ATR/LX:i

Black Theology and Feminist Theology:

A Comparative View
PAULI M U R R A Y *

Black theology and feminist theology have emerged in the United States as
indigenous expressions of contemporary theologies of liberation of oppressed
peoples. Growing out of parallel liberation movements, their commitment is to
radical political and social change. They do not attempt to present systematic
theologies; their purpose is to offer critical reflection upon the Christian faith in
the light of the particular experience of blacks and women respectively in their
struggles to abolish the injustices which have kept these groups in subordination.
Both theologies address themselves to certain common themes, e.g., biblical
promises of God's liberation of oppressed peoples and the corporate or social
character of sin and of salvation. Both are strongly critical of the Christian
church which they find deeply implicated in the perpetuation of both white
racism and the oppression of women. Each group strives for self-definition and
seeks to recover its own history and traditions as a means of countering negative
self-images absorbed from the dominant culture and of developing dignity and
self-esteem. Both theologies search for alternatives to culture-bound theological
images which have functioned to support oppressive attitudes and institutions.
Some black theologians insist that the concept of a "Black Messiah" is more
meaningful to the experience of black people than a "white Americanized Christ."
Women question the language and symbolism which evoke the image of an
exclusively male, patriarchal God.
Although certain historical similarities in the subjugation of blacks and women
and common motifs suggest a basis for solidarity and fruitful dialogue, consider-
able tension exists between the two groups. Black theology is rooted in the
strongly male-oriented Black Power movement which began in the late içoo's
and which regarded the emerging women's movement as a competitive diversion.
Its exponents have ignored feminist theology and have not addressed themselves
to the special problems of black women. On the other hand, the revived women's
movement led predominantly by white middle- or upper-class women has not
successfully incorporated the aspirations of poor and minority women in its
struggle. Both groups have tended to concentrate upon a single factor of oppres-
sion without adequate consideration of the "interstructuring* of racism, sexism,
and economic exploitation.
While both theologies are potential forces for renewal of Christian dynamism
in a world of revolutionary change, limiting factors which threaten their effective-
ness are apparent. One great danger is that preoccupation with particularization
can obscure the goal of universal liberation and reconciliation which lies at the

* Pauli Murray, former Professor of Law and Politics at Brandeis Univer-

sity, holds a J.S.D. degree from Yale Law School and a Master of Divinity
from General Theological Seminary. In January, 1977 she was ordained a priest
in the Episcopal Church.

3
4 Anglican Theological Review
heart of the Christian gospel. Related to this is a tendency to identify one's own
group exclusively with ultimate righteousness and divine election as an instrument
of judgment. This tendency can lead to isolation and further alienation and can
ultimately destroy the power to become a liberating force.
Aware of these dangers, some feminist theologians have stressed the necessity
for an inclusive approach, broad social analysis, and self-criticism which recog-
nizes and opposes the oppressive practices within one's own group. This feminist
analysis also points to the fact that women constitute half of every social class
and their common concerns as women necessarily embrace the whole spectrum
of the human condition. This offers possibilities for intercommunication and
joint action which can begin to transcend barriers of race, sex, and economic
class. Thus, black theology can profit from recognizing feminist theology as a
potential resource and, through cooperative interchange, can both strengthen the
black struggle and stimulate broadened perspectives.

S I N C E the logo's, contemporary theologians within the Christian tradi-

tion have responded to movements around the globe toward liberation
of oppressed peoples with a growing body of literature variously called
theology of liberation, political theology, theology of hope, or theology
of revolution. Their common theme is the relation between Christian
theology and social action. While much of this writing has come from
Europe and Latin America, black theology and feminist theology are
native to the United States and have emerged out of parallel movements
for black liberation and women's liberation in this country. The purpose
of this essay is to examine briefly the relationship between these two
theologies, their common perspectives, their points of tension, and their
potential to act as effective forces for liberation within the context of
the Christian message.
Theologies of liberation are specific; they are usually written out of
the concrete situations and experiences of particular groups. Black
theology focuses upon the black experience under white racism; feminist
theology is concerned with the revolt of women against male-chauvinist
structures of society; Third World theologies develop out of the struggle
for national liberation. Their common purpose is to commit Christians
to radical political and social change, and to transform society in order to
create a new and more humane world. This task is seen as the heart of
the Gospel message. Gustavo Gutiérrez, a leading Latin American theo-
logian, defines the purpose and method of this theological undertaking
as follows:

The theology of liberation attempts to reflect on the experience and meaning of

the faith based on the commitment to abolish injustice and to build a new
society; this theology must be verified by the practice of that commitment, by
active, effective participation in the struggle which the exploited classes have
undertaken against their oppressors. Liberation from every form of exploitation,
 BLACK THEOLOGY AND FEMINIST THEOLOGY 5

the possibility of a more human and more dignified life, the creation of a new
man — all pass through this struggle. *

These theologies are also strategic and contextual. They do not at-
tempt to construct an overarching systematic theology. Their method is
inductive, based upon praxis, which Letty M. Russell describes as "action
that is concurrent with reflection or analysis and leads to new questions,
actions and reflections The direction of thought flows, not 'down-
ward' from 'theological experts' but also upward and outward from the
collective experience of action and ministry."2
Gutiérrez, writing out of the Latin American experience, frankly
acknowledges the influence of Marxist thought, "focusing upon praxis
and geared to the transformation of the world." Pointing to the con-
frontation between contemporary theology and Marxism, he says "it is
to a large extent due to Marxism's influence that theological thought,
searching for its own sources, has begun to reflect on the meaning of
the transformation of this world and the action of man in history."3
John C. Bennett sees Gutiérrez as a Marxist in his acceptance of the
class struggle as a present reality and the source of revolutionary dyna-
mism. He also notes that Gutiérrez sees the need for revolutionary vi-
olence in Latin America if the institutionalized violence of the established
order is to be overcome.4
While these points of contact with Marxism appear in a Third World
context, Marxist liberationist principles cannot be said to be a dominant
influence in theologies of liberation. Bennett observes that Gutiérrez'
basic theological method is a critical reflection on experience, always in
the light of the normative sources of the Christian faith, and believes
that he uses Marxism quite freely to illumine his situation in much the
same way as Reinhold Niebuhr did in his Moral Man and Immoral
Society in 1932. 5

1
Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, tr. and ed. Caridad Inda
and John Eagleson (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1973)5 P- 307.
2
Letty M. Russell, Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective — A The-
ology (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1974)3 P- 55· The Oxford Universal
Dictionary defines praxis as action, practice. Gutiérrez writes of "the importance
of concrete behavior, of deeds, of action, of praxis in the Christian life." In
liberation theology the term seems to carry the meaning action-reflection in a
continuing process.
3
Gutiérrez, Theology of Liberation, p. 9.
4
John C. Bennett, The Radical Imperative (Philadelphia: Westminster
Press, 1975), p. 136.
5
Bennett, Radical Imperative, p. 134. Gutiérrez writes, "Our purpose is
not to elaborate an ideology to justify postures already taken.... It is rather to
let ourselves be judged by the Word of the Lord, to think through our faith,
to strengthen our love, and to give reason for our hope from within a commit-
ment which seeks to become more radical, total and efficacious. It is to recon-
6 Anglican Theological Review
Among writers on black theology, James H. Cone has found Marxist
analysis useful in his argument that theological ideas arise out of the
social context of existence. However, he thinks that while Marxism may
be helpful in providing a theoretical framework with respect to economic
oppression any analysis which fails to deal with racism is inadequate.6
Among feminists, Letty M. Russell acknowledges that groups involved
in the struggle for liberation may use various ideologies as "conceptual
tools for change," but holds that for Christians, "all ideologies must be
subject to constant critique in the light of the gospel."7
It is apparent, however, that the theology of liberation goes beyond
a particular theological tradition and draws upon many fields of knowl-
edge to illuminate the hpman situation. Rosemary Ruether argues force-
fully for a multidisciplinary integration of human sciences as the neces-
sary foundation for a theology of liberation adequate to the present
human condition. She contends that "in order to rise to the task of
sketching the horizon of human liberation in its fully redemptive con-
text," the theologian today must be willing to become "the generalist
par excellence seeing as his context and data the whole range of human
science and the whole history of human cultures of self-symbolization."s
Liberation theologies, according to Russell, share at least three com-
mon perspectives: biblical promises of God's liberation in the Old and
New Testaments; viewing the world as history and therefore as a proc-
ess of change; and strong emphasis upon salvation as a social or com-
munal event which has its beginnings in the here and now.9 The image
of "Christ the Liberator" is part of the ideology of liberation theology
and is intended express the notion that salvation in Christ includes po-
litical and social as well as individual spiritual salvation. Christ the Savior
liberates man from sin, which is the ultimate root of all injustice and
oppression; the struggle for a just society is seen as a significant part
of salvation history. In Gutiérrez' analysis, liberation and salvation are
inseparably connected. He asserts that the term liberation has three dis-
tinct levels of meaning: (i) socio-political liberation; (2) a historical

sider the great themes of Christian life within this radically changed perspective
and with regard to the new questions posed by the commitment." Theology of
Liberation, p. ix.
6
James H. Cone, God of the Oppressed (New York: Seabury Press, 1975),
pp. 42-43, 155-156. J. Deotis Roberts says that "Black political theology is
not cast in the mold of the Marxist-Christian dialogue." A Black Political The-
ology (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1974), p. 218.
7
Russell, Human Liberation, p. 60.
8
Rosmary Radford Ruether, Liberation Theology (New York : Paulist Press,
1972), pp. 2-3.
9
Russell, Human Liberation, pp. 56-62. God is portrayed in both the Old
Testament and New Testament as the Liberator, the one who sets people free.
God is not the liberator of one small nation or group, but of all humankind."
Pp. 56-57.
 BLACK THEOLOGY AND FEMINIST THEOLOGY 7

process of humanization and self-realization; and (3) liberation from sin

and admission to communion with God. The work of Christ as the
Liberator embraces all three levels of meaning which are part of an
all-embracing process of salvation.10
Similarly, liberation theology points to the corporate nature of sin.
Sin is not regarded as merely a private and individual transgression which
can be cured by individual repentance, leaving unchallenged the social
order in which we live. Rather, it is seen as a social, historical fact and
is evident in oppressive institutional structures, in human exploitation,
and in the domination of peoples, races, and classes. M Rosemary Ruether
equates corporate evil with St. Paul's reference to "Powers and Princi-
palities." She declares:

The individualistic concept of sin ignores this social-cosmic dimension of evil.

A concentration on individualistic repentance has led, in Christianity, to a petty
and privatistic concept of sin which involves the person in obsessive compunc-
tion about individual (mostly sexual) immorality, while having no ethical handle
at all on the great structures of evil which we raise up corporately to blot out
the face of God's creation.12

Sin builds up corporate structures of alienation and oppression which

man, individually, cannot overcome; salvation from corporate evil, there-
fore, requires participation in those political processes which seek to
destroy injustice and misery. Conversion to Christ, whose saving work
is seen as radical liberation from all forms of enslavement and alienation,
implies conversion to the neighbor, or as Gutiérrez puts it "the op-
pressed person, the exploited class, the despised race, the dominated
country." "To place oneself in the perspective of the Kingdom means
to participate in the struggle for the liberation of diose oppressed by
others." 13
Theology of liberation also calls for a redefinition of the task of the
Church in the world. Gutiérrez asserts that salvation is not limited to
the action of the Church but is a reality which occurs in history and,
therefore, the Church must cease looking upon itself as the exclusive
place of salvation and orient itself to a new and radical service to the
people. As a sacramental community and a sign of the liberation of
humanity and history, the Church in its concrete existence should be
a place of liberation and should signify in its own internal structure
the salvation whose fulfillment it announces. True renewal of the Church
must be on the basis of an effective awareness of the world and a com-
10
Gutiérrez, Theology of Liberation, pp. 175-178.
11
Gutiérrez, Theology of Liberation, ch. 9.
12
Ruether, Liberation Theology, p. 8.
13
Gutiérrez, Theology of Liberation, pp. 203-205. See also Frederick Herzog,
Liberation Theology (New York: Seabury Press, 1972), passim.
8 Anglican Theological Review
mitment to it; "the Church must be the visible sign of the presence of
the Lord within the aspiration for liberation and the struggle for a more
human and just society. Only in this way will the message of love which
the Church bears be made credible and efficacious."14
This method of doing theology is avowedly experimental, but Russell
contends that this experiment in liberation is not done only on man's
initiative. "It is a way of participating in the humanity of God; joining
God's experiment in being together with us, so that we might be to-
gether with one another." She points out that while liberation theology
looks toward the eschatological future, "the expectation of the full res-
toration of the groaning universe," it offers hope in the present. "It is
now that liberation and new humanity have begun." It is now that we
must risk the praxis of freedom so that God's will is done on earth as
it is in heaven!"15
As we examine black theology and feminist theology in die light of
these general perspectives, we will discover considerable variations in
approach and emphasis. We will also find that perhaps the greatest dan-
ger to the effectiveness of specific theologies is a tendency to compete
with one another in defining a particular form of oppression as the
"source of all evil," and thus losing sight of the goal of universal liber-
ation and salvation.16

I. Background of Racism and Sexism in the United States

Racism and sexism illustrate corporate evils which are built into the
structures of the United States. There are striking similarities in their
origins, ideologies, and practices. Race and sex are comparable to the
extent that they form large permanent classes identifiable by indelible
physical characteristics which fix one's status at birth. Blanche Crozier,
a lawyer writing in 1935, pointed out that no other kind of class is as
susceptible to implications of innate inferiority. "Only permanent and
natural classes are open to those deep, traditional implications which

14
Gutiérrez, Theology of Liberation, pp. 256-261, 262.
15
Russell, Human Liberation, pp. 183-185.
16
"In order to qualify as true liberation movements, black liberation from
the oppressors and women's liberation from the traditionally fixed set of feminine
roles should regard themselves as steps on the road toward a human liberation
of all people, becoming free in conformity with the authentic humanity of the
Son of Man.... The time may have come to divest ourselves of the ideological
fixations of our own peculiar concerns and to seek concrete cooperation with
other liberation movements. It is impossible to eliminate racism without putting
an end to economic exploitation by one part of the human family of their
brothers and sisters. True human rights for women is a utopia as long as we
refuse to eliminate racism and a competitive society." Elisabeth Moltmann-
Wendel and Jürgen Moltmann, Foreword to Human Liberation, by Russell,
pp. 13-14, 15.
 BLACK THEOLOGY AND FEMINIST THEOLOGY 9

become attached to classes regardless of the actual qualities of the mem-

bers of the class."17
Feminist writers increasingly call attention to the oppression of
women as the oldest form of subjugation in human history and suggest
that it has served as a model for other kinds of oppression. Gunnar
Myrdal's study of the racial problem in the United States, published in
1944, supports this view. He observed that the Negro problem and the
women's problem in this country revealed parallels which were not acci-
dental but were rooted in the paternalistic order of preindustrial society.

In the earlier common law, women and children were placed under the jurisdic-
tion of the paternal power. When a legal status had to be found for the imported
Negro servants in the seventeenth century, the nearest and most natural analogy
was the status of women and children. The ninth commandment — linking
together women, servants, mules and other property — could be invoked as well
as a great number of other passages of Holy Scripture.1S

Thus, although tremendous differences existed between white women

and black slaves in actual status and in their relations with the dominant
class, the paternalistic idea placed the slave "beside women and children
in the power of the paterfamilias" 19
In the American South during the period before the Civil War,
"woman was elevated as an ornament and looked upon with pride, while
the Negro slave became increasingly a chattel and a ward." Nevertheless,
defenders of slavery exploited paternalistic ideology and the inferior
status of women in their arguments. George Fitzhugh asserted in Soci-
ology of the South, published in 1854, "Wives and apprentices are
slaves, not in theory only, but often in fact." He found moral support
for slavery in the "instance of the Patriarch Abraham. His wives and
his children, his men servants and his maid servants, his camels and his
cattle, were all equally his property."20 Another typical defense called
attention to the fact that "the general good requires us to deprive the
whole female sex of the right to self-government. They have no voice
in the formation of the laws which dispose of their persons and prop-
erties." 21
Women, like Negro slaves, were deprived of the right to vote, legal
rights over their property and custody of their children, educational op-
portunities, and were virtually excluded from participation in govern-
17
Blanche Crozier, "Constitutionality of Discrimination Based on Sex,"
Boston University Law Review 15 (i935): 723* 727"728.
18
Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma (New York: Harper & Bros.,
1944), Appendix 5, "A Parallel to the Negro Problem," pp. 1073-1078, 1073.
19
Myrdal, American Dilemma, p. 1073.
20
Cited and quoted in Myrdal, American Dilemma, pp. 1073-1074.
21
Charles Hodge, "The Bible Argument on Slavery," (i860), cited and
quoted in Myrdal, American Dilemma, p. 1074.
 ΙΟ Anglican Theological Review

ment, business, and the professions. After emancipation and well into the
Twentieth century, similar ideologies were used to rationalize continued
subordination of blacks and women — smaller brains, less intellectual
capacity, weaker moral fibre, "the woman's place," the "Negro's place,"
the "contented woman," the "contented Negro," and so on.
These historical similarities have persisted into the present. Both
groups continue to experience in varying degrees economic and social
exploitation, limited access to educational and professional opportunities,
and underrepresentation at the higher policy levels of the major institu­
tions which shape and control society, all of which contribute to depen­
dency and powerlessness. Members of both groups have internalized
negative images projected upon them by the dominant class and absorbed
attitudes of inadequacy and self-contempt. Historically, the Christian
Church has been deeply implicated in perpetuating the alienation of both
groups, and the strong patriarchal tradition in the Church has been es­
pecially damaging with respect to women. The context out of which
black theology and feminist theology arise, then, is what Ruether char­
acterizes as "the overarching system of racist elite patriarchalism." 71

II. Black Theology and Feminist Theology Compared

For purposes of comparison, we will rely primarily upon the work
of three academic theologians in each of the two fields.23 Attempts to
generalize are hazardous; significant differences in perspective and for­
mulation appear among the writers within each field as well as between
the two groups. Strong differences occur in how they perceive God in
relation to their struggle and in how they relate to other movements
for liberation.
Mary Daly and James H. Cone are ultraradical in their respective
analyses and probably stand farthest apart in their theological perspec­
tives. Michael Berenbaum has referred to them as "theologians of sur­
vival." He says their suffering has become for them a root experience
which now alters their conception of God. 24 Cone places himself within

22
Rosemary Ruether, New Woman/New Earth: Sexist Ideologies and Hu­
man Liberation (New York: Seabury Press, I975)> P· n 6 .
23
The writers selected for black theology are: James H. Cone (Union Theo­
logical Seminary); J. Deotis Roberts (Howard University School of Religion);
and Major J. Jones (Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta). The writers
on feminist theology are: Mary Daly (Boston College); Letty M. Russell (Yale
Divinity School); and Rosemary Radford Ruether (Garrett Theological Sem­
inary). The three black theologians are Protestant. Daly and Ruether are prod­
ucts of the Roman Catholic tradition; Letty Russell is an ordained Presbyterian
minister.
24
Michael Berenbaum, "Women, Blacks, and Jews: Theologians of Sur­
vival," Religion in Life: A Christian Quarterly of Opinion and Discussion 45
(Spring 1976): 106-118.
 BLACK THEOLOGY AND FEMINIST THEOLOGY II

the Gospel tradition, but uses language at times which is so sweeping

as to seem foreign to Christian doctrine. A typical example: "Black
theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the
goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white
people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him."25 Daly's
analysis of sexism has led her, in her own words, to "a dramatic/trau-
matic change of consciousness from 'radical Catholic' to postchristian
feminist" and to reject entirely patriarchal symbols of God.26
Black theologians have not successfully resolved the dilemma of spe-
cific theologies, that of maintaining a universal perspective within the
context of particularization. In their understandable preoccupation with
the phenomenon of white racism, they tend to forego a sharpened anal-
ysis which would reveal its interrelatedness with other structures of op-
pression and human exploitation. When Cone defines black theology as
a theology of liberation because it believes that "the liberation of black
people is God's liberation,"27 he gives the impression that black people
only are the instrument of salvation. J. Deotis Roberts disavows any
duty of the black theologian to speak on behalf of other minorities
although he has great empathy for them and would encourage them to
speak for themselves. He argues: "The white oppressor must be con-
fronted by the scandal of particularity. He must not be allowed the
escape hatch of universality."23 The weakness of Roberts' approach is
not that he sees his primary task as an analysis of racism but that he
appears to overlook the fact that an effective understanding of the black
experience in the United States requires knowledge of what Ruether
calls the "interstructuring" of racism with sexism and class exploitation.
His general tone, however, is more restrained than that of Cone. He
defines black theology as liberation theology in more traditional terms.

Liberation is revolutionary — for blacks it points to what ought to be. Black

Christians desire radical and rapid social change We believe that the Christian
faith is avowedly revolutionary and, therefore, it may speak to this need with
great force.29

25
James H. Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation (Philadelphia : J. P. Lip-
pencott Co., 1970), pp. 59-60.
26
Mary Daly, The Church and the Second Sex, With a New Feminist Post-
christian Introduction by the Author (New York: Harper Colophon Books,
1975)3 P· 5· See also Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy
of Women's Liberation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973).
27
Cone, Black Theology of Liberation, p. 23.
28
Roberts, Black Political Theology, p. 16.
29
J. Deotis Roberts, Liberation and Reconciliation: A Black Theology (Phila-
delphia: Westminster Press, 1971), p. 27. Cf. Major J. Jones, Black Awareness:
A Theology of Hope (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1971), passim.
12 Anglican Theological Review
The point of departure for Ruether and Russell, on the other hand,
is the universal human condition to which they speak from a feminist
perspective. Ruether keeps in mind the need "to bring together the
full picture" of the "history of aberrant spirituality, expressed in self-
alienation, world-alienation, and various kinds of social alienations in
sexism, anti-Semitism, racism, alienation between classes, and finally
colonialist imperialism."30 Russell defines feminist theology as liberation
theology "because it is concerned with the liberation of all people to
become full participants in human society."31
Daly is closer to Roberts in her suspicion that "universalism" is
used as a device to deflect attention from sexual caste. "One frequently
hears 'But isn't the real problem human liberation?' The difficulty with
this approach is that the words may be 'true,' but when used to avoid
the specific problems of sexism they are radically untruthful."32 While
Daly gives priority to feminist liberation, she also claims for it a uni-
versal goal. The purpose of her work Beyond God the Father

is to show that the women's revolution, insofar as it is true to its own essential
dynamics, is an ontological, spiritual revolution, pointing beyond the idolatries
of a sexist society and sparking creative action in and toward transcendence. The
becoming of women implies universal becoming. It has everything to do with
the search for ultimate meaning and reality, which some would call God.33

On the crucial questions of violence and reconciliation in the context

of black-white confrontation in America, Cone's position is radically dif-
ferent from that of his colleagues in black theology. Cone appears to
embrace revolutionary violence and argues that no one can be nonviolent
in an unjust society.34 Roberts rejects violence not only because he be-
lieves it is inconsistent with the Christian ethic but also because he
thinks it is pragmatically and psychologically bad for blacks.

The workability of violence as a means to a better position for blacks is in

question. As one who has seen the stark face of racial violence in several major
cities and observed up close the tragic aftermath for blacks (even at the hands
of their own soul brothers), I have yet to be convinced of the pragmatic test of
violence.35

Major J. Jones, whose work Christian Ethics for Black Theology

examines the ethical implications of strategies for liberation, raises a
30
Ruether, Liberation Theology, p. 21.
31
Russell, Human Liberation, p. 20.
32
Daly, Beyond God the Father, pp. 4-5.
33
Daly, Beyond God the Father, p. 6.
34
James H. Cone, Black Theology and Black Power (New York: Seabury
Press, 1969)5 pp. I38ff; and God of the Oppressed, pp. 2i7ff.
35
Roberts, Liberation and Reconciliation, p. 189.
 BLACK THEOLOGY AND FEMINIST THEOLOGY 13

number of questions about violence as a means of self-defense in the

struggle for liberation. He poses the alternative of nonviolence as both
a theology and a method of social action, and points to the thought of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

For him [King], nonviolence was not a capitulation to weakness and fear; rather
nonviolence demanded that difficult kind of steadfastness which can endure in-
dignation with dignity. For King, nonviolence always attempted to reconcile and
establish a relationship rather than humiliate the opponent. For him nonviolence
was always directed against the evil rather than against the person responsible
for the evil.36

Roberts' perspective includes an abiding concern for reconciliation.

He asserts that "liberation and reconciliation are the two main poles of
black theology," and that "authentic existence for blacks and whites can
only be realized finally in reconciliation as equals in the body of Christ."
He believes there can be no liberation without reconciliation and no
reconciliation without liberation, and says that the only Christian way
in race relations is a liberating experience for white oppressor as well
as black oppressed.37 Jones also holds this view and believes that the
black man "cannot find the way to liberation and a larger freedom for
himself without also finding the way to liberation and freedom for his
white brother."38
Cone is sharply critical of Roberts' view that black theology must
work at the task of intercommunication between blacks and whites so
that white Christians may be led to understand and work with blacks
for liberation and reconciliation on an interracial basis. For Cone, "All
talk about reconciliation with white oppressors, with mutual dialogue
about its meaning, has no place in black power or Black Theology." He
thinks such talk opens the door "not only for white people to be op-
pressors and Christians at the same time, but also for them to participate
in black liberation and to set the terms of our reconciliation with them."
He projects the black struggle as a closed circle to which white people
may be admitted only by repentance and conversion on terms defined
by black people.39
Both black theology and feminist theology express the goal of whole-
ness of the human being, of authentic selfhood, self-esteem, and dignity.
They deal with questions of identity, the retrieval of lost history, the
destruction of self-depreciation, and liberating self-affirmation. Letty
36
Major J. Jones, Christian Ethics for Black Theology (Nashville: Abing-
don Press, 1974)5 P· J42.
37
Roberts, Liberation and Reconciliation, pp. 25, 26; and Black Political
Theology, p. 222.
38
Jones, Christian Ethics, p. 195.
39
Cone, God of the Oppressed, pp. 239, 241, 242. See footnote 75 infra.
14 Anglican Theological Review
Russell refers to this process as conscientizatwn, a term borrowed from
Latin American theology, through which people come to a self-awareness
that helps them to shape their own personal and social history and learn
their own potential for action in shaping the world. *>
A crucial task for both theologies is what Russell calls "the search
for a usable past."41 Black theology sees its task as one of reclaiming a
people from humiliation and achieving black consciousness, black pride,
and black self-determination. Cone relates black theology to an identity
crisis.

There is more at stake in the struggle for survival than mere physical existence.
You have to be black with a knowledge of the history of this country to know
what America means to black people. You also have to know what it means to
be a nonperson, a nothing, a person with no past to know what Black Power
is all about. Survival as a person means not only food and shelter, but also
belonging to a community that remembers and understands the meaning of its
past. Black consciousness is an attempt to recover a past deliberately destroyed
by slave masters, an attempt to revive old survival symbols and create new
ones.42

For Roberts the task of black theology is to provide an understanding

of black self-awareness and black pride and "at the same time, to give
a helpful interpretation of the Christian faith to those who honestly seek
to be their true black selves and Christians at the same time."43 In
seeking continuity of tradition with the African past, he finds linkages
between the African world view and black religious tradition in the
United States which he thinks are worthy of further exploration. He
also argues that American blacks, being neither fully African nor fully
American, but in a real sense participating in both worlds, "may yet
be the most important bridge to humanize relations between the West
and the Third World." «*
From the feminist perspective, Ruether sees the first stage of women's
liberation as the process of raising consciousness, of exorcizing debasing
self-images which women have internalized. This "involves the explora-
tion of the history of sexism and the reconstruction of its ideology in
order to loosen its hold on the self and to permit the gradual growth
of self-definition over against a world defined in male terms."45 Russell
observes that almost all existing historical records have been preserved

40
Russell, Human Liberation, p. 66. Cf. Paulo Freiré, Pedagogy of the Op-
pressed (New York: Seabury Press, 1973), passim.
41
Russell, Human Liberation, ch. 3.
42
Cone, Black Theology of Liberation, p. 37.
43
Roberts, Liberation and Reconciliation, p. 14.
44
Roberts, Black Political Theology, pp. 535 55-56, 74ff.
45
Ruether, New Woman/New Earth, p. 29.
 BLACK THEOLOGY AND FEMINIST THEOLOGY 15

by men who defined women's roles and functions for them and that for
women as a group awareness of their own history and struggles is fre-
quently nonexistent. She notes that the attempt on the part of women
"to recreate a usable past as her-story and not just his-story is part of
a widespread development in the modern world," and sees it as a nec-
essary effort in order for women to shape their future as partners in
society. *
Both groups are also engaged in a critical reexamination of biblical
tradition as well as Christian theology and anthropology. Roberts and
Ruether call attention to the dualistic strain in Christianity absorbed
from the Platonic view of the split in human existence between body
and soul, which they find antagonistic to the principle of wholeness in
human relations.47 Ruether relates it explicitly to the subjugation of
women. She finds that this dualistic view which Christianity inherited
from classical civilization repressed the possibility of the liberation of
women — a possibility clearly revealed in the teaching and action of Je-
sus and in the early Christian community — by "equating soul-body
dualism with male-female dualism, and thus reestablishing die subordi-
nation of women in a new form." * She also shows how religious tra-
dition has facilitated this subjugation.

Traditional theological images of God as father have been the sanctification of

sexism and hierarchalism precisely by defining this relationship of God as father
to humanity in a domination-subordination model and by allowing ruling class
males to identify themselves with this divine fatherhood in such a way as to
establish themselves in the same kind of hierarchical relationship to women and
lower classes.49

This analysis has implications for both blacks and women in their
attempts to express images of God which will be meaningful to them
in their struggle. Black theologians, however, seem to have no difficulty
with patriarchal symbolism. For Cone and Roberts, at least, the concern
is racial. Both reject a "white Americanized Christ" and have substi-
tuted the symbol of a Black Christ. According to Cone

To say that Christ is black means that black people are God's poor people
whom Christ has come to liberate To say that Christ is black means that
God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, not only takes color seriously, he takes
it upon himself and discloses his will to make us whole — new creatures born
in the divine blackness and redeemed through the blood of the Black Christ....
The "blackness of Christ,' therefore, is not simply a statement about skin color,

46
Russell, Human Liberation, p. 81.
47
Roberts, Black Political Theology, pp. 75, 84-85.
48
Ruether, Liberation Theology, p. 99.
49
Ruether, New Woman/New Earth, p. 65.
ιό Anglican Theological Review
but rather the transcendent affirmation that God has not ever, no not ever, left
the oppressed alone in the struggle. 5°

Roberts wrestles with the implications of such particularism and offers

the following explanation:

In one sense Christ must be said to be universal and therefore colorless. Only
in a symbolic or mythical sense, then, must we understand the black Messiah
in the context of the black religious experience.... In other words the universal
Christ is particularized for the black Christian in the black experience of the
black Messiah, but the black Messiah is at the same time universalized in
the Christ of the Gospels who meets all men in their situation. The black
Messiah liberates the black man. The universal Christ reconciles the black man
with the rest of mankind.51

Ruether's comment on this symbolism is that since God is the God of

all men, each in his own particular culture, "the Gospel rightfully comes
to the black man in the form of a Black Messiah... in the sense of
that historical contextualism, which gives to each people a salvation that
encounters their situation." Ώ
Jones, however, seems less certain about the usefulness of such imag­
ery in the long run. He concedes that "when the oppressed is no longer
willing to accept or adopt the God of his oppressor, especially his ex­
plicit or implicit color as it is expressed in art and literature, then the
process of liberation has already begun." He also suggests that it is a
sign of maturity when an oppressed people are no longer willing to adopt
without question a religion or God who accepts the idea of inequality
for any part of the human family. But he wonders "what this altering
of God's color will do for the black man. Will it make him, as a mature
religious person, any more responsible with the use of his newly ac­
quired black power than the white man was with his white power? Will
the black man, with his black God, be a better man than the white man
was with his white God?" He observes that those who advocate black
awareness and separation as a means to achieve the ultimate realization
of black self-identity often ignore the fact that the humanity of man is
much deeper than color.

The deeper question is whether it is possible for God to acquire color without
becoming identified with that which is too narrow to be fully representative of
the total human family, much less that which is Divine.... This is the inherent
danger in representing God in any human conception, either concrete or ab­
stract. s

50
Cone, God of the Oppressed, pp. 136-137.
51
Roberts, Liberation and Reconciliation, pp. 139-140.
52
Ruether, Liberation Theology, p. 133.
53
Jones, Black Awareness, pp. 115, 116.
 BLACK THEOLOGY AND FEMINIST THEOLOGY

The question of theological symbolism arises in a more intensified

form for women confronted with the weight of Judaeo-Christian tradi-
tion filled with imagery of an exclusively male, patriarchal God. Religion,
as Ruether points out, "is undoubtedly the single most important shaper
and enforcer of the image and role of women in society." M Joan Arnold
Romero accurately describes how women are beginning to respond.

In much the same way as blacks have experienced the white Jesus in a white
church preaching an alienating message, a number of women, too, are becoming
conscious of the alienation from a masculine God, a masculine Church, and a
masculine theology. For women the situation has in many ways been worse, for
they form the bulk of the population of the Church, while in the structures of
authority as represented both theologically and institutionally, it is men who
have had the role of representing God to the people.55

The negative impact upon women of the "maleness" of God-language

cannot be regarded lightly. In her study of sexist ideologies, Ruether
points to language as the prime reflection of the power of the ruling
group to define reality in its own terms and demote oppressed groups
into invisibility. "Women, more than any other group, are overwhelmed
by a linguistic form that excludes them from visible existence." * Nelle
Morton has dramatized this issue by using reversed terminology. She
asks what image is invoked in the reader

When one enrolls in a seminar on 'The Doctrine of woman' [and] the professor
intends at least to deal with men also. When one sings of the Motherhood of
God and the Sisterhood of Woman, one breathes a prayer that all men as well
as women will come to experience true sisterhood.57

Daly speaks of liberation as retrieving the power to name.

To exist humanly is to name the self, the world, and God. The 'method' of the
evolving spiritual consciousness of women is nothing less than this beginning
to speak humanly — a reclaiming of the right to name. The liberation of lan-
guage is rooted in the liberation of ourselves.58

She introduces the phrase "sisterhood of man," explaining

54
Rosemary R. Ruether, ed. Religion and Sexism (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1974)5 p. 9-
55
Joan Arnold Romero, "The Protestant Principle: A Woman's-Eye View
of Barth and Tillich," in Religion and Sexism, ed. Ruether, p. 319.
56
Ruether, New Woman/New Earth, p. xiii.
57
Nelle Morton, "Preaching the Word," in Sexist Religion and Women in
the Church, ed. Alice L. Hageman (New York: Association Press, 1974), p. 29.
58
Daly, Beyond God the Father, p. 8.
ι8 Anglican Theological Review

What 'sisterhood of man' does is to give a generic weight to 'sisterhood' which

the term has never before been called upon to bear. At the same time it
emasculates the pseudo-generic 'man.' The expression, then, raises the problem
59
of a sexually oppressive world and it signals other possibilities.

Similarly, she speaks of "the death of God the Father in the rising
woman-consciousness and the consequent breakthrough to conscious,
communal participation in God the Verb."60
Thus, while a black theologian may find the Old Testament sym­
bolism of the Chosen People "important for the unity of purpose among
black people and the feeling that their group life has lasting salvine
significance,"61 a feminist theologian may look upon the Old Testament
as "a man's 'book,' where women appear for the most part simply as
adjuncts of men, significant only in the context of men's activities."62
While Roberts finds the symbol of the black Christ "related to the affir­
mation of blackness and the antidote of self-hatred,"63 Daly finds the
patriarchal implications of Christology so overwhelming and "the func­
tioning of the Christ image in Christianity to legitimate sexual hier­
archy" so blatant that she would move beyond what she terms "Chris-
tolatry" to the "Second Coming of Women," the "new arrival of the
female presence, once strong and powerful, but enchained since the dawn
of patriarchy."64
The images "Black Messiah" and the "Second Coming of Women"
are irreconcilable symbols to one who shares both the black experience
and the experience of being a woman. Ruether thinks it impossible for
the black movement to respond to Daly's sort of feminist theology be­
cause of her heavy stress on mariological symbols as symbols of feminine
superiority and her judgmental symbol of castration. Ruether believes
these symbols "are totally encapsulated in white racism through which
black women and black men have been victimized" and, instead of being
liberating, "such symbols seem simply expressions of white sexual pa­
thology conducting business as usual."65 Both the racial and the sexual
symbols point to the danger of exclusivism.
Russell seeks to avoid both extremes. She believes that Christian
women can see in Jesus one who helped both men and women to under­
stand their total personhood, and that to think of Christ first in terms
of his racial origin or his male sex "is to revert again to biological de-

59
Daly, Beyond God the Father, p. 9.
60
Daly, Beyond God the Father, p. 12.
61
Roberts, Liberation and Reconciliation, p. 58.
62
Phyllis Bird, "Images of Women in the Old Testament," in Religion and
Sexism, ed. Ruether, p. 41.
63
Roberts, Black Political Theology, p. 137.
64
Daly, Beyond God the Father, pp. 79, 96.
65
Ruether, New Woman/ New Earth, p. 121.
 BLACK THEOLOGY AND FEMINIST THEOLOGY 19

terminism which affirms that the most important thing about a person
is her or his race or sex. The most important affirmation of ourselves
and of Jesus is that we want to be accepted as subjects and persons,
within whom biological differentiation is a secondary aspect."66

III. Areas of Tension

Although certain historical similarities and common motifs would
suggest a basis for fruitful dialogue between black theology and feminist
theology, so far this has not happened. Ruether has been deeply con-
cerned about the tensions between the two groups. In a thoughtful anal-
ysis she has observed that although these are the two most important
theologies of liberation to emerge in the United States, "an undeclared
war is brewing between them." She notes that both groups are potential
victims of typical efforts on the part of a ruling class to divide and
rule.67 She points to the historical parallel in the Nineteenth century
when women leaders who supported abolition of slavery became alien-
ated after the Civil War as they saw their own concerns shunted aside
by white male legislators who extended suffrage to black males only,
and warns this can happen again in this century unless women and
blacks can find ways to avoid the trap. The symptoms are already
evident.

Black caucuses, appearing a year or two earlier than women's caucuses, have
generally denied reciprocal solidarity with the women's movement In the
black power and black nationalist movements that arose in the latter half of the
1960's, the negative reactions toward women's liberation have come from many
black males themselves. Far from being open to the question of female oppres-
sion, the model of black liberation has appeared to be modeled after the super-
male chauvinist traditions.68

Analyzing the roots of this clash, Ruether focuses upon the results
of plantation slavery in the American South which depended not only
upon a debasing racist anthropology but also upon the destruction of
black family life, sexual exploitation of the black woman, and suppres-
sion of the rights of the black male as husband, father, and householder.
Postbellum white racism was a system which combined social and eco-
nomic deprivation of the black group with direct terrorization of the
black family, especially directed against the black male. Today, Ruether
says, "the memory of that terrorization still forms the ultimate point
of reference for black liberation." She notes that the movement for

66
Russell, Human Liberation, pp. 138-139.
67
Ruether, New Woman/New Earth, p. 115.
68
Ruether, New Woman/New Earth, p. 116.
20 Anglican Theological Review
black liberation "has been overwhelmingly male-oriented in style and
leadership."69
Differences in status and outlook contribute to misunderstandings
and tensions. Blacks have been set apart through rigidly enforced segre-
gation buttressed by institutionalized violence. Their apartness and the
pervasiveness of their humiliation gave rise to a high degree of solidarity
against racial oppression, the development of parallel institutions, no-
tably the black Church, and to recurring periods of intense cultural na-
tionalism. Thus, black theologians speak of a quest for a distinctive
"peoplehood."
Women's status is more ambiguous. Ruether notes that sociologically,
women are a caste within every class and race. As women, they share
a common condition of dependency, secondary existence, domestic labor,
sexual exploitation, and the projection of their role in procreation into
a total definition of their existence. But this common condition is ex-
pressed in profoundly different forms, she says, as women are divided
against each other by class and race.70 In sum, women are distributed
throughout every segment of the population and share the particular
advantages or disadvantages of the race or class to which they belong.
It is difficult for a black person to see a white upper-class woman as
"oppressed." Her concerns seem trivial beside the stark struggle of exis-
tence. For many blacks, she represents the white "oppressor." Black
males, especially, express the fear that the women's movement is a diver-
sionary tactic to deflect attention from the more urgent struggle for
black liberation.
Ruether suggests that racism and sexism should not be looked upon
as exactly parallel but as "interstructural elements within the overarching
system of white male domination." As she sees it,

this interstructuring of oppression by sex, race, and also class creates intermediate
tensions and alienations — between white women and black women, between
black men and white women, and even between black men and black women.
Each group tends to suppress the experience of its racial and sexual counterparts.
The black movement talks as though 'blacks' mean black males. In doing so it
conceals the tensions between black males and black females. The women's
movement fails to integrate the experience of black and poor women, and so
fails to see that much of what it means by female experience is confined to
those women within the dominant class and race.71

69
Ruether, New Woman/New Earth, pp. 117-121.
70
Ruether, New Woman/New Earth, p. 125.
71
Ruether, New WomanJNew Earth, p. 116. For a discussion of the anal-
ogous position of race and sex in the process of social control and of social
change, and of the differences, see William H. Chafe, Women and Equality
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), chaps. 3, 4.
 BLACK THEOLOGY AND FEMINIST THEOLOGY 21

She is critical of a tendency among radical feminists to make a mono-

lithic analysis of sexism as die ultimate evil and believes it essential that
the women's movement reach out and include in its struggle the inter-
structuring of sexism with all other kinds of oppression as well as rec-
ognize the pluralism of women's movements in the context of different
groupings. Otherwise, she thinks, the women's movement will tend to
remain a women's movement of the white upper class that can be mis-
used to consolidate the power of that class against the poor and non-
white of both sexes. She also believes that only as autonomous women's
movements develop in the context of various kinds of race, ethnic, and
class oppression will the missing links in the structure of oppression
become visible.72
Black theology presently suffers from a similar tendency toward mon-
olithic analysis. It reveals little understanding of the problems of black
women as women and almost totally ignores feminist theology. Black
women are torn between their loyalty to their racial community and
growing consciousness of the need to struggle against sexism. Although
they are now beginning to form their own feminist networks, there is
a dearth of black women theologians — due in large part to the strong
patriarchal tradition of the black Church — who can bring to bear their
influence upon the development of black theology. The interlocking fac-
tors of racism and sexism within the black experience await analysis.

IV. Possibilities and Limitations

One can make only tentative assessments of theologies still in their
embryonic stages, but it would seem that black theology and feminist
theology have the potential to develop as strong forces for the renewal
of Christian dynamism in the United States. They speak prophetically
to the Church, confronting it with its own contradictions. Ruether says
bluntly that the Church has allowed itself to become the cultural guard-
ian of the symbols of domination and subjugation and this role is apos-
tasy to the mission of the Church. The Church must exorcise these
demonic symbols within its structure and must recover its own revolu-
tionary heritage as a liberating force in the world.

The gospel of the Church must again come to be the recognized social mandate
of human history, not the means of setting up a new regime of domination or,
on the other hand, of withdrawing into a private world of individual 'salvation.' ^

For those who, by birth or circumstance, are necessarily involved in the

struggle against racism, sexism, or both, these theologies present many

72
Ruether, New Woman/New Earth, pp. 121-125, 131-132.
73
Ruether, New Woman/New Earth, p. 82.
22 Anglican Theological Review
liberating ideas, offer hope and a vision of new humanity. In doing so
they help to give deeper meanings to the Christian faith and its relevance
to their struggle.
On the other hand, as we have seen, there are certain limiting factors
which seem to arise out of efforts to particularize the theology of liber-
ation within different contexts. Carried to the extreme, particularization
can stifle self-criticism, lead to isolation and ultimately frustration. It
can develop into a myopia and obscure the vision of the wholeness of
humanity which liberation theologians seek. We have already made ref-
erence to this danger in discussing the tensions between the black
movement and the feminist movement. Here we call attention to the
tendency to identify without qualification the suffering of a particular
group with righteousness and redemption. This tendency appears in
Third World theology74 and is particularly strong in Cone's writings. He
uses language which identifies "whiteness" with all that is evil and
"blackness" with authentic personhood. His identification of blacks with
ultimate righteousness is central to his theological perspective. A striking
example is his assertion that "[t]he divine election of the oppressed
means that black people are given the power of judgment over the high
and mighty whites."75
Cone has drawn sharp criticism from his black colleagues for his
extreme views. Jones wonders "whether Cone's God is big enough for
the liberation struggle," and says "the black Christian can never dismiss
the fact that the white oppressor is also God's child in need of a re-
demption of another kind."76 Roberts is also concerned that blacks not
fall into the danger of exchanging physical oppression for the bondage
of race hate on the part of blacks themselves. Blacks should "be aware
that their own togetherness is shot through with the possibility of ex-
ploitation of one another." Roberts warns that sin as self-centeredness
is a disease which infects the black community as well as the white

74
"The future of history belongs to the poor and exploited. True liberation
will be the work of the oppressed themselves; in them, the Lord saves history."
Gutiérrez, Theology of Liberation, p. 208.
75
Cone, God of the Oppressed, p. 225. "When the whites undergo the true
experience of conversion wherein they die to whiteness and are reborn anew in
order to struggle against white oppression and for the liberation of the op-
pressed, there is a place for them in the black struggle of freedom. Here recon-
ciliation becomes God's gift of blackness through the oppressed of the land.
But it must be made absolutely clear that the black community decides both
the authenticity of white conversion and also the place these converts will play
in the black struggle of freedom. The converts can have nothing to say about
the validity of their conversion experience or what is best for the community
or their place in it, except as permitted by the oppressed community itself."
Ibid., p. 242.
76
Jones, Christian Ethics, pp. 69-74.
 BLACK THEOLOGY AND FEMINIST THEOLOGY 23

community. "Even the black church has not escaped the blight of self-
Ή
centeredness."
Ruether finds that liberation theologies which stress "the role of the
Oppressed community' as the primary locus of the power for repentance
and judgment" have adopted this model from the literature of apoc­
alypticism. This model has inherent limitations, she believes. The initial
effort of self-affirmation on the part of an oppressed group becomes
distorted at the point where all evil is projected upon an alien group,
"so that judgment is merely a rejection of that 'other' group of persons,
and salvation simply self-affirmation per se" without regard for the
humanity of the oppressors. She is convinced that all theologies of
liberation will abort both their power to liberate themselves and their
possibilities as a liberating force for their oppressors "unless they finally
go beyond the apocalyptic sectarian model of the oppressor and the
oppressed" and "rise to a perspective that affirms a universal humanity
as the ground of their own self-identity, and also to a power of self-
criticism." 7 8
To a great extent, the writings of Ruether and Russell, who stand
within the Christian tradition, reveal an awareness of the need for broad
social analysis, a sensitivity to other forms of oppression, a willingness
to engage in dialogue with black theology, and to overcome the tensions.
Despite the limitations of feminist analysis to which Ruether has referred,
feminist theology indicates an inclusive approach and a capacity for
self-critical reflection which, if taken seriously, can be a powerful force
for humanizing the entire spectrum of liberation movements. As Ruether
points out, no other definable group has such a broad range of historical
tasks. "The woman's story must encompass the entire scope of the human
condition. Moreover the issue of sexism crosses and includes every field
of specialization."79 Women, through coalitions on issues of common
concern, can begin to transcend barriers of race, class, and nationality.
They can provide a basis for intercommunication and interpénétration
of all social structures and act as leaven within all groups.

77
Roberts, Liberation and Reconciliation, pp. 112-113.
78
Ruether, Liberation Theology, pp. 10-16. Elsewhere Ruether speaks of
"the tendency of both the black movement and the women's movement to ig-
nore the structures of oppression within their own groups and to attempt to
reduce 'oppression' to a single-factored analysis To recognize structures
of oppression within our own group would break up this model of ultimate
righteousness and projection of guilt upon the 'others.' It would force us to deal
with ourselves, not as simply oppressed or oppressors, but as people who are
sometimes one and sometimes the other in different contexts. A more mature
and chastened analysis of the capacities of human beings for good and evil
would flow from this perception. The flood gates of righteous anger must then
be tempered by critical self-knowledge." New Woman/New Earth, p. 132.
79
Ruether, New Woman/New Earth, p. 12.
24 Anglican Theological Review
Black theology has much to gain by recognizing this dynamic potential
as a resource which can be tapped to strengtherj rather than compete
with the black liberation movement. It offers a vital link to broader
insights and larger perspectives. It also offers the possibility of effective
cooperation, especially at points where race, sex, and class intersect. Such
interchange and cooperation within the Christian context make it possible
to experience moments of liberation and reconciliation, however fleeting
and fragmentary, in the course of the struggle. These glimpses of the
"new creation" and the "new human being" provide the hope which is
the wellspring of any meaningful theology of liberation in our time.
 ^ s
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