Black Theology and Ideology

Combining the theological methods of Juan Luis Segundo and James H. Cone, Harry Singleton sheds new light on the impact of race on the origin and development of theology in America.

In Black Theology and Ideology Singleton appropriates Segundo's method of deideologization to argue that relevant theological reflection must expose religio-political ideologies that justify human oppression in the name of God as a distortion of the gospel and counter them with new theological presuppositions rooted in liberation. Singleton then contextualizes Segundo's method by offering the theology of James Cone as the most viable example of such a theological perspective in America.

Chapters are "The Black Experience and the Emergence of Ideological Suspicion," "The Western Intellectual Tradition and Ideological Suspicion," "Hermeneutical Methodology and the Emergence of Exegetical Suspicion," "A New Hermeneutic," and "The Case for Indigenous Deideologization."

Harry H. Singleton, III, Ph.D., is assistant professor of comparative religions and African American religion in the religion/philosophy department at Benedict College, Columbia, South Carolina.