Position · 1969

Black Theology

A theology that interprets the gospel from the experience of Black people under racism, holding that God is revealed as siding with the oppressed in their struggle for freedom.

James Cone launched it as an academic theology with Black Theology and Black Power (1969), followed by A Black Theology of Liberation (1970). It drew on the Black church, the civil rights movement and Black Power, and developed alongside Liberation Theology in Latin America. Later writers, including womanist theologians, extended and debated it. Holders see it as recovering the Exodus and the prophets’ concern for justice. Critics argue that it makes race and political struggle the lens for all of theology.