SojoMail - What womanist theology taught me about God

The Liberating Theology That Transformed My Understanding of God Lauren W. Reliford “You’ve never heard of womanist theology?!” My colleague Rev. Moya Harris looked at me with a mix of excitement and incredulity. This wasn’t unusual: Through I attended parochial schools and Catholic colleges, I’m a relative newbie to the wider world of faith-based organizations and advocacy — and thus my work frequently involves googling the names of theologians, denominations, and Christian leaders I’ve never heard of before. I love this environment of continued learning, but when I learned about womanist theology, I realized I had been missing a key element of my faith: the liberatory and healing nature of God. Womanism examines the lived experience of Black women who are subject to oppression that intersects with their race, class, and gender. Black poet and novelist Alice Walker is credited with coining the term “womanism.” In her 1983 collection of essays, letters, and speeches, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, Walker offers a four-part definition that focuses on spirituality, creativity, oppression of Black women, and respect. She begins by explaining that a womanist is “A black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mothers to female children” adding that it can also include “a woman who loves other women, sexually and/or non-sexually. Appreciates and prefers women’s culture … Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female.” She famously concludes her definition by stating: “Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.” For Walker, womanism offered a more robust analysis of sociopolitical and cultural issues than feminism, which focused mainly on class and gender and missed the lived oppression for women of color. Walker’s womanism also powerfully focuses on the historical experiences of Black women, from enslavement to segregation and Jim Crow to recent struggles against racism, stereotyping, and poverty, creating a link from the past to present that continues to capture the hearts and minds of future womanists. READ THE FULL ARTICLE Forward Share

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