how’s of antiracism, expressed through commitments to social justice, holistic ministry or the deconstruction of whiteness. But if readers can muster the courage to hear Harries out, his contribution promises a firmer and more just foundation on which to build in cross-cultural engagement with respect to Africa both inside and outside of the church.
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Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2022.2039352
Josiah Baker
ABSTRACT Despite the growing interest in Pentecostal mysticism, scholarship has devoted little attention to the prominence of music in the spirituality of the tradition. I examine a Pentecostal musician and one of her songs to demonstrate how mystical sensibilities are fostered in the Pentecostal community. Willie Mae Ford Smith’s musical style, at home in the Pentecostal church, allowed her to express mystical themes within her performances. The examined song, “If Jesus Had To Pray (What About Me),” is a meditation on Christ’s agony in the garden of Gethsemane, whereby listeners join their sufferings with his. The song illustrates the role of music in Pentecostal mysticism and expands the field in two further ways. Pentecostal spirituality’s Christocentric dynamic is highlighted against the backdrop of the field’s focus thus far on pneumatology. Additionally, the existence of an appreciation of suffering in Pentecostal mysticism is confirmed in contradistinction to prior claims.
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Pub Date : 2021-11-27DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2021.2005923
G. Dames
ABSTRACT A contextual analysis of contemporary challenges is framed in terms of the concept “wounds of humanity”, followed by a proposed Christian religious leadership pedagogy to deal with these wounds. The notion of subversive education and a new prospect for leadership education will be illuminated. Furthermore, an educational praxis is sought to teach leaders the disposition for ethical-justice and peace, followed by a proposal for a new cultural heritage of humanity; namely, the quest for a true humanity as our collective destiny.
{"title":"Transformative Possibilities of Pedagogics for Christian Leadership in Higher Education – a South African Practical Theology Perspective","authors":"G. Dames","doi":"10.1080/14769948.2021.2005923","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14769948.2021.2005923","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A contextual analysis of contemporary challenges is framed in terms of the concept “wounds of humanity”, followed by a proposed Christian religious leadership pedagogy to deal with these wounds. The notion of subversive education and a new prospect for leadership education will be illuminated. Furthermore, an educational praxis is sought to teach leaders the disposition for ethical-justice and peace, followed by a proposal for a new cultural heritage of humanity; namely, the quest for a true humanity as our collective destiny.","PeriodicalId":42729,"journal":{"name":"BLACK THEOLOGY","volume":"20 1","pages":"3 - 24"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42137207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2021.1997168
Carol Troupe
ing point (decolonial for me) or approach have helped the author to move beyond protesting coloniality and changing a doctrine or two, to the more radical work of shifting the terms of engagement, dumping colonial theological framework(s), and unearthing what is hidden and ignored by extending and inventing a new imaginary? On the matter of the proposed “hermeneutic of embrace” [152] the question remains: for whom would such a hermeneutic work: church, Junkanoo or people, and on whose terms? Would such an embrace result in other forms of “negation”? Who has asked the spirit of the ancestors and that of Junkanoo about wishing to embrace? Has anything Christianity embraced and appropriated thrived or flourished? How can liturgical integration of Junkanoo and Church avoid appropriation or, as one of the religious leaders interviewed, trying to get Junkanoo “baptised” in order to signal acceptance? This is important to explore further since, as the author points out, the relationship between the two is largely seen as one (Christianity) being a corrective to the other (Junkanoo), meaning that the latter is seen as in need of exorcism of sins associated with African inherited cultural practices. Will Turner’s “hermeneutic of embrace” engender cathartic delinking of the Bahamian Being from the whole Christian superstructure of sin, conversion, salvation, eschatology and much more which continue to reinforce Self-Negation? All these doctrines are linked to a particular understanding of who or what is human, which has been equated to white and western (as superior) and towards which the Others (as inferior) must aspire. This is what the Caribbean and its Churches have inherited and still continue to perpetuate. This inheritance (more like an imposition) needs to be decolonised. Overcoming Self-Negation, a welcomed addition to Caribbean theological discourse, points us to the long journey ahead.
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Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2021.1990499
M. Mccormack
ABSTRACT This article considers how Black culture workers engage in ongoing struggles over the meaning and value ascribed to Black lives in an anti-Black world that demands Black death. The artists explored in this article deploy modes of poetics that create possibilities for fugitivity, or escape, from the overdetermination of Black life as always, already, and only “dead.” Such fugitive poetics demonstrate the ways that blackness defies and exceeds social death, even as it is, perhaps, permanently tethered to the potential for premature Black death in an anti-Black world. The article also calls attention to how this poetics of fugitivity draws upon the cultural resources of religious language, beliefs, rituals, and practices to imagine and enact other worlds of possibility for Black futurity beyond the overdetermination of social and/or physical death.
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Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2021.1997166
Michael N. Jagessar
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