WHO ARE YOUR PEOPLE? A Decolonizing Framework for Black Christian Well-Being Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

“Who Are Your People? A Decolonizing Framework for Black Christian Well-Being” probes the

possibilities for black identity and black moral leadership to emerge from unassuming places. Who

Are Your People is a theological ethics project which proposes a new way of being black,

producing a new way of doing black theology and ethics. My project explores black theological

ethics: how the community operates (ethics) based on their beliefs (theology) in a life-giving and

liberating (black) God. I place black feminist/womanist theology and ethics in conversation with

postcolonial theory and theology to reimagine black identity in ways that disrupt hierarchies and

exclusionary logic within black communities. Critical to my methodology are the ethnographic

interviews I conducted with formerly incarcerated women (often labeled the wrong kind of black

woman). The women articulate the moral sources they rely upon, the moral wisdom that guides

their lives, and their experiences of inclusion (or exclusion) with their home communities upon

release. “Who Are Your People” utilizes the storied wisdom of one of black America’s most

marginalized populations as a starting point for a new way of doing black theological ethics that

provides new conceptions of black identity, definitions of black moral leadership, and strategies to

embrace marginalized black identities.

Table of Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 1

Locating the Work ........................................................................................................................................................ 4

Black Identity in Black Christian Ethics ......................................................................................................................... 5

Methodological Commitments ..................................................................................................................................... 9

Theological Commitments .......................................................................................................................................... 11

Chapter Roadmap ...................................................................................................................................................... 13

Chapter 1: Building Liberation by Faith ................................................................................................................... 16

Blackness .................................................................................................................................................................... 18

Major Keys to Black Religion ...................................................................................................................................... 25

Black Liberation Theology .......................................................................................................................................... 32

Black Liberation Theology and Postcolonial Theology ............................................................................................... 35

Competing Ideas of Liberation ................................................................................................................................... 36

Black Liberation Theology’s Struggle for Relevancy ................................................................................................... 44

Doing Black Theology ................................................................................................................................................. 45

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................. 52

Chapter 2: How Do We Do (or Don’t Do) Black Well-Being ..................................................................................... 54

Source Material for Constructing Black Theology and Ethics ..................................................................................... 55

Experience«Revelation ............................................................................................................................................. 71

Challenges to Experience«Revelation ...................................................................................................................... 79

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................. 85

Chapter 3: The Black Future is Decolonial ............................................................................................................... 87

Colonialisms ............................................................................................................................................................... 87

(Black) America the Colony ........................................................................................................................................ 97

Postcolonial Theory/Theology & Black Theological Ethics ....................................................................................... 100

Black Identity: “The Difference Within” ................................................................................................................... 105

Postcolonial Interventions in Black Christian Ethics ................................................................................................. 110

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................ 117

Chapter Four: “When Did We See You in Prison?” ................................................................................................ 119

The United States of Incarceration ........................................................................................................................... 120

The Cell Block Black: An Intersectional Look at Black Women’s Incarceration ........................................................ 128

Encountering God Among Formerly/Incarcerated Black Women ............................................................................ 144

In Pursuit of Black Well-Being .................................................................................................................................. 152

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................... 162

Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................................... 167

Appendix ............................................................................................................................................................. 176

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Religion
Subfield / Discipline	Ethics and Society
Degree	Ph.D.
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Ethics African American Studies Theology
Palavra-chave	Black Liberation Theology Incarceration Black Feminist Christian Ethics Womanist
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Dianne Stewart, Emory University Elizabeth Bounds, Emory University Emmanuel Lartey, Emory University Robert Franklin, Emory University

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