Since its inception in the publication of James Coneâs Black Theology and Black Power in 1969, academic black theology has viewed itself as the contemporary embodiment of the liberationist impulse that gave rise to black churches in the antebellum era. Both black liberation theology and womanism situate themselves firmly within the black church tradition and understand their critiques to be corrective measures calling the church to embrace those beliefs and perspectives that can more faithfully inform a mission of liberation and wholeness for black communities. This dissertation contests this self-understanding of black theology and womanism by arguing that the core theological claims of black churches, being pietist in nature, are incommensurable with the central beliefs of black theology/womanism, which are undergirded by theological liberalism. By applying heuristically Thomas Kuhnâs theories of paradigm shift and incommensurability, this dissertation shows that the emergence of black liberation theology constitutes the creation of the black Liberationist paradigm which represents a radical departure from the Pietist paradigm that has defined the basic theological perspective of black churches throughout their existence.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-12012017-110146 |
| Date | 04 December 2017 |
| Creators | Howard, Aaron Joshua |
| Contributors | Paul Lim, Lewis V. Baldwin, Paul Dehart, Dennis C. Dickerson |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-12012017-110146/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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