The struggle for Black hope?: Black nihilism, Black theology, and the politics of the absurd

In this essay, we examine a contemporary religious movement, The Gathering: A Womanist Church that is centered around a theology of justice in action with an emphasis on a broad-minded belief system. These religious movements are intentionally less focused on doctrinal statements and correct beliefs for assimilation. Instead, these new movements are within the tradition of religion in action: the act of fighting for justice is the doctrine. Leaders within these movements work to provide hope for a realized existence in the face of racism, homophobia, capitalism, and penal injustices. We contextualize the dialectics of Black nihilism and Black theology through an appeal to the absurd in the face of hope.

Cornel West in his seminal book Race Matters argues, “Nihilism is to be understood here not as a philosophical doctrine that there are no rational grounds for legitimate standards of authority: it is, far more, the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessness.” In considering Wests’ diagnosis of the currently black condition, we want to examine nihilism as a hopelessness and lovelessness and juxtapose Black theology against this horizon of the black plight. West goes on to say, “The frightening result is a numbing detachment from others and a self-destructive disposition toward the world. Life without meaning, hope, and love breeds a coldhearted, mean-spirited outlook that destroys both the individual and others” What is to be done about this nihilistic threat? Nihilism is a disease to the soul." (West, “Nihilism in Black America,” in *Race Matters*, 14/22).

In response to this provocation, we contextualize how these leaders are combating Black nihilism. We problematize the loss of hope under the conditions of racial capitalism and the absence of meaning through examining one contemporary religious movement: The Gathering: A Womanist Church in Dallas, TX lead by Rev Dr. Kamilah Hall Sharp and Rev. Dr. Irie Sessions as an entry point to begin thinking about ways that Black theology dialogues with Black nihilism.

In the U.S. empire, there is a focus on individualism and this need to serve oneself. The nihilist does not see a way forward above the status quo; the only way to live is to hurt oneself because that is the inevitable reality. Leaders within new black religious movements provide a space of hope where one can come into an ontology of love and justice. The Gathering: A Womanist Church provides an example of how a contemporary Black religious movement makes an intervention on the optics and foundational traditional religious movements in the United States in the fight for Black Life. These leaders are distinctive and innovative in regard to what they are preaching and their political actions. This movement is characterized as a theology that is built around action versus “right belief.” There is less emphasis on personal renewal, but how justice initiatives are a source of personal renewal. These leaders are inclusive in their theology, love centered, and justice focused. Rather than dismissing hopelessness as a sad state of mind these leaders in the new religious movement make space for hopelessness to exist intertwined with a theology of hope. This movement is contextualized within a postmodern frame that allows for multiple avenues of truth.

This movement is contextualized within a postmodern frame that allows for multiple avenues of truth which opens up Black nihilism to encounter a theology that provides an opportunity for its hopelessness by giving nihilistic thought recognition of its truth instead of dismissing nihilism as “sinful”. For us, new black theology does not simply combat nihilism in order to remove it, instead, this theology shows us that nihilism can lead us to a theology of hope.