Black Religion, Black Theology: The Collected Essays of J. Deotis Roberts

Black Religion, Black Theology: The Collected Essays of J. Deotis Roberts. Edited by David Emmanuel Goatley. African American Religious Thought and Life Series. Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 2003. ix + 244 pp. $26.00 (paper).

This book is the first to collect the essays of J. Deotis Roberts, a pioneer of black theology and modern American theology. David Goatley, the editor, carefully selects the best of Roberts's essays and thereby invites the reader into the discovery of why Roberts deserves a place in the hall of great American theologians. Next to James Cone, Roberts is the most prolific writer on themes of black theology. If one is not already familiar with key tenets of black theology it is possible to read this book and still gain the necessary context to understand the impact of Roberts's thought.

As for his theological anthropology, Roberts contends that because of historical and present-day attempts to undermine and destroy the humanity of African Americans, it is necessary to begin the theological enterprise by declaring the absolute dignity and sacredness of every person. As a theologian, Roberts acknowledges the sanctity and dignity of every person, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or class. Rut inasmuch as his own people have historically and contemporaneously been mistreated, he begins by affirming humanity's absolute dignity. Black dignity, he argues, is God-given. Human dignity, therefore, is fundamental to creation. It is both striking and significant that Roberts stresses the sacredness of the entire person, body and mind.

As for his doctrine of God, Roberts contends that God is thoroughly personal, which means at the bare minimum that God is capable of knowing and willing. Roberts develops the themes of the humanity of God, the goodness of God, God as suffering servant, and the God who shares the suffering of the oppressed. God "knows each one of us intimately," so much so that God is concerned to know and respond accordingly to all that happens to us in the world. God is love and goodness and is "all-powerful." This leads to the mystery that God is both transcendent and immanent. That God "knows each one of us intimately" suggests Roberts's belief in the individuality and uniqueness of every person, as well as the belief that human persons and God can share fellowship by virtue of the mystery of relationality. Since Roberts grounds humanity and dignity in God and maintains that God is personal, this implies his belief that only God is fully and perfectly personal. Human persons do not have the ground of their being in themselves, but in God. Such relational theology is why Roberts is so important to the church.

The crucial reason that Roberts matters so much is because of his distinguished career doing theology in service of the church. Unfortunately, this has become a rare occurrence in an era of theology so compartmentalized that the church is often left out. Although Roberts is Baptist, he demonstrates the best sensibilities of the Anglican tradition in which comprehension and a third way always win over destruction and chaos. This was especially important in black theology in which the temptation to embrace exclusion and retaliation was overwhelming. And yet, Roberts steered away from the deadly metaphysical approach that so often paralyzed any constructive action.

The reader will find this a powerful book, arranged to show the development of Roberts's thinking and the revelation of his theological commitments to the church. Theology is free, Roberts writes, because it moves one toward a fuller realization of what God is calling one to do; Christian theology is reconciling because Christians are reconciled to God through Christ and are called to a ministry of reconciliation. In the end, some have characterized Roberts's approach as a theological model of liberational reconciliation. Such a characterization befits the genius that is J. Deotis Roberts.

MICHAEL BATTLE

Duke University Divinity School

Durham, North Carolina

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Spring 2004
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