Thesis (M. Div.)--Grace Theological Seminary, 1984. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-50).

Thesis (M. Div.)--Grace Theological Seminary, 1984. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-50).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 1984. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-77).

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Bibliography: leaves 188-197. / This thesis examines the framework for a Black Christology constructed by Takatso A.Mofokeng in The Crucified Among the Crossbearers (1983) and evaluates this work with the Christological assistance of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The emergence of Black Theology in South Africa since the early 1970s is placed in the context of the black struggle for liberation and the philosophy of Black Consciousness. The result, theologically, is seen to be an anthropological concentration, an affirmative doctrine of oppressed humanity and a concern with human liberation. An identity with the suffering and liberative commitment of Jesus, together with a rejection of oppressive concepts of divinity, is shown to have led to a Black Christology based on engagement with the human history and struggles of Jesus. The message to whites is interpreted as a call to accept and repent of the guilt of the oppressors. Reflecting the early emphasis of Black Consciousness on the transformation of the black self-understanding, this is held to be Black Theology's first stage concerned with the perspective of the black oppressed as the privileged position from which to understand the Bible and the Christian faith. This biblical approach is seen to be common ground shared with most African Theologians, though some gave greater theological significance to the African experience. A second stage of Black Theology is then described, corresponding to a shift in the Black Consciousness movement towards critique of the material structures of society. Theologically the results of this shift are described as a more critical attitude to the biblical texts, in terms of their class interests, and the giving of greater weight to the black praxis of liberation as primary theological data. Bonhoeffer's Christology, unfolding in the context of the ethical demands made by his resistance activities, is then described to highlight the fact that in a situation of conflict and division, a Christological ethic reaches beyond solidarity to engage in vicarious action on behalf of others. Bonhoeffer is used to stress Black Theology's call to committed whites to stand in guilty solidarity with their people and repent on their behalf. It is then seen how Mofokeng draws on the work of J.Sobrino to engage contemporary liberation struggles with the history of Jesus and to give Christological significance to the struggles of those with whom Christ is in solidarity, as the work of his Spirit. It is also seen how Karl Barth is used to strengthen Mofokeng's concern with the birth of black people as acting subjects of their own history. With the insights of Bonhoeffer's Christological ethic it is concluded that Mofokeng overstates black solidarity, taking insufficient account of black divisions and conservatism. Mofokeng is seen not to apply his own historical methodology consistently, leading him to underestimate the theological importance of the failure of the poor to remain in solidarity with the dying Jesus, and the significance of the faithfulness of his women followers.

Bibliography: leaves 150-158. / The Apartheid ideology and political system in South Africa has caused blacks to experience their blackness negatively. Being black is the reason for their pain and suffering. This is not merely a political problem but in its deepest sense it is a theological problem because it has caused doubt in the hearts and minds of blacks, as to whether they are created in the image and likeness of God. Apart from that Apartheid also presented itself as a command of God, and as such it is a pseudo- religion. In the thesis this problem is examined from a biblical-theological perspective. Chapter one looks at humans created in the image of God, the dignity which implies their right and their equality before God. After investigating the insight of a cross-section of theologians, it is clear that the dignity of all people irrespective of race and colour is beyond dispute. Chapter two examines the black experience against the biblical background. Despite the theoretical consensus regarding human dignity, blacks are experiencing their blackness in a negative sense. The reason for this is the negative anthropology of white theology. Chapter three discusses the emergence of the critical conscious- ness towards the negative anthropology. The Black Consciousness philosophy played a positive role in countering this negative anthropology. Black Theology used these insights to develop a positive anthropology. It brought awareness of human dignity, but it did not lead to action. Chapter four discusses the total liberation from all situations of oppression, exploitation and dehumanization. The basis for this liberation is found both in the Old and New Testaments. In this regard the Exodus Paradigm and the Nazareth manifesto play significant roles as biblical models for total liberation. From these paradigms it is concluded that Yahweh in the Old Testament is the Liberator of the oppressed, and that New Testament salvation in Christ, links up with the Exodus model in which God sides with the oppressed. Biblical liberation and salvation is not merely spiritual but involve the total human. Chapter five looks at the sources from which Black Theology draws in an attempt to define its positive anthropology. Apart from the already mentioned biblical sources and Black Consciousness ' it also draws from the black experience and the Traditional African Religions. The final conclusions are that black theology brought a new appreciation to the fact that blackness is a gift of God and not a curse. The liberation of humans, an important emphasis in black theology is firmly grounded in the scriptures and involves the total being. That black theology is not racism in reverse, nor is it an ideology, but a quest for humanity, firmly grounded in the biblical tradition.

In a world still marked by the effects of colonial displacements, slavery's auction block, and the modern observatory stance, can Christian theology adequately imagine racial reconciliation? The thesis pursues this question by surveying several important new contributors to this discussion, comprising the Duke Divinity school of theological race theory. Willie James Jennings and J. Kameron Carter investigate the colonial genesis and Enlightenment maturation of the racial imagination to suggest a new path for Christian theology. The thesis' main project is mapping the theologies of Carter and Jennings in order subsequently to display the doctrinal positions they share. Chief among them is their insistence that supersessionism, which they understand as the various forms taken by the quest of Christians through the centuries to sunder themselves from the particularity of Israel, has been constitutive of a racialized hierarchy which continues to hold powerful sway over Christology, anthropology, and ecclesiology. Their shared theses are positioned between – and beyond – the poles of modern liberalism and “traditioned” orthodoxy. The Introduction to the thesis demonstrates the theological difficulties faced by contemporary pursuits of ecclesial reconciliation. Chapters One and Two investigate Carter's work, positioning his account between black liberationist thought, as exemplified by James Cone, and recuperations of scholastic orthodoxy, as exemplified by John Milbank. Chapters Three and Four interact with Jennings' work, positioning his thought between cultural studies, especially related to late medieval colonial theology, and contemporary virtue ethics, as refracted through Alisdair MacIntyre and Stanley Hauerwas. Building upon Jennings' and Carter's Christological insights, the Conclusion proposes a sympathetic extension of their ecclesiology of joining. Drawing on the theological race theory presented in the thesis and contemporary experiments in racial reconciliation, the conclusion engages theological treatments of eating together in order to display the ecclesiological importance of this more robust theology of race.

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Thesis (M. Div.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 1994. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [213-216]).