Theology in the Americas: African American Theology vs. Liberation Theology

This essay focuses on an article written by Herbert O. Edwards, who at the time of this writing was a member of the Department of Religious Studies at Duke University.  Edwards seeks to address the fundamental differences between African American theology, on the one hand, and Liberation Theology, on the other.

I will begin by reiterating that when we speak about theology, we are speaking about God-talk. In other words, theology is a discourse about God, and in that sense, we are all theologians, because we all engage in God-talk in one way or the other.  Even if we are atheists, we still engage in God-talk, i.e. denying the existence of God. Some of us engage in God-talk as a way of strengthening our faith. Others of us engage in this type of discourse because we find it interesting.  Yet others of us engage in God-talk because it is our profession to either preach or teach religion.  Others of us withdraw from God-talk because we find it to be both confusing and monotonous. I think that even that withdrawal is an indirect way of affirming that God-talk affects us one way or the other.

How is God-talk in the African American community the same or different from God-talk in the Hispanic American community?  Do African Americans think and talk about God in the same way that Hispanic Americans think and talk about God? Are the theological paradigms one and the same or they different?

Edwards says: "The willingness to listen to, to learn from, Latin American theology by U.S. theologians must not blind the former to the past history of the United States in its totality of effects on Latin American life and thought, theory and praxis.  Latin American liberation theology, in its dialogic encounter with North American theology, must not be unaware of of the ease with which one can speak universal language with the understanding that it is not really inclusive of all in the society.  How much racism, Western, North American style, has entered the veins of Latin American thought is difficult to say; that it is not absent is almost a certainty.  For my part, I have discovered all to little attention being given to it in the literature that I have read. There is no question that the U.S. ethos of racism has followed it dollar and military power wherever it has gone (Edwards in Eagleson and Torres, p.187)."

My own initial response to Edwards is that he is affirming something truthful and valid.  The major issue that I find, however, is that he is concentrating on Liberation Theology from the Latin American standpoint and not from the Hispanic American standpoint.  While there are similarities between Latin American theology and Hispanic American theology, there are also fundamental differences.  For one, Liberation Theology in Latin America for the most part addresses issues of social injustice relative to social class.  Liberation Theology in the U.S.A. focuses on social injustice relative to ethnicity and race in the same vein that African American theology does.  African American and Hispanic American theology focus on oppression and suffering that is rooted in ethnic and racial discrimination.  While there is nothing wrong, per se, for Edwards to compare African American theology to Latin American theology, he should, I humbly and respectfully submit, have spent more time on God-talk in the Hispanic American community in that this conference was designed to address and cover how oppressed communities in Slavetown, U.S.A. engage in theology within this context.

The reader of the article by Edwards will note that he places the oppression of and inhumanity to the African American community in historical perspective.  He speaks about the institution of slavery, the period of Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement, the Black Panthers, etc.  I respectfully submit, however, that this approach has the limitation of disregarding and overlooking the oppression of Hispanic Americans in a historical perspective.  This approach almost gives the impression that African Americans have a monopoly on the experience of oppression, alienation, marginalization, and political disenfranchisement.

If we are to compare how God-talk is different or the same in both the African American and Hispanic communities, there needs to be ongoing dialogue and interaction between the two.  Furthermore, our sisters and brothers in the African American community need to be aware of the fact, that our history of experiencing oppression, dating back to Europe, also includes the institution of chattel slavery in the Caribbean, and also the forced migration to Slavetown, U.S.A. because of the economic  consequences of of land-grabbing colonization and neo-colonization by Europe and the U.S.A.

You, the reader, are invited to share with us how you think that God-talk in both communities can be both more effective, and at the same time faithful to the message of the Gospel of Jesus, the true liberator of all
of humankind.

In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.

Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona