God of the Oppressed

used to liberate more than 300 slaves to freedom. Sojourner Truth, Fannie Lou Hamer, and other prominent black women were empowered by their faith to become passionate freedom fighters. Faith in Jesus’ cross inspired 50,000 blacks in Montgomery (1955–56) to boycott city buses for 381 days, risking their lives in KKK territory rather than ride in hu

If our theological vocation emerges out of the matrix of that vision, then we will not be limited to Euro-American definitions of theology. The ecstasy of the poet's vision

was at the Lord's Table but whether he was really present at the slave's cabin, whether slaves could expect Jesus to be with them as they tried to survive the cotton field, the whip, and the pistol.

black insurrection in Detroit in the summer of 1967. I had moved the year before to teach in Adrian, Michigan, just seventy miles from Detroit. I remember the feeling of dread and absurdity as I asked myself, What has all this to do with Jesus Christ—his birth in Bethlehem, his baptism with and life among the poor, and his death and resurrection? I

not of my own making. In the larger “secular” black community, this perspective on life is often called the “art of survival”; but in the black Church, we call it the “grace of God.” It is called survival because it is a way of remaining physically alive in a situation of oppression without losing one's dignity. We call it grace because we know it

“I had much rather starve in England, a free woman than be a slave for the best man that ever breathed upon the American continent.”

The role of the rabbit in the tales of the American Negro is similar to that of the hare in African folk narratives—that of the trickster who shrewdly outwits and gains a victory over some physically stronger or more powerful adversary. The animal tales told by Negro slaves with Br'er Rabbit as the hero had a meaning far deeper than mere entertainm

Another important theological source of the black experience is the narratives of slaves and ex-slaves, the personal accounts of black people's triumph and defeats.

The great problem with dominant white theologians, especially white men, is their tendency to speak as if they and they alone can set the rules for thinking about God. That is why they seldom turn to the cultures of the poor, especially people of color, for resources to discourse about God. But I contend that the God of Jesus is primarily found whe

from the perspective of the dominant class in Israel.