God of the Oppressed

It is the ability of black people to express the tragic side of social existence but also their refusal to be imprisoned by its limitations.

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see. Thro’ many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ’Tis grace hath bro't me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.

If God is liberating blacks from oppression, why then are they still oppressed? Where is the decisive liberation event in African-American history which gives credibility

Since whites have been the most violent race on the planet, their theologians and preachers are not in a position to tell black people, or any other people for that matter, what they must do to be like Jesus. This is black common sense theology, which is deeply embedded in the radical side of black religious history and the source out of which blac

Black slaves rejected biblical traditions which whites used to justify slavery—such as the so-called curse of Ham (Gen. 9:24–27), the story of Cain (Gen. 4:1–16), and the sayings that admonished slaves to be obedient to their earthly masters (Eph. 6:5–8, Col. 3:22–25, I Pet. 18–25, I Tim. 6:1–2, Titus 2:9–10, and Philem). They turned instead to the

When the Word is spoken as truth and the people feel the presence of truth in the midst of their troublesome situation, they respond to the preached word by ratifying it with resounding “Amens.” The “Amen” is the congregation's witness to, and participation in, the proclamation. It is their Yes that lets the preacher know that he or she is on the “

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.

Jesus Christ is not a proposition, not a theological concept which exists merely in our heads. He is an event of liberation, a happening in the lives of oppressed people struggling for political freedom. Therefore, to know him is to encounter him in the history of the weak and the helpless.

White people did everything within their power to define black reality, to tell us who we were—and their definition, of course, extended no further than their social, political, and economic interests. They tried to make us believe that God created black people to be white people's servants. We blacks, therefore, were expected to enjoy plowing thei

people is to relate the story of our mothers’ and fathers’ struggles to our present struggles and thereby create a humane future for our children. We must take the speeches and tales, the blues and the spirituals, the prayers and the sermons of black people and incorporate them into our present existence, relating our parents’ strivings to our dail