Black Theologies of Liberation: A Critical Reexamination, Forty Years After James Cone's God of the Oppressed

• In Event: Black Religious Systems and Thought in the United States

Abstract

This paper examines the continuing relevance and significance of Black Theologies of Liberation, as academic discourses and as modes of religious practice, in light of the fortieth anniversary of James H. Cones’ seminal text, God of the Oppressed (1975) and his subsequent essay, “Black Theology and the Black College Student,” (1976).

Recent trajectories in Black Theology- including especially Womanist Theology, the “queering” of Black Theology by black LGBTQ scholars, and greater attentiveness to non-Christian modes of African-derived and African American religiosity- open interesting possibilities for the prospects of Black Theologies of Liberation as discourses capable of engaging students and contributing to ongoing liberation struggles, such as the Black Lives Matters Movement. Nevertheless, at a moment when the longstanding criticism of black religious leadership has been voiced anew by many (student) activists, and the study of religion remains marginal to Black Studies, the question of Black Theology’s continuing relevance remains deeply contested.

Author

• Michael Brandon McCormack, University of Louisville