African Theology and Black Theology

These two forms of theologies have very distinct emphasis when it comes to their aims and aspirations. This does not mean that the two forms of theologies do not have anything in common they do. However, they have many differences when compared to similarities. This essay tries to look at the similarities and differences that these two theologies have. Firstly, I will take a look at the characteristics of African Theology. The South Africans really know and understand the impact that a black God can do to their lives and in everything that they have been going through. Being oppressed is not a very nice experience to anyone of us. It only brings trauma and depression and nothing more. This means sleeping and waking up in fear.

People are unable to do their daily activities and this means that some of them will be forced to sleep hungry and children will be forced to stay out of school. What are the characteristics of Black Theology? The black theology which is also referred to as the Black liberation theology refers to a theological perspective whose origin is among the African American scholars and seminars and in some of the black churches that were located in the United States and which later spread to other parts of the world. The African Americans saw it good to come up with the knowledge that will give them hope for a better and comfortable future. It took them time to engage with the scholarly articles and come up with a sure true message that could be believed and accepted by people.

Black theology is acknowledged as a theological movement that was founded in the 1960s whose main focus was on the central theme that tried to ensure the liberation of the black people who were very poor and continuously oppressed as they lived and carried out their daily activities in the United States. This is the provision of freedom and peace to the Africans who were under oppression and a lot of suffering. The Black theology strongly affirms “blackness” as a major theme for Christ through God himself. This means that He went through the same experience that the Africans are going through. It states that God reveals himself in his own blackness and goes ahead into liberating the black humanity from the hands of the white racists and also from the oppression that they were going through while in the United States.

This is because He is powerful and has great strength to do anything that He wishes to the human race. The black theology is believed to have originated and had its strong roots in South Africa. Despite all the issues that were faced by Black theology, it had great significance because it allowed the Africans to comfortably relate to a God who no longer favors their white oppressors but a God who is black as them and always on their side to ensure that they are comfortable and saved. When seeking to extensively understand Black theology, we are able to gain a new and positive picture of a God which we never had before in our mind and thus at the end of the day believe that he is always there for us.

This theology is also important in the role of ensuring that it has been able to dispel all the misleading interpretation of racial prejudice that is present in the Bible and that gives away for oppression. The black theology gave a way out for all the African Americans to have hope that at the end of the day they will be able to have peace and happiness apart from being oppressed from the side of their counterpart. It made them to also believe that there is a God who took care of them and was ready to cater for their needs as black people and to also redeem them from evil hands because he was not pleased with all with what was going on and what they were going through.

The African theology is really concerned with the relationship that is in existence between Christianity and the culture of the Africans, between the state and the church, together with the many challenges that exist between liturgical and pastoral. The black theology really tries to avoid the other main theological issues that are not directly related and one in line with liberation. The African theology has not been interested at all in giving the black color to Christ or God the way most of the Africans believe, it has no interest at all in reading closely liberation into every verse and text that is located in the Holy Scriptures, no interest at all in giving people information to ensure that they set their minds or try to behave “black”.

These are left to the Black theology whose main intention is doing this through the whole region of Atlantic and they are greatly admired on the scene of America. Black theology tried to encourage the Africans to get a picture of God or Christ as being one of them, one of their own color, one who really understand who the black people are and what they are going through for the purpose of giving them hope at the end of the day (Engdahl, 90-98). We all belong to one seed which means that God is a father to every one of us in the universe. Its true to conclude that Black theology tried to encourage the Africans to get a picture of God or Christ as being one of them, one of their own color, one who really understand who the black people are and what they are going through for the purpose of giving them hope at the end of the day.