The purpose of this investigation is to discuss the relevance of Black theology in light of the emergence of reconstruction theology. It offers a critical survey of a range of contributions on this issue, questioning whether scholars who have used Black theology as a form of self description should shift emphasis, from the paradigm of liberation to reconstruction. The significance of this study has to be understood within the context of the proposal to redirect African theological initiatives from liberation theologies to reconstruction theology. The basis for this call was the end of apartheid in South Africa, which signalled the independence of all countries on the African continent.

The thesis links African Theology with three notions: identity, mission and empowerment. Out of this linkage arise three interrelated themes that dominate the thesis. Firstly, different African theologies can be read as different modes of the quest for identity. The thesis demonstrates how the quest for identity in African Theology fits into political, philosophical, religious and other quests for identity in Africa, which are driven by historical factors such as the slave trade, imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism. The responses of inculturation and liberation theologies to these historical factors of disempowerment leads to the conclusion that being Christian can be both liberating and fully compatible with being African. Secondly, the quest for identity in African Theology properly belongs to the notion of mission understood as missio Dei. This conclusion is derived from an examination of critical aspects of missio Dei. These include determining the purposes of missio Dei as being the restoration of the imago Dei and the salvation and liberation of humankind. The conclusion is also derived from acknowledging that missio Dei is effected through missiones ecclesiae and missio hominum. Thirdly, constructing mission as missio Dei leads to the notion of the quest for identity as a mission of empowerment and an empowerment for mission. A multidiscipline theoretical framework of empowerment leads to a stipulation of ways in which African theology, through a quest for identity, is empowering or can empower its interlocutors. At the same time the mission of empowerment becomes an empowerment for mission. This is especially significant in the light ofthe acknowledged southward shift in Christianity's centre of gravity. That shift implies African Christianity having a missionary responsibility that extends to the rest of the world. The quest for identity in African Theology is fraught with ambiguities, dilemmas and risks. But this is a price various African theologies are willing to pay in order both to help uplift the historically disadvantaged Africans and also to secure the future of Christianity on the continent. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

This thesis examines three prevalent models of community engagement in the black churches in the United States of America since the year 2000. It will contribute to existing scholarship by identifying theological motivations for community engagement by the black churches, and assessing the extent to which the black churches address and fulfill criteria for advancing liberation delineated from three generations of scholarship in Black Theology. This shall provide theological insight into the continued social relevance of the black churches. Existing scholarship has shown that the black churches historically have engaged the oppressed communities they have served by addressing their secular and social needs in addition to their spiritual ones, with a sense of mission to affirm human dignity and advance social justice. This praxis of liberation through community engagement was necessitated by the oppressive contexts in which the black churches were founded, and has continued in varied ways in tandem with shifts in social location of black people in America. Black church community initiatives have also been marked among three generations of scholars in Black Theology, who have delineated imperatives for which the black churches might engage their communities to fully continue the praxis of liberation in the present. The interrelated aims of this thesis are to discover the theological motivations of black church community engagement agents, and, to consider the extent to which the community engagement initiatives of the black churches of the twenty-first century address critical theological criteria from Black Theology for advancing liberation; each of which will help to illuminate theological implications for the continued social relevance of the black churches. This project requires an examination of contemporary models of black church community engagement in their own social reality. The models of community engagement that are researched are grass-roots movements where black churchpersons use non-violent direct action to advance particular social justice causes, community development corporations where churches filter grant money from the government to create economic opportunities for their local communities, and megachurch initiatives where congregations use the revenue of their large memberships to effect positive change in their communities. Local examples of each model are examined from a grounded theory approach through interviews with clergy and community workers, observations of worship and program activities, and textual analysis of bulletins, websites, and brochures.

One of the presuppositions of the present research is that readers and their contexts play a significant role in the interpretation of biblical texts. The key text of this thesis is Proverbs 31: 10-31 and the main readers are African women in a kyriarchal South African (Northern Sotho) context. Given their context of a multiplicity of oppressive forces ( racism, sexism, classism and African culture), how can these women read Proverbs 31: 10-31 appropriately with a view to their liberation? The researcher proposes a new woman's liberationist perspective, a Bosadi perspective, a perspective committed amongst others, to the African-ness of the African woman in South Africa. The question is: If Proverbs 31:10-31 is read from a Bosadi (Womanhood) perspective, how will the Northern Sotho women in a South African context find the text - a text emerging from a kyriarchal Hebraic culture? Will they find it to be oppressive or liberative or will it be found to be containing both elements? The present researcher, like many reformist women liberation biblical scholars (cf some feminists and womanists ), argues that though the Bible emerged from patriarchal cultures, and contains elements oppressive to women, it also has liberative elements. Through the use of socio-critical hermeneutics, reception criticism and historical-criticism, evidence supporting this came to light as the present researcher re-read Proverbs 31:10-31 from a Bosadi critical perspective. It is therefore argued that when the Bible was used by the previous proponents of apartheid to subordinate people of other races, Black Theologians re-read the Bible from a Black perspective and used it for the racial liberation of Black South Africans. Likewise, an average South African woman, particularly an African woman, is basically a victim of male interpreters who use the Bible to subordinate women. It is the task of all African women to take the responsibility upon themselves to use appropriate tools in re-reading the Bible in order to discover that the Bible does not only alienate them, it is also the liberating word; the word which makes more sense to them because of their relationship with the Word which became flesh (Jn 1:1). / D. Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Studies)

Magister Theologiae - MTh / The purpose of this investigation is to discuss the relevance of Black theology in light of the emergence of reconstruction theology. It offers a critical survey of a range of contributions on this issue, questioning whether scholars who have used Black theology as a form of self description should shift emphasis, from the paradigm of liberation to reconstruction. The significance of this study has to be understood within the context of the proposal to redirect African theological initiatives from liberation theologies to reconstruction theology. The basis for this call was the end of apartheid in South Africa, which signalled the independence of all countries on the African continent. / South Africa

Magister Theologiae - MTh / The understanding and practice of leadership in Sub-Saharan Africa, in all spheres, is at the heart beat of this work. Questions and concerns over the quality of leadership in most countries in this particular region are reasons which have led to revisit and investigate the formative training of the current cohort of African leadership with a special focus on the ethical aspect of leadership. It is an assumption, in this thesis, that the contemporary cohort of African leadership received their formative training especially in the 1960s and 1970s and that they were deeply influenced by the black consciousness movement and, in association with that, by the emergence of black theology. In this respect, this research project explores the notions of ethics and leadership with a view to determine ways in which an appropriate leadership ethos was portrayed and articulated in the writings of selected exponents of the black theology movement, namely ML King (Jr), Desmond Tutu and Allan Boesak. The purpose of this work is therefore mainly descriptive: to map discourse on a leadership ethos in the context especially of black theology. / South Africa

M.A. (Development Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

[pt] Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo conhecer o surgimento das afro-pastorais no Brasil a partir do desenvolvimento das Teologia(s) Negra(s). A partir do Vaticano II, o mundo caminhou em direção a novos caminhos para diversas áreas de conhecimento, dentre elas a Teologia. Devido às viragens epistêmicas ocorridas no século XX, percebe-se o surgimento de novidades teológicas, a contar da ambientação contextual em que o ser humano está inserido. Este impacto antropológico se encontra com a estrutura racial que o mundo ocidental cunhou para dominação de povos ditos primitivos e inferiores, gerando a narrativa racial e, consequentemente, o racismo. Ainda que seja negado, o racismo perpassa as comunidades religiosas e a Igreja não está imune a ele. Urgiu a necessidade de uma teologia, nascida em contexto diaspórico, que afetasse essas marcas seculares de opressão. A Teologia Negra encontra-se nesse lugar e percebe-se teologias negras emergentes em diversos solos continentais, que influenciam umas às outras, como um grande quilombo mundial. Este cuidado coletivo nasce pela gestação de pastorais que, numa perspectiva cristológica, compreendem a Revelação pelo rosto do Cristo negro. Seja nos séculos das colônias, seja no pós-abolição, as afro-pastorais são lugar de acolhida e entendimento das (inter)subjetividades negras, que se dá no encontro da pessoa negra com a sua própria negritude perpassada pela fé cristã. Conclui-se que o nascimento da Teologia Negra sistematizada verbalizou o que já era vivido há épocas anteriores no Brasil no que tange a afro-pastoral, potencializou o que foi criado após a sua organização sistemática e afetará a Igreja de forma futura, trazendo um novo olhar para o objeto da Revelação e produzindo uma pastoral cada vez mais horizontalizada e descentralizada da figura sacerdotal. / [en] This research aims to understand the emergence of Afro-pastoralists in Brazil from the development of Black Theology(ies). Since Vatican II, the world has moved towards new paths for different areas of knowledge, among them theology. Due to the epistemic changes that took place in the 20th century, the emergence of theological novelties can be seen, based on the contextual setting in which the human being is inserted. This anthropological impact meets the racial structure that the Western world coined for the domination of so-called primitive and inferior peoples, generating the racial narrative and, consequently, racism. Although it is denied, racism permeates religious communities and the Church is not immune to it. There was an urgent need for a theology, born in a diasporic context, that would affect these secular marks of oppression. Black Theology is in this place and it is possible to see black theologies emerging in several continental soils, which influence each other, like a great world quilombo. This collective care is born from the gestation of pastorals that, from a Christological perspective, understand the Revelation through the face of the black Christ. Whether in the centuries of the colonies or in the post-abolition period, Afro-pastorals are a place of acceptance and understanding of black (inter) subjectivities, which takes place in the encounter of the black person with his own blackness permeated by the Christian faith. It is concluded that the birth of systematized Black Theology verbalized what was already experienced in previous times in Brazil with regard to Afro-pastoralism, enhanced what was created after its systematic organization and will affect the Church in the future, bringing a new looking at the object of Revelation and producing an increasingly horizontalized and decentralized pastoral care of the priestly figure.

What if the narrative of hope, in fact, is hopeless for the oppressed? Even oppressive? If hope is hopeless, can hope be found in the middle of hopelessness? The aim of this study is to define a hopeful and sustainable theology of hope for the oppressed.  This study is a literature analysis on three authors offering different perspectives on oppression, as well as various models of hope. By connecting the lynching era of black americans in Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone, theories on affect in relation to oppression in Grave attending by Karen Bray, and the conflict of borders and dualism in Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldúa the study seeks to discuss hope in relation to oppression.  The literary material is initially categorized by each author separately and analyzed with three identical topics. The first topic- Oppression, defines how each author describes oppression. In the second topic- The Utopian Hope, hope is problematized in relation to oppression in the light of models presented by the author. Ultimately the third topic, The Hope of Gap, seeks to define how hope for the oppressed can be found in between hopelessness and hope.  The analysis indicates several problematic effects of a dualistic view of hopelessness and hope, effects that rather result in hopelessness than hope. To form a hopeful theology for the oppressed the analysis instead emphasizes the importance of the gap inbetween as a vital link between hopelessness and hope. Each author addresses this with different models, but with similar functions in transcending dualisms. In relation to Cone the gap can be understood as telling the stories of hopelessness as a source of hope. Bray highlights the importance of the grave in the christian narrative, as the gap connecting the crucifixion and resurrection where emotional affects such as grief, anger, sorrow, anxiety and depression are expressed. Anzaldúa defines the gap as a borderland, nepantla, which is a hybrid and performative state of change and becoming that she means has been cut straight through by unnatural oppressive boundaries.  In conclusion a hopeful hope for the oppressed confirms hopelessness and hope, as mutually dependent in a dialectical relationship, rather than as antagonists.

This paper is intended to analyze the contributions of Contextual Theology and Contextual theologians to dismantling the South African apartheid system. It is intended to demonstrate that the South African churches failed to effectively politicize and radicalize to confront the government until the advent of Contextual Theology in South Africa. Contextual Theology provided the Christian clergy the theological justification to unite with anti-apartheid organizations. Its very concept of working with the poor and oppressed helped the churches gain favor with the black masses that were mostly Christian. Its borrowing from Marxist philosophy appealed to anti-apartheid organizations. Additionally, Contextual theologians, who were primarily black, began filling prominent leadership roles in their churches and within the ecumenical organizations. They were mainly responsible for radicalizing the churches and the ecumenical organizations. They also filled an important anti-apartheid political leadership vacuum when most political leaders were banned, jailed, or killed.