Black Liberation Theology: Foundations and Social Gospel

Introduction to Black Liberation Theology

Black theology, also known as Black liberation theology, is a theological perspective that began among African American scholars and seminarians in some Black churches within the United States and later spread to other regions of the world. It contextualized Christianity to enable people of African descent to overcome oppression. Black theology concentrated on the injustices committed against African Americans during American segregation, seeking freedom for non-white citizens from social, political, religious, and economic subjugation, and viewed Christian theology as liberation theology.¹ Black theology also combined Christianity with civil rights questions, escalated explicitly by the Black Consciousness and Black Power movements.

Foundation of Black Theology

Historically, Black theology can be traced back to July 1966, when a group of 51 concerned clergy members, referring to themselves as the National Committee of Negro Churchmen, published a full-page advertisement in the New York Times presenting their Black Power statement. The statement outlined aggressive criteria for fighting racism through the use of the Bible as a source of inspiration.² Consequently, Black theology emerged as a declaration of Black Christians in response to critiques from varied sources: the Black Muslims, who argued Christianity was a religion of the white man; white Christians, who viewed Black churches as inferior; Black Power advocates, who considered being Christian as incompatible with being Black; and Black Marxists, who regarded religion as an unscientific instrument of the oppressor.

Within American history, ideas of slavery and race were initially endorsed by several Christians through specific readings of the Bible. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention echoed support for slavery and slaveholders. However, on June 20, 1995, the Convention adopted a formal declaration of repentance, declaring racism in its entirety deplorable. It apologized for perpetuating and condoning systemic and individual racism, and repented for its role in that history. Such historical events were used to link Christianity with racism; however, the Bible itself reaffirms the irrelevancy of racism.³ For instance, Galatians 3:28 states, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." According to Cone, it was permissible at some point within American history to lynch a Black man by hanging. However, the modern economic structure destroyed Black people by crowding them into the ghetto and letting despair and filth deliver a slow and coveted death.

Black theology engages African American society to enable the realization of Christianity among Black people. It illustrates Christianity as an issue of liberation in the present, not in the afterlife. Black theology aims not for different treatment, but for justice and freedom—no more, no less.⁴ While pushing for this, Black theologians returned to scripture as the basis of their demands. Later, Black theology spread to places outside the United States.

James Cone believed that the New Testament portrayed Jesus as one who stood with the suffering—those under oppression, cultural outcasts, and the socially marginalized. Because socially established racial categories in America—white signifying dominance and Black signifying oppression—had become culturally significant, Cone claimed that Jesus identified himself as Black in order to dismantle and disrupt white supremacy. Black theology consequently argued that dominating cultures had corrupted Christianity, resulting in a mainstream faith-based empire that served its own interests rather than God's.⁵ Additionally, Black theology raised significant religious questions: where does God stand between the oppressed and the oppressor? If God loves justice over victimization, then it is in God's interest that all the downtrodden be freed. Cone argued that if God does not desire justice or is not a just God, then God must be rejected. The core of Black theology was to liberate the oppressed from the false God who advantaged whites and to recognize a true and alternative God who desires the good of the oppressed through self-determination, self-definition, and self-affirmation.

Furthermore, Black theology forgoes a purely philosophical view of God and instead considers God as "God in action," liberating the oppressed through righteousness. The core theme of abolitionists like Harriet Tubman and of African American popular religion was the Old Testament, where the God of Moses liberated the ancient Hebrews from oppression in Egypt. Equally, Cone grounded much of his liberation theology in the Israelites' exodus from Egypt through God's aid.⁶ Cone linked the United States to Egypt, asserting that the oppressed would soon be delivered to the promised land. For him, God's primary concern was the lack of political, social, and economic justice for the marginalized and the poor. He claimed that the Yahweh who liberated the Israelites from Egypt is the same God who would deliver oppressed Black Americans.

Cone also accepted the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, declaring that Jesus is both truly human and truly God, and that Jesus' role was to deliver the oppressed. To support this, he cited Luke 7:22: "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them." On the other hand, Cone argued that the ethical questions of the twentieth century could not be resolved simply by looking back at what Jesus did in the past. He added that Jesus' choices were not identical to our choices, asserting that being Christian does not translate to literally following Jesus' steps. As a result, he rejected the continuous portrayal of Jesus as white. Cone maintained that Jesus was neither European nor white. He stressed that it was critical for the spiritual and psychological consciousness of Black people living in a white society—and in the ghetto, where their savior and Lord are made to resemble the very people who victimize them—to understand that God is of any color.⁷ God must demonstrate to the oppressed that they are not nobodies; they are somebodies.

Womanist Theology and Its Origins

Womanist theology is an approach to theology that places the perspectives and experiences of Black women—specifically African American women—at the center of its method. Issues of gender (including sex, sexuality, sexism, and sexual exploitation), race, and class are treated as theological problems. Womanist theology takes traditional symbols and language and assigns them more complex and diverse meanings. It is not called "womanist" literally because of Black women's religious experiences alone; rather, it is so named because of its interstructured analysis engaging race, class, and gender.⁸ Womanist theologians began writing in the 1980s, with the term "womanist" believed to have originated in the writings of Alice Walker on womanism.

The term "womanist theology" was used for the first time in 1987 in an article by Delores S. Williams. Within Christian theological discourse, womanist theology emerged as a corrective to feminist theology, which had failed to address the effect of race on the lives of women and did not adequately account for the realities faced by Black women in the United States. Equally, womanist theologians identified that Black theology, as primarily written by male theologians, did not incorporate the insights and perspectives of Black women.

Womanist theology is an intellectual movement that addresses the limitations of both feminist theology and Black theology. Black theology showed an unwillingness to engage with classism, while feminist theology typically reduced women's experiences to those of middle-class white women—an approach that womanist theologians recognized as failing to address either classism or racism. Moreover, womanist theology examines both unconscious and conscious homophobia within theological discourse.

Womanist theology, beyond being an academic enterprise, evolved from the witness and lives of Black women. Its origins can be traced to 256 years of chattel slavery in the West, as well as to the survival and resilience of Black women facing the new racism of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Womanist theology also draws on materials about Black foremothers as sources for present-day theological reflection, providing a thoughtful foundation for God-talk.⁹ Furthermore, womanist theology recognizes that all theological reflection is shaped by human social, historical, and cultural context, rather than assuming the general claims of traditional theologies.

Many African American women theologians gravitated toward Alice Walker's term "womanist" as a framework for their work. Walker used the term for the first time in a 1978 short story, "Advancing Luna and Ida B. Wells." The story was later published in the 1980 anthology Take Back the Night: Women on Pornography, edited by Laura Lederer, and in Walker's 1982 collection You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down. In the story, a Black woman struggles with her husband's pornographic addiction. As she becomes politicized by the Black feminist movement, she gives her husband articles that challenge and delegitimize his appetite for pornography.¹⁰ The story illustrates her relentless refusal to condone her husband's sexual addiction.

In recent years, due to new critiques, womanist theology has evolved and expanded to accommodate the social, political, and spiritual concerns of those not identified as Black Christian women. Not every Black female religious scholar is a womanist, nor is every white religious scholar a feminist. The Christocentric and Christian underpinnings that guided early womanist thought were challenged by Monica Coleman, who argued that the theological purview founded in Walker's definition did not allow womanist theology to extend to those outside Christianity, representing a failure to fulfill its original purpose.

Womanist religious scholars have also spoken to the problems with the womanist label in the academy. For instance, Nyasha Junior wrote about the challenging assumptions that come with the womanist scholar tag and argued that an individual who undertakes womanist theology does not need to self-identify as such.¹¹ Moreover, womanist scholars and Black feminists anticipate better outcomes when their contributions to communities are valued in the field on their own terms, rather than based on the adequacy of their self-identification.

Conclusion

Racism and poverty are among the core challenges that perpetuate domestic violence and social injustice in the African American community. Poverty, as manifested through racial segregation, denies African American people equal access to employment, education, and a safe environment in which to raise their children. The traditions of Black liberation theology, womanist theology, the Social Gospel, and the Black social gospel all represent sustained theological and activist responses to these enduring injustices.

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