What is Black Theology?

Black Theology is part of the postconstructuralist and postmodern ways of interpreting the Bible. Since postmodernism is very pluralistic and anti-oppression, Black Theology now has a place and a voice to interpret the Bible. I think it is important to note though that even though it has a place because of postmodernism, the ideas are not very postmodern, at least in the respect that there is only black and white, and no room for multiple ideas.

James Cone illustrates Black Theology in his essay “God is Black.” Essentially, God is Black because God sides with the oppressed. God cannot side with both the oppressor and the oppressed. “Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point that their experience becomes God’s experience, or God is a God of racism” (Cone 105). There is not much room for salvation for the oppressor in Black Theology. If there was space for that, then the notion that God is a God of justice would be gone. How could God be trusted if God loved both sides equally?

Sometimes in Cone’s essay it is hard to distinguish Black from blackness, and White from whiteness. Black and White are skin tones, while blackness and whiteness are representative of the oppressed and the oppressor, respectively. Viewing his ideas as blackness and whiteness, I can agree more quickly, because I do not think that people should be oppressed, and I would put myself on the side of God and the oppressed rather than on the oppressor. If I view his ideas as Black and White, as skin tones, I realize that I have to face all the structures that are in place that I benefit from because I am white. I am not racist myself, but because of my skin color, I am contributing to oppression. Thinking of it this way, I do not like the idea that God is against the oppressor. These ideas butt heads with my own theology, that God is a God of love and mercy. I believe that God is just also, but I think love is at the core of God, and justice and mercy flow together.

Cone does not believe that a person can just help Blacks, and in doing so become on the side of God and the oppressed. “Those who want to know who God is and what God is doing must know who Black persons are and what they are doing. This does not mean lending a helping hand to the poor and unfortunate Blacks in society. It does not mean joining the war on poverty! Such acts are sin offerings that represent a white way of assuring themselves that they are basically ‘good’ persons” (Cone 106). As I understand it, a White person cannot give of their gifts, and share what they have from the benefits of the structures in place. They cannot even try to take down those structures. That it is only trying to prove to themselves that they are good people. Yet Cone says later that “to receive God’s revelation is to become Black with God by joining God in the work of liberation” (Cone 107). If we ask God to be a part of this new society, what God’s Kingdom is meant to look like, then we will join in the work of liberation, which I think means trying to take down the structures of racism. Yet Cone says Whites cannot do this because it will not be sincere or true. I think this is where the lines between blackness and whiteness and Black and White become dim.

Black Theology is a great voice for those who have not previously had a voice, but some of the ideas are very anti-postmodern in a postmodern society, so it can be hard to handle at times. To open up the category of the oppressed to more than just Blacks and the category of the oppressors to more than just White would be more applicable to our society today, even though the structures from this Black v. White society are still in place.