This panel considers the impact of Black Theology on Black sexual theoethics. Panelists will engage the role of Black and Womanist theology in deconstructing, expanding, and building new understandings of "the oppressed."
Using a mix-method approach, I engage Cultural Anthropology, Narrative Theory, and Black Queer Theology within a Black Posthumanist lens to investigate how Black Trans-masculine identities are shaped by and resist traditional hegemonic theological and cultural structures. This unique perspective allows me to both examine and develop contemporary literary works that elevate Black transmasculine identities. I argue that the intersecting identities of the Black Transmasculine experience are liberatory in and of themselves in that they challenge and reshape dominant notions of gender, race, and religion. Through narrative, I seek to illuminate how Transmasculine experiences challenge and reshape traditional theological frameworks, offering new possibilities for religious practice, community building, and freedom.
In his preface to the 1997 edition of God of The Oppressed, James Cone looks back and writes of his 1975 publication: “It still represents my basic theological perspective—that the God of biblical faith and black religion is partial toward the weak” (Cone, 1997). However, he acknowledges in no uncertain terms that the perspectives of feminist, gay, womanist, Native American, and South African theologians, in particular, have transformed the content, form, and approach of his work. This paper focuses on the significance of Cone’s critical reflection on and reconsideration of his own work – with an emphasis on the ways Cone’s perspectives on gender and sexuality evolved. Through this paper contends that Cone’s way of looking back models a politically powerful form of humility that remains one of the most effective technologies available to those who are oppressed in quests for liberation.