Theology: Contextual Theology: Womanist

These collected essays examine the roles of women in their churches and communities, the implication of those roles for African American culture, and the tensions and stereotypes that shape societal responses to these roles. Gilkes examines the ways black women and their experience shape the culture and consciousness of the black religious experience, and reflects on some of the crises and conflicts that attend this experience.

Womanism and Afrocentrism are the two most influential currents in contemporary African American culture. They both heighten black cultural self-awareness, even as they deepen knowledge of its historical sources. As womanism mines the ways and wisdom of African American women for Christian theology, so Afrocentricity excavates an African past to liberate the oppressed from Eurocentric worldviews. Yet are the two compatible? What does the mostly male Afrocentric scholarship contribute to the survival, wholeness, and liberation of black women? In this volume social ethicist Cheryl Sanders and other leading womanist thinkers take the measure of the Afrocentric idea and explore the intricate relationship between Afrocentric and womanist perspectives in their lives and commitments. Their strong, frank assessments form a creative engagement of these two momentous streams.