Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2004. / "November 2004." Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 334-348).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2004. / "November 2004." Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 334-348).

This study offers a practical theology of evangelism for black churches in an increasingly postmodern American cultural context. As a postmodern politics of difference challenges the traditional construction of black racial identity and religious pluralism challenges the basis of Christian confessional commitment, the black church must reassess what it means to bear witness to a distinctive black Christian faith tradition. As a work in practical theology, this reflection emanates from a consideration of how these issues manifest in a concrete situation. Specifically, the dissertation investigates the practices and self-understanding of three historically black collegiate gospel choirs (HBCGCs) affiliated with predominantly white major research universities in the greater Boston area. The descriptive analysis of these HBCGCs and the ecclesiological discussion that follows assume a reflexive quality whereby the research on HBCGCs contributes fresh insights regarding the nature of black Christian community within a racially diverse and religiously pluralist social context even as the praxis of HBCGCs is subjected to critique through the normative gaze of black theology. This dialogue includes voices from black postmodern cultural criticism in order to develop a black postmodern ecclesiology that preserves the distinctiveness of the black Christian tradition through the exercise of narrative discipline while embracing a reconstructed notion of communal solidarity that is strengthened by difference. From this black postmodern ecclesiology, evangelism emerges as the ecclesial practice of extending the church’s communal witness across the boundary lines between church and world through mutually critical transformative exchanges. The study brings black postmodern ecclesiology into conversation with cross-cultural missional theology and postliberal communalism to arrive at a narrativist confessional approach to evangelism that affirms the particularity of the Christian gospel while recognizing the work of the Spirit outside the church. The descriptive analysis of HBCGCs aids in imagining the practical implications of this approach as they creatively embody aspects of the communal life of black churches, thereby providing unique extra-ecclesial spaces within which mutually critical transformative exchanges occur between those for whom the black Christian tradition is normative and those for whom it is not—risky exchanges the outcomes of which are unpredictable, yet beautiful and joyful.

This thesis proposes that Christian mission in South Africa should be understood in terms of liberation. To achieve this aim, the author listens attentively to Black Theology, and then responds from a position of solidarity to the double challenge which it poses: a negation of traditional mission and an affirmation of liberating mission. Since black theologians grapple with the concrete implications of their blackness, a white theologian needs to make a consciously white =esponse in order to do justice to it. Since Black Theology emerged out of the Black Consciousness movement and developed in dialogue with it, the study begins with an examination of the theory and praxis of the Black Consciousness movement. Then follows an overview of the two phases of Black Theology in South Africa, in which the emphasis is placed on the organisations and events which embodied this approach, rather than on individual theologians. In the systematic analysis of Black Theology, attention is first given to the element of negation. In this section the five inte=related dimensions of South African Christianity which cause black suffering are examined. Then an analysis is made of the element of affirmation: the liberating action proposed by black theologians for the eradication of suffering and the attainment of new human beings in a new South Africa. Since Black Theology has an holistic understanding of mission, attention is given to personal, ecclesial and societal dimensions. The final section is a white response to this double challenge. First, it develops the notion of liberating mission and conversian in the white community. Secondly it establishes a number of fundamental criteria for liberating mission. This final part draws conclusions from the analysis done in the earlier parts, and asks critical questions about some aspects of Black Theology. In this way the basis is laid for white involvement in liberating mission and for ongoing interaction with Black Theology. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

Magister Theologiae - MTh / Classic Christian theology regards evil as the product of sin, the emphasis in traditional African religion and culture is on human sin as the result of evil forces. This thesis investigated the way in which African Christian theologians understand the relationship between sin and evil. The question, which was addressed was, does sin lead to evil or evil lead to sin. / South Africa

While exploring the history of liberation theology themes appearing in Black musician’s work (in Dr. Daniel Smith-Christopher’s class Bible and the Blues), it came to my attention that there are many more contemporary artists whose work also touches on these themes, such as Lauryn Hill. My thesis argues with the help of Black and Womanist scholars that the naming of one’s reality through musical lamentations is a healing act. Further, musical lamentation is an act to carry forth communities and provide them with healing because the act of acknowledging and lamenting the suffering of a marginalized community is liberating in and of itself. This act of lamenting serves, then, as an act of truth-telling, that refuses to deny the pain that is caused by systems of oppression such as racism and sexism. Lauryn Hill’s album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill then expresses a theology of lament in which the lamentation itself serves a healing purpose for those listening.

No description available.

Evangelicals have an unquestionable heritage for involvement in the world and its social problems and the Bible provides a basis for a liberative gospel. For the God of the Bible is not only a God of love and peace, but also of justice and he is therefore on the side of the poor, oppressed and suffering. he has given us a spirit of engagement with the world as salt and light and not escapism. As we give serious consideration to the challenges of liberation theologies, we need to hear the voice who calls his people in every age to go out into the lost and lonely world (as he did), in order to live and love, to witness and serve like him and for him and that is what African Evangelicalism is all about. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / M. Th. (Religious Studies)

Evangelicals have an unquestionable heritage for involvement in the world and its social problems and the Bible provides a basis for a liberative gospel. For the God of the Bible is not only a God of love and peace, but also of justice and he is therefore on the side of the poor, oppressed and suffering. He has given us a spirit of engagement with the world as salt and light and not escapism. As we give serious consideration to the challenges of liberation theologies, we need to hear the voice of him who calls his people in every age to go out into the lost and lonely world (as he did), in order to live and love, to witness and serve like him and for him and that is what African Evangelicalism is all about. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Systematic Theology)

Black Theology uses the Exodus episode as its locus classicus for its view of God' s preferential option for the poor and the oppressed. The purpose of the dissertation is to determine to what extent Black Theology is scripturally justified in doing so. The investigation concludes that - i) the use of a praxis 'claimed to be Christian' in the hermeneutic of Black Theology, becomes questionable and unconvincing in that there is an illogical vacillation between a self-determined praxis-horizon and a text-horizon and that, ii ) when some aspects of Black Theology are measured using constraint criteria suggested by Kelsey, Black Theology exceeds the limits of acceptability by taking the exodus event as the locus classicus for the slogan that God is always on the side of the poor and the oppressed. While for some Black theology is indeed an important new stage in theologizing it must however be remembered that liberation theology, in Africa at least, is still in its infancy. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / Th.M. (Old Testament)