Reflections on becoming a Black Liberation theologian

Professor Anthony Reddie reflects on this year's Black History Month theme, 'Reclaiming Narratives' and shares his journey from accidental academic to becoming the first ever Professor of Black Theology at the University of Oxford.

For those who may not be familiar with academic theology, what is Black Theology? 

"Black theology is an academic discipline and form of committed activism which focuses on empowering people of African descent to overcome systemic racism, through rethinking the frameworks of organised religion, primarily Christianity. Black theology conceives of the God revealed in Jesus Christ, as a God of liberation, who identifies with those who are oppressed and marginalised in many white majority countries in the West and in Black majority contexts in the so called ‘Global South’. Black theology began as an academic discipline in the US when James H. Cone, the pioneer of Black theology wrote his ground-breaking text Black Theology and Black Power in 1969. Black theology has continued as an intellectual discipline primarily in North America, the Caribbean, South Africa and also in the UK."

How did you arrive at this work?

"In 1992, I was working as a Youth and Community worker for two Black majority Methodist churches in North Birmingham. My role was to support the intellectual and emotional development of African Caribbean children and young people connected with these two churches. A primary objective was to use the frameworks of Christian formation and informal education in the church as a means of raising the critical consciousness of these children and young people. I was concerned at the lack confidence and self-esteem exhibited by these Black children and young people. It was these formative challenges that inspired me to undertake my PhD at the University of Birmingham. My doctorate focused on the Christian education of African Caribbean children in Birmingham, as an experiment in reflective practice. The research took place over a period of 4 years when I worked with a number of churches devising innovative Afrocentric Christian education material that was piloted via the support of predominantly white Sunday school teachers. 

I did not undertake the research thinking I would become an academic. Initially, I had visions of returning to my community-based activism work, but I hoped, as a more informed and reflective practitioner. However, by the end of the doctoral research, I had caught the bug, and realised I enjoyed undertaking research and writing. During the PhD I had already published two books of popular learning materials for practitioners working with Black children and young people in churches and I knew I wanted to undertake more writing. Once I had completed my doctoral studies, I went to work for a Theological college in Birmingham, funded by the Methodist church. I taught people training for ordained ministry, while undertaking post-doctoral research in Black theology."

The theme of this year’s Black History Month is ‘Reclaiming Narratives’. What does this mean in the context of historicising theology?
 

"I, like many African Caribbean young people, was brought up in a form of Christianity in which the teachings of the church had been formed by the era of colonialism and empire. The model of teaching and learning of the Christian faith was one steeped in notions of White superiority, privilege and entitlement. I remember being exposed to the image of a white Jesus and the wider interpretation of the faith in which whiteness and Eurocentric notions of truth predominated. ‘Reclaiming Narratives’ is about recovering the lived experience of so called ‘natives’, ‘indigenous peoples’, ‘subalterns’ ‘migrants’ and seeing how their realities and the contexts in which they lived informed their interpretation of the Christian faith and also African spiritualities. Long before James Cone wrote his pioneering academic texts in Black theology, ordinary Black people in the Caribbean, the Americas and South Africa were using an alternative interpretation of the Christian faith as a means of creating radical social movements committed to Black liberation and destroying various forms of white hegemony. Whether in the movement headed by the Jamaican Marcus Garvey in the early part of the twentieth century in the US, or back in the early part of the nineteenth century, in the form of Sam Sharpe in Jamaica, fighting against British-run slavery. More recently, we have seen the anti-apartheid movement and witnessed the Christian inspired activism of Frank Chikane, Desmond Tutu and Mercy Ambu Oduyoye, who have all utilised a re-imagined notion of religious faith in order to fight for Black self determination and freedom."

You describe your work as also involving critical pedagogy, how does this relate to theologies of liberation? 

"Central to the development of all theologies of liberation is the necessity of asking critical questions and challenging ideas of who benefits from various models of education and knowledge development. In context of recovering narratives as it pertains to critical pedagogy, I love invoking a popular aphorism from Jamaica, the island of my parent’s birth, which states “Who feels it, knows it.” The premise of many forms of critical pedagogy is to affirm and recognise the significance of knowledge produced by the experience of those whose lived realities have been ignored and traduced. In all theologies of liberation, including Black theology, critical pedagogy sees scholars such as myself, advocating the knowledge of people from ‘the underside of history’. Liberation theologies marry the social identities of those who are marginalised and oppressed (such as women, Black people, disabled people, LGBTQI communities, those struggling with the brunt of climate justice), with religious ideas that seek to empower and liberate the former, for the purposes of changing the consciousness of such groups."

Are there insights, learnings or messages that Black theology can offer the rest of us about equality, diversity and inclusion at Oxford?

"Black theology is always committed to siding with the perspectives of those who are socially marginalised and oppressed by existing systems and structures, procedures and processes that favour white middle class privilege at the expense of the former. Given Oxford’s history of entitlement and privilege, especially for those identified with the ‘upper classes’ and the ‘establishment’ much has changed in Oxford university over the past decades. Increased efforts have been made to effect greater equalities, diversity and inclusion within this ancient and venerable institution. 

A key aspect of Black theology has always been a methodological practice termed ‘A Hermeneutic of Suspicion’. This refers to the practice of bringing an element of suspicion and caution to accepted notions of truth, asking who benefits from the existing social arrangements and practices. A Black theology informed approach to EDI is one that will challenge presumptions around Whiteness.  By this I mean not so much those ‘racialised’ as ‘White’, but the critique of social structures, curriculum and pedagogy that often reflect allegedly ‘generic’ and ‘objective’ perspectives that are invariably synonyms for Whiteness. As the first Professor Black theology in the history of Oxford university, I am committed to posing hermeneutics of suspicion in my teaching and writing. It is my hope that the Black theology work I am pioneering in Oxford will help us see newer, more just and inclusive ways of being."