Notes of a Native Daughter

<p><i>Bearing witness to more liberating futures in theological education</i> </p><p>In <i>Notes of a Native Daughter</i> Keri Day testifies to structural inequalities and broken promises of inclusion through the eyes of a black woman who experiences herself as both stranger and friend to prevailing models of theological education. Inviting the reader into her religious world--a world that is African American and more specifically Afro-Pentecostal--she not only uncovers the colonial impulses of theological education in the United States but also proposes that the lived religious practices and commitments of progressive Afro-Pentecostal communities can help the theological academy decolonize and reenvision multiple futures. </p><p>Deliberately speaking in the <i>testimonial</i> form--rather than the more conventional mode of philosophical argument--Day bears witness to the truth revealed in her and others' lived experience in a voice that is unapologetically visceral emotive demonstrative and ultimately communal. With prophetic insight she addresses this moment when the fastest-growing group of students and teachers are charismatic and neo-Pentecostal people of color for whom theological education is currently a site of both hope and harm. Calling for repentance she provides a redemptive narrative for moving forward into a diverse future that can be truly liberating only when it allows itself to be formed by its people and the Spirit moving in them.</p>