Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Madonna and Child

by Jawanza Eric Clark (Editor)

Overview

In this collection, black religious scholars and pastors whose expertise range from theology, ethics, and the psychology of religion, to preaching, religious aesthetics, and religious education, discuss the legacy of Albert B. Cleage Jr. and the idea of the Black Madonna and child.

Easter Sunday, 2017 will mark the fifty year anniversary of Albert B. Cleage Jr.’s unveiling of a mural of the Black Madonna and child in his church in Detroit, Michigan. This unveiling symbolized a radical theological departure and disruption. The mural helped symbolically launch Black Christian Nationalism and influenced the Black Power movement in the United States. But fifty years later, what has been the lasting impact of this act of theological innovation? What is the legacy of Cleage’s emphasis on the literal blackness of Jesus? How has the idea of a Black Madonna and child informed notions of black womanhood, motherhood? LGBTQ communities? How has Cleage’s theology influenced Christian education, Africana pastoral theology, and the Black Arts Movement? The contributors to this work discuss answers to these and many more questions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137546883
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	09/22/2016
Series:	Black Religion/Womanist Thought/Social Justice
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	303
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jawanza Eric Clark is Associate Professor of Global Christianity at Manhattan College, USA. His first book, Indigenous Black Theology, is a work of comparative and constructive theology that incorporates the indigenous African notion of ancestor in the development of a new Black theology for the church.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Why a White Christ Continues to be Racist: The Legacy of Albert B. Cleage, Jr.; Jawanza Eric Clark.- Part I: Albert B. Cleage Jr.’s Theology and Politics.- 1. The Theological Journey of Albert B. Cleage Jr.: Reflections from Jaramogi’s Protégé and Successor; D. Kimathi Nelson.- 2. Nothing is More Sacred than the Liberation of Black People: Albert Cleage’s Method as Unfulfilled Theological Paradigm Shift; Jawanza Eric Clark.- 3. “We Needed Both of Them”: The Continuing Relevance of Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr’s Radical Interpretations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X in Scholarship and Black Protest Thought”; Stephen Finley.- 4. The Black Messiah and Black Suffering; Torin Dru Alexander.- 5. Politics is Sacred: The Social Activism of Albert B. Cleage Jr.; Aswad Walker.- Part II: Representations of the Black Madonna and Child, Christian Education, and Pastoral Care.- 6. The Black Madonnaand the Role of Women; Velma Maia Thomas.- 7. Black Power and Black Madonnas: Charting the Aesthetic and Cultural Influence of Albert B. Cleage, Jr. and the Shrine of the Black Madonna, #1; Melanee Harvey.- 8. The Power of a Black Christology: Africana Pastoral Theology Reflects on Black Divinity; Lee Butler.- 9. Image is Everything? The Significance of the Imago Dei in the Development of African-American Youth; Almeda Wright.- 10. A Crucified Black Christ, a Dead Black Love; Basean Jackson.- Part III: The Legacy of the Black Messiah in the African Diaspora.- 11. The Crucified City: Detroit as a Black Christ Figure; Kamasi Hill.- 12. Savior King: Re-reading the Gospels as Greco-Africana Literature & Re-Imaging Christ as African Sacrificial King; Salim Faraji.- 13. He is Black and We are Queer: The Legacy of the Black Messiah for Black LGBTQ Christians; Pamela Lightsey.- 14. The “Black Messiah” andAfrican Christologies: Pan-African Symbols of Liberation; Josiah E. Young.- 15. The Quest for a Radical Black Jesus: An Antidote to Imperial Mission Christianity; Anthony Reddie.

Editorial Reviews

The publication of this collection of 15 essays coincides with the 50th anniversary of Albert B. Cleage Jr.’s unveiling of the mural of the black Madonna and Child … . This collection of essays is vital for understanding not only Cleage’s theology and activism but also the history of contemporary Black theology in the United States. The collection fills a large void.” (Frederick L. Ware, Black Theology, Vol. 16 (1), December, 2017)

From the Publisher