Africa Bible College

Course Title:     Liberation Theology
Course Dates:   April 2, 2007
Professor:         Reverend Alan L. Joplin  Drums


Method of Course Evaluation: Each student is responsible for submitting Ten writing assignments.

Course Description

A study of the development and impact of major African American religious thinkers in American Culture. Major thinkers include Allen, Nat Turner, Douglass, Pennington, H. Turner, Dubois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Charles Long, C. Eric Lincoln, Gayraud Wilmore, Katie Cannon, and James Washington. This course will analyze the religious thought of African American Americans since the American Revolution. Special attention will be given to:

Origins of African American Religious reflections and the African American Church

African American Christianity

Development of an African American religious perspective in relationship to multiculturalism

The religious experiences and understandings of African Americans are unique, born of a combination of historical, cultural, social, political realities. This course will explore African American religious life from this major perspectives. This course is geared toward challenging the theological paradigms of the student and assisting the student to formulate and articulate their theological constructs in a coherent and logical manner. The student therefore, upon completion of the course should be familiar with the following theological premises and perceptions:

History and development of diverse theological movements and arguments

Stages of the development and progression of the diverse theological movements

Definitions and terminology utilized by the diverse theological movements

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

The required reading, which includes the selected short readings, sets the framework and points up issues for our common discussion. Each student will write several papers (computer-generated) critical analysis. The analysis should demonstrate the student's ability to evaluate/appropriate the material read from a religious perspective. Submit your analysis according to the following schedule:

Analysis i-Concepts of Theology  
Analysis ii-History of Liberation Theology  

Analysis iv-Analysis vs. North American Segregation  

Analysis v-Eschotology Politics  

Analysis vi-The Challenages of Liberation Theology  

Analysis vii-The Black Church   
Analysis viii-Womanist Theology  
Analysis ix-The Future of Liberation Theology  

At the end of this course, participants would have developed:

an understanding and appreciation of the contexts, conditions, and factors that contributed to the emergence and development of African American theologies;

a familiarity with key representatives and central themes, claims, and contributions coming out from these theological movements

a comparative understanding and assessment of how the social locations of these theologians contribute to the formulation of their theologies and biblical hermeneutics

an open attitude to read and incorporate these theologies as important interlocutors for their own theological reflection and ministerial practice

Overarching Course Goals Learners will:

Investigate the complex relationship between religion and the politics of race, ethnicity, nationality, class, gender, and sexuality in the Americas.

Identify the social, political, and gender implications of diverse theological beliefs.

Analyze the relationship between liberation theologies and movements for social change, including movements that seek to improve the quality of women’s lives and movements that advocate gender equality.

Deepen their appreciation of theological and philosophical concepts that differ from their own.

Articulate their own understanding of the relationship between religion and politics and advocate specific actions that can be taken to foment positive social change.

Advocate their position on an important political issue that they have learned about a particular target audience, employing philosophical, theological, spiritual, and/or ethical language and arguments that would be appropriate and convincing to that audience

Concepts of Theology

• Paradigms of faith theology in the Christian tradition.nbsp; Meta-Paradigms in Theological Thought © Herman J. Pietersen.  click here
  
  
• Themes of Liberation Theology  click here
  
• What is Liberation Theology?  click here

The student will write a three to five paper discussing the Concepts of Theology movements of the nineteenth and twentieth century. The student is expected to critically discuss the development and perception of that movementThe analysis should demonstrate the student's ability to evaluate/appropriate the material read from a religious perspective.

History of Liberation Theology/Context: Oppression and Violence

• Chronology   click here
  
• "Christian Revolution in Latin America: The Changing Face of Liberation Theology."Part One in a Three-Part Series on Liberation Theology.  click here
  
  
• BLACK THEOLOGY, BLACK POWER, AND THE BLACK EXPERIENCE(Part Two in a Three-Part Series on Liberation Theology)  click here
  
  
• ORTHODOXY AND LIBERATION THEOLOGY.  click here
  
• A Concise History of Liberation Theology.   click here

The student shall write a three to five paper discussing History of Liberation Theology/Context: Oppression and Violence. The student is expected to critically discuss the development and perception of that movement. The analysis should demonstrate the student's ability to evaluate/appropriate the material read from a religious perspective.

Eschatology Politics

• The Gospel and the Liberation of the Poor.  Click Here
  
• The Gospel and the Liberation of the Poor.  click here
  
• Apologetics.  click here
  
• West, Cornell. Race Matters.1994: 149-51  click here
  
• Liberation Theology.  click here
  
  
• Instruction on Certain Aspects of "Theology of Liberation"  
  click here
  
  
• Toward A Socialist Theory of Racism   click here
  
• Contextual Theology: Liberation and Indigenization  click here
  
• White Jesus, white lies and Black liberation.   click here
  
• An Evangelical Theology of Liberation.  click here
  
• FALLACIES OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY.  click here

The student shall write a three to five page paper discussing Eschatology Politics. The student is expected to critically discuss the development and perception of that movement The analysis should demonstrate the student's ability to evaluate/appropriate the material read from a religious perspective.

The Challenages of Liberation Theology

• Contextual Theology: Liberation and Indigenization by J. Deotis Roberts, Sr.  click here
  
  
• Liberation theology: a challenge to the church.  click here
  
• Liberation Theology on the Move in the United States.  click here
  
  
• LIBERATION THEOLOGY: RELIGIOUS RESPONSE TO SOCIAL PROBLEMS.  click here
  
  
• Liberation theology is the prophetic response to oppression.   
  click here
  
  
• LIBERATION THEOLOGY. Basis-Past-Present-Future.  click here

The student shall write a three to five paper discussing The Challenages of Liberation Theology. The student is expected to critically discuss the development and perception of that movementThe analysis should demonstrate the student's ability to evaluate/ appropriate the material read from a religious perspective.
Womanist Theology

• Black Theology vs. Feminist Theology  click here
  
• Womanist Theology: Black Women's Voices.  click here
  
  
• WOMANIST THEOLOGY, EPISTEMOLOGY, A NEW ANTHROPOLOGICAL PARADIGM   click here
  
  
• Images of the Divine in Black and Feminist Liberation Theologies (idea)  click here

The student shall write a three to five paper paper discussing Womanist Theology. The student is expected to critically discuss the development and perception of that movementThe analysis should demonstrate the student's ability to evaluate/appropriate the material read from a religious perspective.

The Black Church

• Practing liberation in the Black Church.  click here
  
• Black Theology vs. Feminist Theology  click here
  
• The Black Church & the AIDS Crisis.  click here
  
  
• “The Black Church and the Future of Theological Education."  
  click here
  
  
• Moses and Liberation Theology.  click here

The student shall write a three to five paper discussing The Black Church. The student is expected to critically discuss the development and perception of that movementThe analysis should demonstrate the student's ability to evaluate/appropriate the material read from a religious perspective.

North American Segregation/Racism

• MLK Letter from Birmingham Jail" click here
  
• Garveyism and African Racial Reconstruction.  click here
  
• Birth Pangs: Liberation Theology in North America.  click here
  
• Black Liberation Theology in North   click here
  
  
• PART III. LIBERALISM IN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT CHAPTER 6. WHITE SOCIAL GOSPEL  click here
  
  
• Liberation Theology: Liberation theology is the prophetic response to oppression.   click here

The student shall write a three to five paper discussing North American Segregation/Racism. The student is expected to critically discuss the development and perception of that movementThe analysis should demonstrate the student's ability to evaluate/appropriate the material read from a religious perspective.
The Future of Liberation Theology

• Daniel H. Levine "The Future of Liberation Theology" click here

The analysis should demonstrate the student's ability to evaluate/appropriate the material read from a religious perspective. Final Writing Assignment shall be due February 11, 2007. The student shall write a ten to fifteen page paper discussing in a systematized or constructive manner "The Future of Liberation Theology"

Resources

• Black Liberation Theology: Black Theology in American Religion" click here
  
  
• The Kairos Document" click here
  
  
• Black Theologt, Black Bodies and Pedagogy.  click here
  
  
• A Black Theology of Liberation   click here
  
  
• What is Liberation Theology?   click here
  
  
• A Black Theology of Liberation  click here
  
  
• Communion Ecclesiology and Black Liberation Breaking the Silence: Black Theology of Liberation  click here
  
  
• The Truth About Black Liberal Theology   click here
  
  
• Wednesday, May 17, 2006 ATL (A Theology of Liberation)  click here
  
  
• Black Religious Leaders: Conflict in Unity  click here
  
  
• C o m p o s i n g F r e e d o m: The Politics of Possibility in Black Struggle Cameron Patterson Faculty Mentor: Professor Ula Taylor  click here
  
  
• Toward an Interim Assessment of Black Theology  click here
  
  
• The Triumph of Savage Capitalism. Daniel Bell "Liberation Theology and the End of History.  clickhere

Final Research Paper

Each student will write a research paper (double spaced) on a topic agreed with the professor. Students should submit a brief proposal of their paper topic along with a preliminary bibliography. The final paper is due on May 20, 2007. Students are responsible to make sure that the papers are fully edited and completed in all its parts at the time of submission. Therefore, students are expected to “computer literate.” The subject line of all email messages related to this course should contain the course name, the semester, name of assignment and the student’s name. It is imperative that the student submit the assigned written assignments on the assigned date. All assignments for this course are to be submitted by email.

Students are expected to fulfill and satisfy the requirements of this course. Incompletes are only issued in the case of emergencies. Poor planning on the students part is not acceptable or a reason for extending an incomplete.

PLAGIARISM Students are expected to complete this course with integrity.
Plagiarism is defined as intellectual property of others without proper citation, giving the impression that is the student’s work.