A Black Theology of Liberation or Legitimation? A Postcolonial Response to Cone's Black Theology and Black Power at Forty
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20209764 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elonda Clay (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 307-326 |
| Publication date | 2010-06-09 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Black Theology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1476-9948 • E-ISSN: 1743-1670 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1558/blth.v8i3.307 |
| OpenAlex | W2094252111 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 12 |
In this essay, I posit that the original way in which the concept, heuristic, and signifier "liberation" functioned in U.S. Black Liberation Theology has by both form and content been un/consciously resignified into a discourse of cultural legitimation. The signifier "liberation" has become decontextualized (politically, economically, and culturally) in the second and third iterations of U.S. Black Liberation Theology, causing the discourse to become perpetually oriented towards past, not present or future, alternative dreams of social transformation and sites of struggle informed by the Black Christian radical tradition. In order to accomplish such work, this article employs a postcolonial perspective to the sources and discursive strategies within U.S. Black Liberation Theology. The second section of the article examines the historical and social processes involved in the slippage between liberation and legitimation, probing key moments and issues of class difference that led to (1) the disengagement of U.S. Black Liberation Theology with the cries of the living poor and marginalized and (2) the development of evasive discursive strategies within U.S. Black Theology that render Black Liberation Theology into a middle-class theology
Black theology · Legitimation · Liberation theology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society · Religious studies · Theological Perspectives and Practices
Black theology and black power.
Structure and Process in Modern Societies
Black Power
A Sin of Black Theology
Black Liberation
Geographies of Postcolonialism
The Wretched of the Earth
Justice and the Politics of Difference
Roundtable Discussion
Black Theology in American Religion
And the Beat Goes On
The Boundaries of Blackness
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2020 (7) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |