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A Pan-African theology: Providence and the legacies of the ancestors

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This is one of the freshest treatments of liberation theology in African-American thought. Drawing upon the insight of Edward Blyden--that you can change a people's theology but not their religion--Young issues a critique of Christological missiology (the "missionary" approach) to the salvation of black people across the globe. Young points to a distinction between "acculturation" (Africanization) and "incultruation" (Christianization) that requires fusion for a viable Pan-African theology. The task of a good theology, he argues, is to draw upon the cultural formations already present in the people and present a critical space for exchange. Key, in his view, is recognition of the racial, ethnic, and religious diversity of African peoples across the world. Particularly provocative about this study are (1) its discussion of Alexander Crummell and Edward Blyden, where their strengths and limitations are brought to the fore, (2) its discussion of James Cone's black theology and the changes it went through, and (3)its discussion of jazz as a spiritual music. The author's prose are beautiful without being preachy, and the every chapter offers a nugget of insight that the reader will find useful in any project to make thought more relevant to our times. I have written a long review of this work, which will appear in RELIGIOUS ETHICS some time this year. In sum, this is an important work by a thinker whose work, I am sure, will be among the most important contributions in Africana and liberation thought at the end of this century. I look forward to more work by Young. I recommend, to the reader, his recent work on Racism and Bonhoeffer. ----Lewis R. Gordon, Professor of Afro-American Studies, Contemporary Religious Thought, and Modern Culture and Media at Brown University