BLACK THEOLOGY Introduction: By Byang Kato Typescript

When the history of Christianity of the mid twentieth Century comes to be written one outstanding feature most likely to be included is the polarization theological systems. Just to mention a few titles: Theology of Revolution, Theology of Liberation, Theology of Decolonization, Ethiopia Theology, African Theology, and of course Black Theology. One thing that these theological systems have in common is that they seek to deal with man's struggle in life. For this desire we applaud the systems. But another thing they have in common is the search from a wrong term of reference. The proponents of these theologies, more often than not, make human experience the fundamental basis rather than the sphere on which to theologize. They put the cart before the horse. We shall see this as we move along on our specified subject for these two lectures. Before we go further, let us remind ourselves of the meaning of theology. The two Greek words, theos (god) and logos (word, matter, account) are the root meaning of the English word theology A simple definition of the term may be stated as the study about God and His Creation. Black Theology may then be taken to mean the study about God and His Creation with a particular reference to black people. However, the question of the terms of reference or the basic premise to the study must be borne in mind. What is the source of this theology that addresses itself to the black man? Is the source normative or relative? Is there such a thing as an absolute or is everything dependent upon the given situation? In this first lecture, I will attempt to deal with Black Theology as it is commonly understood. God willing, in the second lecture I will propose an alternative to Black Theology, an alternative which I believe will speak to the black man in his situation. I. Black Theology has the tendency of becoming a reactionary Theology. Dr. Malcolm McVeigh of Nairobi University has rightly observed: "The emphasis on 'blackness' reveals the racial implications of the concern, especially the desire to create a new sense of dignity for black people in the face of white domination whether in the USA or in Southern Africa. The primary concern of Black Theology is liberation, and one sees considerable attention devoted to defining the implications of Jesus' Gospel for the downtrodden in the face of entrenched political, social and economic justice."1

Black Theology then is an attempt by some black theologians to meet the needs of the oppressed black people. The effort is based on the assumption that "White Theology" has failed. White theology, it is assumed, has enslaved the black man. White Theology, according to some, may be described in this graphic manner. It pointed the black man to a God Who is up there, and a paradise which is yet to be. The black man's attention was directed to this "upper story God" and the "tomorrow Goodies" concept. As the black man was foolish enough to respond to this "pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by theology," the white man then snatched away from the black man most of the goodies in life. In the U.S.A. and South Africa, the black man was deprived of his dignity. In Kenya we lost the land. This has been expressed in an adage I have heard here in Nairobi, "Before the coming of the white man, we had the land but did not have the Bible, after the coming of the white man, we have the Bible but do not have the land." To reverse the situation, Black Theology is seeking for what belongs here and now. The white man is then challenged to keep his theology of God up there and the future Utopia. Some of the exponents reflect the stress on the future day of judgement and retribution. Their concept salvation boils down to political, economic and social liberation. Man's salvation lies in his own hands. A Zairean theologian writing in the Harvard Journal of Theology says, Black Theology in the United States and the Ethiopianist Theology of African Independent Churches represent a Theology of Decolonization. It is defined as a scientific enterprise of which the main purpose is the liberation of the Wretched of the Third World from spiritual-socio-politico-economic colonialism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism. As a radical call for a new creation, this-Theology of Decolonization addresses itself primarily to the situation of the oppressed, and provides some means for their liberation from the white-man's exploitation of man by the inhuman. Mr. Wa Said continues: 'Moreover, Theology of Decolonization seeks for a God and Jesus who can respond to the cry of the oppressed, a God and Jesus who are here and now, dealing with the situation of the oppressed and liberating them from spiritual imperialism, psychological terrorism, intellectual atrocities, and academic genocide which the white establishment has inflicted upon the oppressed for more than 529 years.2 That white people have subjugated the black man is a fact of history. It is also true that some white Christians have exploited others, and justified their sinful act with their own brand of interpretation of the Bible. Some whites in the unliberated parts of Africa today claim that they are preserving Christian civilization by imposing a minority rule over Africans. This is definitely wrong. The Scriptures make no room for racial superiority.

Christianity knows no racial, class or sex barriers. In Christ there is no Luo or Kikukuyu, no Ibo or Hausa, no Anglo-Saxon or Negro. This is what the Apostle Paul means when he says, "Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised barbarian, scythian, slave, free man but Christ is all and in All" (Col. 3:11). This, of course, applies to Bible believing Christians. The Bible does not only speak of the unity of Christians in the body of Christ but also shows the common origin of humanity. Act 17:26, "From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. (NIV), shows that all people originated from the same root. This does away with any racial superiority. White people who have had any connection with the supposed White Theology which seeks to dominate and exploit must realize that this is contrary to God's revelation in the Bible. Thank God many white people throughout the history of relationships between black and white have fought hard for the equality of mankind. John Stuart Mills who died in the ocean on his way to Liberia to see to the healthy settlement of free slaves is one example. Turning now to the reactionary theologians, we must not judge Christianity on the basis of the ways in which it has been abused. It is true that even the devil can quote the Bible. Yet to get the accurate position of God's Word, it is a better approach to let the Bible speak within its total context. The wrong use of the Bible to justify man's selfishness should not be the basis of our test of Christianity. Nor should that be the basis of our theology. Black Theology as a reactionary theology should not be the answer to the black man's predicament. Rather, the black man should give the positive teaching of the Bible and see what it has to say on the issues on which the white man has gone wrong. Biblical theology expressing itself in such a way that it speaks to every ethnic group with the same message is the proper Christian approach. A defensive theology today will become an appressive theology tomorrow if the social status of the oppressed is reversed. But a biblical theology that speaks the unchanging message of God to all men at all times, meets human needs wherever men are. This should be the basis of our theologizing. II. Black Theology is an Experience Oriented Theology. The term of reference of Black Theology appears to be human experience. However, Christian revelation begins with the basic premise that God Is. The Bible opens: "In the beginning God" Gen. 1:1. Christians believe that there is an upper story in the universe. Man is not drifting alone but he has a Creator Who places him here and cares for him. It is this God Who has given Himself to be known, else no one would know Him. Man, therefore, has to subject his experience to the searchlight of the divine revelation. The Bible must then provide the agenda for the formulation of any Christian Theological system. Human experience

becomes the sphere where the action takes place. The Bible is then applied to the human situation. Black Theology departs from the Christian theology. Like many other existential philosophies today, it starts with man with a capital M. An American Negro theologian has stated clearly that Black Theology is different from traditional Christian theology. Major Jones writes: Black theology differs from traditional theology by the simple reason that it may not be as concerned to describe such traditional themes as the eternal nature of God's existence as it is to explore the impermanent, paradoxical, and problematic nature of human existence. Much of the task of black theology is to reclaim a people from humiliation, and in the precess of so doing it may well neglect such unrelated subjects as humility before man and guilt before God.3 Judging from this kind of thinking, one wonders if Black Theology should be called a theology at all. Perhaps it better be called a political philosophy. It is more in line with the concept of Black Power propounded by the Black Muslims in North America. Unfortunately, some African Church leaders are advocating for the importation of this humanistic political philosophy in the Church of Jesus Christ. Let the Church be the Church. It can only be so by bowing to the authority of God's Word. The objective revealed Word of God sees man as the recipient of God's prepositional revelation. God has spoken. Man has received the revelation written in the Bible. True theology will then take this Bible and unfold it to the human situations. Thus the Bible speaks to all people in their respective backgrounds, meeting their variant needs. It addresses people concerning their experience where they find themselves. Forever 0 Lord, thy word is firmly fixed in the heavens (Psa. 119:89). In expressing this unchanging Word, the situation and power of understanding of the recipients must be taken into consideration. Thus the Bible must be expressed in such a way that people will understand it within their respective cultural settings. The answers to disturbing issues including exploitation by a fellow human being, must be found in the objective revealed Word. But Black Theology based on human experience is contrary to God's revelation and a Bible believing Christian would contradict his commitment to the Bible by accommodating it. Black Theology has rightly called the attention of Christian theologians to address themselves to issues of the day. But man must submit to the affirmations of the written Word. III. Black Theology is Relativistic

In discussing Black Theology in TARGET, Melvyn Matthew categorically rejects the view that sees God-talk or theology as absolute and unchanging. He writes, "So they call their God-talk 'Black Theology'- not as a new racism, but as a way of proclaiming that now they sing their own songs about God. This also shows that talk about God can no longer be regarded as absolute and unchanging. The songs about Him must be as many as the different cultural groups of mankind." Matthew does not only approve of this relativistic concept of God, but he enthusiastically appeals Let East Africa write and shout and sing her own theology.4 The Bible is the source of any meaningful talk about God for the Christian. If is the Bible that is made relative, then the foundation of meaningful theologizing is shaken. This appears to be the goal of Black Theology. Instead of bowing to the Biblical affirmation that God made man in his own image., Black Theology is calling man to make God in his own imge This is the kind of theology Isaiah rejects. How can we describe God? With what can we compare him? With an idol? An idol made from a mold, overlaid with gold, and with silver chains around his neck? (Isa. 40:18,19). Within this same vein of making God according to our image, some black poets are calling for a black Jesus. OUR GOD IS BLACK Our God is black! Shout it through the forests. From the hills to the woodlands. Let the woodlands reecho, Our God is black, Black of eternal blackness, With large voluptuous lips, Matted hair and brown liquid eyes, Figure of gainly form is He, For in His image are we made. Our God is black! Blacker than the star shorn-night Dark dusk and sunless dawn. Proclaim to all the world,

Our God is black! Behold the living God of bronze, Of stalwart frame and manly shape, With arms of super-human strength, He standeth tallest of men. Are you too against us, 0 God? Behold us mocked by Malan, Maligned by malignant men, In the land You gave Your own, Omnipotent and just God: Oh, tell us then where you stand Be silent, slaves. Our God is black! The contemporary blasphemous "God is dead" theology is based on this kind of humanistic thinking. Paul Tillich reduces the Biblical personal God Who has spoken, into a god of his own making which he calls "the ground of all being. Some young radical theologians who call themselves "Christian atheists have rejected the traditional language about God. Led by Thomas Altizer, Paul Van Buren and William Hamilton, they have declared the Biblical God dead. In his place they have come up with a humanistic, vague non-existent Principle whose task is only to solve man's problem, providing the need of one man through another man. Man is left alone to drift in the vast but closed universe. They reject the idea of a division between the secular and the sacred. There is only one world, that of the here and now, only "The Secular City." To my observation, this is where Black Theology is leading us. Enthusiastic support for political, economic and social liberation of the black man is fast becoming the preoccupation of Christianity in our continent and will become a liberation movement, preoccupying itself with just the mundane things of life. What a poor substitute for the All Powerful God who is also All Good! Even if all Christians fail to live up to God's revelation, He and His Word stand true. "Let God be true though every man be false" (Rom. 3:4). This Almighty God has spoken (Heb, 1:1,2) through the prophets and His Son. an must listen. Theology that answers mans need in the absolute sense of the word must be a theology that has God's revelation as the absolute term of reference. This revelation speaks to all men at all times because He is the Creator of all and the final Judge to Whom all must give account some day. We conclude this lecture by quoting the inspired words of the Apostle

Paul on the occasion of his great lecture in "Taifa Hall" at Athens. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed and of this He has given assurance to all men by raising Him from the dead Acts 17:30,31. 'To God. be the glory. Amen IV. Horizontal emphasis Black theology tends to stress human relationships at the expense of man/ God relationship. Struggle between classes of people become the cardinal sin that may even keep people out of heaven some day. While human relationships are vitally important, being the means whereby Christians can show to the world that Christ has broken man-made barriers, class struggle is the manifestation of the original sin. Man's original sin is rebellion against God. Man therefore needs to get right with God and then express it in justice towards his fellow man. Conclusion I have not yet had time to write lecture two, in which I would express my own feeling regarding Black Theology. But let me put this down in an outline form. 1) Black Theology and its sister systems i.e., Theology of Liberation (Revolution) and African Theology, have raised some pertinent questions. Oppressors everywhere on our continent, particularly Christians, should examine their attitude towards the black man. Exploitation in the name of preserving Christian civilization is definitely wrong. The feeling of race superiority is sin which must be confessed and forsaken. 2) The Bible must continue to be the basic, absolute term of reference for Christian theology and not human experience. Many Christians have abused the faith. But we must always let the Bible speak. God cannot deny Himself. 3) Christian theology is one theology - Biblical theology. This Biblical theology should be expressed in such a way that it really communicates to the hearers under any cultural, but not polarisation of theology. ______ 1. Presence , Vol. V, No. 3, 1972 p.2 2. Wa Said, African Theology, p. 518 3. Major J. Jones, Black Awareness , p. 13

4. TARGET, No. 142, Dec. 15, 1974