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Abstract
Cornel West lectured to the ministerial leadership at the House of the Lord Pentecostal Church in Brooklyn, New York, pastored by Bishop Herbert D. Daughtry, Sr, which became the bases for Prophesy Deliverance! My article lays the context and historical circumstances that brought West to the church. The essay explains theological, political nexus, and the critical moment in which the church, as a central member of the Black United Front, found itself at the center of the call for justice and social change amid police murders and abuses in New York City during the mayoral administration of Edward Koch.
Abstract
Early lectures, which became the book Prophesy Deliverance! by Cornel West, were delivered at the House of the Lord Pentecostal Church in Brooklyn, New York. The location of House of the Lord, which West argued was an exemplar of Afro-American revolutionary Christianity, demonstrates the relational and reciprocal insights Pentecostalism shares with West’s commitments to radical historicism and prophetic pragmatism. Several Black descended Pentecostals–scholars Leonard Lovett and Keri Day, and denominational leader Smallwood Williams–enact both a complex cultural analysis, and a robust social analysis. I argue Pentecostal praxis and critical reflection engage and extend West’s corpus and Black critical thought.
Abstract
Black Apostolic Pentecostal Bishop Arthur M. Brazier employed various discursive practices to promote an integrationist agenda by affirming Black Power as a complex constellation of ideologies for achieving self-determination, Black pride, and self-sufficiency. Brazier deployed a Black Power/Black Liberation Theology-informed social program to help Black Chicagoans vie for their piece of the [American] pie in the name of cultural assimilation and socio-economic inclusion. Here, I reflect on Professor West’s proposal for an Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity. Recognizing that his discussion of the practical and programmatic dimensions of revolutionary Christian perspective and praxis were never intended to reify religious parochialism, in it, I find a theoretical framework with which to examine the religio-social consciousness of Black Pentecostals like Brazier, who prophesied deliverance via Black liberation.
Abstract
In Prophesy Deliverance, Cornel West calls on Black liberation theologians to critical engage with Marxist thought. Instigated by Black Lives Matter movement, this article explores the convergence of Black Pentecostalism, Marxism, and liberation theology, highlighting their collective potential to address racial capitalism and systemic injustice. Drawing on Black existential thought, insurgent theologies, and Pentecostal praxis, it proposes a theology that is anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, antiracist, and antisexist, emphasizing the lived experiences of the Black poor. It argues for a Black Pentecostal Liberation Theology that critiques racial, economic, and gender oppressions through a revolutionary Christian lens. This framework seeks to transcend the historical legacies of slavery and racial discrimination, advocating for a transformative praxis rooted in Black struggle and resistance.
Abstract
This paper recognizes the 40th anniversary of the publication of Prophesy Deliverance! by Cornel West, and acknowledges the broad impact of his intellectual leadership. It begins with the important question of whether West has centered or marginalized Pentecostal thought and culture in the presentation of his basic argument regarding the evolution of Black critical thought and prophetic Christianity. Next is an exploration of how West’s ideas about Black revolutionary Christianity find expression in recent studies of Black Pentecostalism, with particular attention to the Pentecostal social imaginary framed by Dale Coulter and by Keri Day.
Abstract
Y a-t-il un lieu d’où prend son départ la démarche certalienne ? Conscients que le même Certeau a toujours regardé avec suspect toute fixation d’un lieu, nous faisons l’hypothèse qu’il existe néanmoins un lieu paradoxal qui est à l’origine de sa démarche, aussi bien existentielle qu’intellectuelle : la blessure. Au fin fond de l’homme, nous laisse entendre Certeau, il y a une blessure, engendrée par un manque : c’est le désir blessé par l’absence de l’Autre, qui est en même temps la trace de sa présence. Une perspective anthropologique et théologique se déploie à partir de cette blessure, mais aussi un style et une manière de regarder le passé, d’interpréter les agissements des hommes et des femmes d’aujourd’hui, et de défricher le terrain pour ce qui est à venir.
Abstract
Shīʿī mujtahids (mujtahidun) and thinkers often try to adopt the norms of Islamic law to contemporary conditions, and usually it is hampered by the absolute authority of the ‘letter’ of the Qurʾān, Sunna, and sometimes the opinions of authoritative theologians of the past, which leads to an understanding of Islamic law as dogmatic. However, some scholars attempt to revise this approach, appealing to the principles and ‘spirit’ of the Qurʾānic verses and the need for the Islamic legal norms to meet the conditions of the time and place of their application. This paper analyses the case studies with approaches of contemporary Shīʿī mujtahids Yousef Saanei and Mohammad Ebrahim Jannaati and their views on this issue.
Abstract
In recent years, numerous studies of prayer practices have been presented in the field of cultural and religious sciences. In his article on “L’homme en prière, cet ‘arbre de gestes’”, Michel de Certeau makes the gestures of prayer and the space inhabited by prayer the starting point for a fundamental approach to human existence. The following article builds on these reflections and, in the context of the ‘spacial turn’ in the cultural sciences, attempts to work out with Michel de Certeau the paths to an ‘intellectus fidei’ in these times of broken links with the ecclesial institution, when spirituality is gaining new importance, even in secular circles.
Abstract
This paper presents a public theology affirming the normalization of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Religious convictions about human equality and social justice contribute constructively to matters of public concern. While official principles of disability services do, operating practices often do not, accord with a theological vision of God’s desire for human flourishing. The analysis summarizes what is going on (many adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience restricted lives), employs socio-ecological theory to explain why (shortcomings at multiple levels of civil society disadvantage them), uses theology and sociology to specify what should be going on (they should be able to live ‘normal’ lives like non-disabled people) and proposes action steps (change in numerous social systems can promote normalization).
Abstract
People are intrinsically relational beings and this need to interact is channelled into the establishment of communities, whose organization is often formalized into institutions. An opposition between both types of groups has been raised in the literature. This article seeks to critically analyze the relationship between communities and institutions, based on Christian social ethics, political philosophy, and social sciences through a bibliographic exploration and a transdisciplinary discussion. The concepts of community and institution are analyzed and citizenship connections with both concepts are discussed, considering two different traditions of citizenship, and its relationship with democratic culture and community building. To conclude, the concept of binding citizenship as a bridge between communities and institutions is proposed, and solidarity and liberty are considered as two principles that become integrated and can coexist in communities and institutions.