50books_poc | Christian Theology (Reply)

Finally we are through the dead white guys (I exaggerate some, they are not all dead yet.)

So, some words on What it means to be church:

Lee, Jung Young, Marginality: The Key to Multicultural Theology. (Fortress, 1995).
We've all been trying too hard to be in the center. True church is at the margins. This is an excellent book, hurt only by Lee's hyperbole when it comes to who is "in" and who is "out" of church. Yes, white churches are almost always focused on centrality, and have little experience on the margins. But that does not mean that ALL white people are trying to stay that way. Still, the basic theology is excellent and helpful.

Cone, James, Black Theology, Black Power (Orbis 1997).
This was actually written in 1969.
Excellent explanation of how white and black churches are tempted to buy into the idea of church as part of the status quo, and a radical call to give up that role. Sexist language was hard, but the preface to this addition includes an apology for that and an explanation that to have edited for this edition would have been to pretend he didn't have that very sexist past.

Bujo, Benezet, African Theology in its Social Context (Orbis 1992).
Radical idea of how Christian faith COULD be permitted to really adapt to local cultures, including an excellent section on how ancestor worship can be redeemed as ancestor appreciation and the idea of Christ as our common ancestor. This would lead to the idea that different tribes have the same ancestor and therefore can learn to cooperate. I don't have the knowledge to evaluate the African context, but appreciated the idea of radically removing the "christian" and "european culture" connection. This text was so sexist it was hard to read. Its hard to believe that Bujo even knows that women exist.