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Those doing theological reflection and education in this moment must engage deeply with the questions of the embodied experience in a society and church that marginalizes, abuses, forgets, devalues, and disrespects . Good news can’t just be a theory but a life-giving practice.
The task of theology is not simply reflection or convincing but imagining and practicing ways of being a liberating and healing presence in this country where terror, racist social and political arrangements, inequality, segregated space, corruption, and polarization reign.
Theology is also taking seriously our bodies and the embodied experience we bring to the table. It is about taking power and place seriously. It is about learning our potential and limitations. It is questioning deeply the type of person our schools are forming us to become.
Faithful Christian witness means learning and practicing ways of being together and building a common life together in the midst of difference. It is a humble process. It means unlearning toxic systems and ideologies birth out of oppression and inequities and control and fear.
As someone doing theological work, I care about this deeply. Being both Black and Christian in this moment means embracing blackness, creating a space of joy, fighting for the future of all Black life, deeply learning from others, and working for the freedom of all people.
It is making divine possibilities intelligible and offering an alternative world of love, freedom, hope and joy. Theology is not just speaking or wrestling; it is also helping us dream a little bit of the future God has for us. It is pondering the actual, imagining the possible.
Theological education must be life-giving and transforming. It must be diverse, engaging, inclusive, liberating, upsetting, unsettling, expansive. It is intersecting life and faith stories hoping to tell a better story together. It is the love of God, life, and the world.
