In Vulnerability and Resilience, vulnerability is not the final word. Rather, resilience provides the cutting edge and living breath in the stories of subjects who are vulnerable. And they have many stories: stories of being trapped in bodies, teachings, and/or situations that make them (and others like them) vulnerable to discrimination, hatred, and rejection; stories of being trapped because of their bodies, theologies, and/or cultures; and stories of being trapped for no-good reason. For subjects who are vulnerable, life is like a maze of traps, and stories of resilience keep them going. The contributors to Vulnerability and Resilience refuse to be trapped. At the intersection of body and liberation theologies, they tell their stories in the hope that they will expose cultures that make individuals and communities vulnerable, and that those stories will encourage vulnerable subjects to be resilient and bring change to theological institutions that conserve vulnerability. Because of the location of the contributors-the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, Caribbean, and Oceania-this book is a testimony that vulnerability is present all over the world, and that resilience is a liberating alternative.

Dwight Hopkins, whose important work in Black Theology has mediated class theological concerns through the prism of African American culture, here offers a fresh take on theological anthropology. Rather than defined "the human" as one eternal or inviolable essence, however, Hopkins looks to the multiple and conflicting notions of the human in contemporary thought, and particularly three key variables: culture, self, and race. Hopkins' critical reframing of these concepts firmly locates human endeavor, development, transcendence, and liberation in the particular messiness of struggle and strife.

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Simultaneously arising out of such diverse contexts as the black community in the United States, grassroots religious communities in Latin America, and feminist circles in North Atlantic countries, theologies of liberation have emerged as a resource and inspiration for people seeking social and political freedom. Over the last three decades, liberation theology has irrevocably altered religious thinking and practice throughout the Americas.
Liberation Theologies, Postmodernity and the Americas provides a meaningful and spirited debate on vital interpretive issues in religion, philosophy, and ethics. The renowned group of scholars explore liberation theologies' uses of discourses of emancipation, revolution and utopia in contrast with postmodernism's suspicion of grand narratives, while assessing what the postmodernism/liberation debate means for strategies of social and political transformation. Guided by the experiences of those at the margins of social power, liberation theologies demystifythe eurocentric myths of secularization and modernity, and calls for a re-appraisal of religion in contemporary societies.
Contributors: Edmund Arens, David Batstone, Maria Clara Bingemer, Enrique Dussel, Gustavo Gutierrez, Jurgen Habermas, Franz Hinkelammert, Dwight Hopkins, Lois Ann Lorentzen, Eduardo Mendieta, Amos Nascimento, Elsa Tamez, Mark McLain Taylor, and Sharon Welch, Robert Allen Warrior

"Changing Conversations" defines the crucial role of cultural studies in the articulation and practice of religious studies disciplines. A decisive turn in the development of religious reflection, this volume seeks to redefine disciplinary self-understanding, and to promote religion as an integral component of cultural studies. Emphasizing a commitment to the marginalized perspectives--i.e. those communities lacking the resources to determine a new vision of society and so struggle to carve out their own space which more clearly embodies their own idiom, "Changing Conversations" presents insightful, authoritative contributions which show how religion is both embedded in and expressive of concrete social relationships and local realities. Featuring detailed cultural and political analyses, flavored with historical and feminist theory, "Changing Conversations" will inform every reader seeking to explore theology as a vital component of cultural studies.

Another World is Possible: Spiritualities and Religions of Global Darker Peoples represents voices of darker skin peoples throughout the world. What they have in common is their mobilizing their own created religions and spiritualities to forge self-identities. Some claim direct links to centuries of indigenous spiritual practices which have survived relatively in tact despite the invasion of foreign religions. Others have appropriated externally introduced religions and greatly modified these belief systems by combining or syncretizing them with indigenous perspectives and practices. All authors indicate the celebration and positive utility of their communities' spiritualities and religions. Without them, not only would individuals have died, but entire cultures and contexts would have perished. Thus, religion and spirituality suggest survival and pragmatic purposes. From creation narratives to Trickster heroes and heroines, spirituality and religion incarnate meaning, as well as fashion meaning so that humans can make surviving and thriving sense of the ecology and all breathing realities. The gods, God, and ancestors give life to peoples and their cultures, ecologies, and economies, all in the service of aiding the human community to be more fully human as servants to what spiritualities and religions have facilitated on earth. This books speaks to the progressive role of spiritualities and religions for today. In that sense, it is a gift to the world from the darker skin peoples globally.

Hopkins contends that the lives of enslaved African Americans were the foundational source of liberating faith and practice for African Americans today. Down, Up, and Over draws on their religious experience, and the example of their faith and witness, to develop a constructive theology of liberation. "African American belief structures and hope practices blossom from the black folk's religious encounters with God," Hopkins contends. The first half of his ambitious work reconstructs the cultural matrix of African American religion-a total way of life formed by Protestantism, American culture, and the institution of slavery (1619-1865)-in which racial identities developed. Whites from Europe and blacks from Africa arrived with specific, differing views of God, faith, practice, and humanity. Hopkins recreates their worldviews and how white theology sought to remake African Americans into naturally inferior beings divinely ordained into subservience. The counter voice of enslaved blacks begets the Spirit of Liberation. Tracking that Spirit, Hopkins crafts an explicit black theology of the Spirit of Liberation for us (God, chapter 4), with us (Jesus, chapter 5), and in us (human purpose, chapter 6). Out of the crucible of slavery emerges the lineaments of a constructive religious vision: the constitution of a new self and a divinely purposed "liberation toward full spiritual and material humanity." Hopkins sweeping vision, impressive scholarship, and astute social analysis make for a fascinating and important volume, one that can help all readers find meaning and purpose in the daunting 350-year pilgrimage of African Americans.

In Vulnerability and Resilience, vulnerability is not the final word. Rather, resilience provides the cutting edge and living breath in the stories of subjects who are vulnerable. And they have many stories: stories of being trapped in bodies, teachings, and/or situations that make them (and others like them) vulnerable to discrimination, hatred, and rejection; stories of being trapped because of their bodies, theologies, and/or cultures; and stories of being trapped for no-good reason. For subjects who are vulnerable, life is like a maze of traps, and stories of resilience keep them going. The contributors to Vulnerability and Resilience refuse to be trapped. At the intersection of body and liberation theologies, the contributors tell their stories in the hope that they will expose cultures that make individuals and communities vulnerable, and that those stories will encourage vulnerable subjects to be resilient and bring change to theological institutions that conserve vulnerability. Because of the location of the contributors-in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, Caribbean, and Oceania-this book is testimony that vulnerability is present all over the world, and that resilience is a liberating alternative.

This volume discusses normative theological categories from a black perspective and argues that there is no major Christian doctrine on which black theology has not commented. Part One explores introductory questions such as: what have been the historical and social factors fostering a black theology, and what are some of the internal factors key to its growth? Part Two examines major doctrines which have been important for black theology in terms of clarifying key intellectual foci common to the study of religion. The final part discusses black theology as a world-wide development constituted by interdisciplinary approaches. The volume has an important role in bringing Christian thought into confrontation with one of the central challenges of modernity, namely the problem of race and racism. This Companion puts theological themes in conversation with issues of ethnicity, gender, social analysis, politics and class and is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students.

In light of the recent death of C. Eric Lincoln, the renowned theorist of race and religion, scholars came together and created this compelling collection that represents twenty years of critical intellectual reflection in Lincoln's honor. "How Long this Road" is a social study of African American religious patterns and dynamics. C. Eric Lincoln's principle concern with the racial factor in American social and religious life expands in these pages to include such correlative factors as gender, the African Diaspora, and social class. "How Long this Road" is an impressive work that is bound to become a classic in religion and sociology courses, church studies and African American studies.

In light of the recent death of C. Eric Lincoln, the renowned theorist of race and religion, scholars came together and created this compelling collection that represents twenty years of critical intellectual reflection in Lincoln's honor. "How Long this Road" is a social study of African American religious patterns and dynamics. C. Eric Lincoln's principle concern with the racial factor in American social and religious life expands in these pages to include such correlative factors as gender, the African Diaspora, and social class. "How Long this Road" is an impressive work that is bound to become a classic in religion and sociology courses, church studies and African American studies.

This volume discusses normative theological categories from a black perspective and argues that there is no major Christian doctrine on which black theology has not commented. Part One explores introductory questions such as: what have been the historical and social factors fostering a black theology, and what are some of the internal factors key to its growth? Part Two examines major doctrines which have been important for black theology in terms of clarifying key intellectual foci common to the study of religion. The final part discusses black theology as a world-wide development constituted by interdisciplinary approaches. The volume has an important role in bringing Christian thought into confrontation with one of the central challenges of modernity, namely the problem of race and racism. This Companion puts theological themes in conversation with issues of ethnicity, gender, social analysis, politics and class and is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students.

When Cone wrote Black Theology and Black Power, he signaled to the world that the American black faith tradition would no longer recognize the confines of the church walls as the extent of its purview in society. Cone liberated the Gospel of Christ from its institutionalized forms, unhinging it from oppressive and racist power structures in American society and releasing it to do its work in the public sphere. Black Faith and Public Talk continues Cone's theme of power in the public realm and examines the economic, political, cultural, gender, and theological implications of black faith and black theology.

Description: Walk Together Children: Black and Womanist Theologies, Church, and Theological Education draws on the long religious, cultural, and singing history of blacks in the U.S.A. Through the slavery and emancipation days until now, black song has both nurtured and enhanced African American life as a collective whole. Communality has always included a variety of existential experiences. What has kept this enduring people in a corporate process is their walking together through good times and bad, relying on what W. E. B. DuBois called their ""dogged strength"" to keep ""from being torn asunder."" Somehow and someway they intuited from historical memory or received from transcendental revelation that keeping on long enough on the road would yield ultimate fruit for the journey. Endorsements: ""This volume flips the script in all the right ways. Hopkins and Thomas collect essays that collectively invert the ways that black and womanist theologies are usually constructed. Men speak to issues that womanists first articulated. Women write about the future of black men. Professors, clergy, and lay people engage academic theology together, and the conversations are cross-generational . . . T]his volume strongly refutes any accusations that black theology is merely academic."" --Monica A. Coleman Claremont School of Theology ""This work represents an important gathering of the best thinkers from the Black Church, the Academy, and the Black community who come together to address the vital issue of Black flourishing in the twenty-first century. Their specific focus on the role that theological education, as it happens in the academy and the Church, plays in this project makes this timely and essential reading for all scholars, practitioners, and activists. This book will become a classic and be widely used in seminary classrooms and sanctuaries. --Stephen G. Ray Jr. Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary ""Walk Together Children represents an historic moment of coming together in black religious life and thought of those who live, preach, teach, and think a phenomenology of the sacred self. This critical contribution to the field not only reflects upon, but is in itself a theology of ingenuity . . . Through unexpected reversals of authorship and themes, the contributors push the bounds of theology in all its forms with provocative insights and challenges for the religious imaginations of both church and academy."" --Andrea C. White Emory University Candler School of Theology ""Walk Together Children is a Sankofa Moment reminding pilgrims on the journey that the unity and resilience of enslaved Africans in the Americas is a testimony to the human capacity for hope and struggle to participate in the Reigndom of God. This book is a welcomed resource for conversations about the rebuilding of family and community, whether these conversations take place in the Church, the wider community, or the academy."" --Marjorie Lewis United Theological College of the West Indies ""Walk Together Children moves with such syncopation and collaborative grace, creating 'new moves with new angles' in black and womanist theological discourse. This compilation of courageous and thought-provoking essays, spoken by three generations of scholars, preachers, and the pew, is a gripping and compelling read It invigorates renewed energy and offers timeless possibilities in church and academy relations."" --Renee K. Harrison author of Enslaved Women and the Art of Resistance in Antebellum America ""Walk Together Children represents the very best of contemporary African American black and womanist theology in dialogue. It is committed and passionate text that illustrates the continued vibrancy and praxis of these complimentary disciplines as we step bravely into this new century. In bringing together a remarkable cast of players from the academy, the church, and the pew, this hugely impressive text will be a must read for many years to come. I wholeheart

When Cone wrote Black Theology and Black Power, he signaled to the world that the American black faith tradition would no longer recognize the confines of the church walls as the extent of its purview in society. Cone liberated the Gospel of Christ from its institutionalized forms, unhinging it from oppressive and racist power structures in American society and releasing it to do its work in the public sphere. Black Faith and Public Talk continues Cone's theme of power in the public realm and examines the economic, political, cultural, gender, and theological implications of black faith and black theology.