Looking Back, Moving Forward: Black Religions in the United States

Dear Colleagues,

2018 is a particularly significant moment to consider the past and future development of black religions in the US. Two giants of black religious development—Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon and Dr. James H. Cone—died and left a legacy of profound scholarship in womanist and black theology and ethics. Both challenged the canonical strictures of traditional Western and primarily Christian theology. Cone’s work, in conjunction with activists of the 1960s, considered the links between black power and black theology, affirming and solidifying a historic trajectory of black American liberation theology. Cannon, in the 1980s, came to expand the concept of liberation by focusing analyses by focusing on analyses of black women’s religious lives. Their pivotal work drew from history, culture, theology and black embodied experiences even as they pointed toward a preferred future. Their work certainly influenced contemporary scholars of religion, especially in the United States.

But what does the future hold? What are the new directions and driving edges of black American religion? What are the challenges and are there new connections with activism? Are these growing edged connected with or breaking from past black and womanist theology and ethics?

The peer reviewed essays to be included in this issue of Religions will consider:

1. Focused analyses of significant scholarly achievements of Katie G. Cannon and James H. Cone, their historic achievements in black religious thought but especially essays that point to the ways their work did or did not bridge into recent theological and ethical constructions, and
2. New directions and challenges for scholarly research in black relgious thought, theologies, and ethics.

This issue has the advantage of providing a focus on black religion in the United States from a variety of perspectives in order to encourage deeper discussions. We particularly seek groundbreaking thought that pushes the boundaries of scholarship, in the spirits of Cone and Cannon.

Prof. Dr. Stephanie Y. Mitchem
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• race
• liberation
• black theology and ethics
• womanist theology and ethics
• social justice
• activism
• historic and contemporary analyses