Theologizing in Black: On Africana Theological Ethics and Anthropology

Theologizing in Black is a creative and rigorous comparative study on black theological musings and liberative intellectual contemplations engaging the theological ethics and anthropology of both continental African theologians (Tanzania Kenya Democratic Republic of the Congo) and black theologians in the African Diaspora (Haiti Trinidad Jamaica Antigua and Barbuda United States). Using the pluralist approach to religion promoted by the philosopher of religion and theologian John Hick the book is also an attempt to bridge an important gap in the comparative study of religion Africana Studies and Liberation theology both in Africa and its diaspora. The book provides an analytical framework and intellectual critique of white Christian theologians who deliberately disengage with and exclude black and Africana theologians in their theological writings and conversations. From this vantage point Africana critical theology is said to be a theology of contestation as it seeks to deconstruct white supremacy in the theological enterprise. This book not only articulates a rhetoric of protest about the misrepresentation and underrepresentation of the humanity of African and black people in white theological imagination; it also enunciates a positive image of black humanity and congruently promulgates a constructive representation of blackness. The paramount goal of Africana theological anthropology and ethics is the preservation of life and promotion of human dignity and the sheer acknowledgement that the African people and people of African descent are bearers of the image of God.