Culture Watch

Three books recently published by Orbis Books together represent a major breakthrough in African-American women’s theological scholarship. Each is a first of sorts—Delores Williams’ Sisters in the Wilderness is the first book-length womanist theology, Kelly Brown Douglas’ The Black Christ is the first womanist christology focused upon the black Christ image and idea, and Emilie Townes’ anthology, A Troubling in My Soul, is the first published collection of writings by womanist theological scholars.

The three books have as their common point of departure the womanist idea, a creation of writer Alice Walker who coined the term in the preface to her 1983 essay collection In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. Womanist means black feminist, and a growing number of black women religious scholars are appropriating this concept for their own work. It appeals especially to black women who do not wish to be identified along with black men as black theologians, or who see themselves as different from the white women who are feminist theologians. Thus, womanist theology has a distinctive identity of its own. And these three new books contribute mightily toward giving further shape and content to womanist theology as a body of religious scholarship.

Douglas’ The Black Christ essentially follows the approach developed by James Cone (beginning in 1969) to create a black theology rooted in the idea of a black Christ. She introduces the book with a biographical statement regarding her encounters with the black Christ through the faith of her grandmother and the thought of James Cone.

A historian looks for facts, while a novelist probes for the hidden truth of a story. In her non-fiction novel about Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s resistance to Hitler, Mary Glazener incorporates elements of both disciplines, but the historian dominates.

Based on more than 10 years of research, The Cup of Wrath is a compelling story of the young German theologian’s courageous attempt to be faithful to God during Hitler’s repressive regime. The question Bonhoeffer struggled with was one many face today, though for us it’s mostly theoretical: How do you resist evil as a Christian without disobeying Christ’s commands to act nonviolently?

The irony of Bonhoeffer’s witness is that he was almost alone among contemporary Lutherans in his pacifism, yet he felt compelled to take part in a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler, a plot that developed into an attempt to assassinate the self-proclaimed Fuhrer.

You can read this book as an apology directed at those who glibly criticize Bonhoeffer for dropping his pacifist beliefs and acting violently. Glazener shows both the overwhelming evil of Hitler’s regime and the agonizing process of Bonhoeffer’s decision to take action to stop evil instead of separating himself from the problem in order to remain pure.

Bonhoeffer spent some time in the United States before the war. Paul Lehmann of Elmhurst College tried to talk him into staying instead of returning to Germany. Lehmann asks, "Isn’t what you have to say more important than what you might do in the conflict at home?" Bonhoeffer replies, "No. If I stayed here and war came, I’d have nothing to say. I would have compromised my witness."

The Red Road was believed to be the path through this world leading to the Higher Power.
—Bill Miller

It has been said that one of the greatest injustices done to Native Americans today is the attempt to keep them living in the past. White America is alternately fascinated by historical Native American culture and ignorant of, or apathetic toward, contemporary Native American struggles. We’ll stand in line to see Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves (with a white man playing soldiers and Indians), but few will ever walk down the reservation road Bill Miller invites us to in his most recent release, The Red Road.

This is a story about a journey. It’s about trails and paths. At times it’s about drifting aimlessly; more often it’s about soaring with eagles and hawks. Through it all, Miller, who was raised on the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian reservation in central Wisconsin, never fails to praise God, to honor his Mohican heritage, or, with quiet forcefulness, to hold white America accountable for its actions.

Miller opens his first recording on a major label with "Dreams of Wounded Knee," a stirring requiem that masterfully blends guitar and flute to call forth mourning and wailing. This is followed by "Praises," a spiritual that transcends time and place through a combination of Menominee chants and English lyrics. Joined by the Smokey Town Singers, a group of Pow Wow performers based on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Shawano, Wisconsin, "Praises" opens and closes with "Ma-Nee-Ta-haem" (We feel good in our hearts)/"Wa-Wa-Non" (We thank you)/"Mau-Ne-Ka-Ko-Saw-te-wa" (We have everything) /"Mah-Maw-Koh-Ne-No" (Our father up above), while Miller praises the Creator for all of creation: rivers, mountains, eagles, his children, and his people.