38 The Sources and Norm of Black Theology master came to his death, blacks believed that it was the work of God inflicting just judgment in recompense for the suffering of God's people. Black theology cannot ignore this spirit in the black community if it is going to win the enthusiasm of the community it serves. Black theology must also avoid the opposite error of speaking of Jesus Christ without reference to black liberation. The post-Civil War black church committed this error. It turned to the white Jesus who always speaks to blacks in terms of white interest and power. He tells blacks that love means turning the other cheek; that the only way to win political freedom is through nonviolence; he even praises Martin Luther King, Jr., for his devotion to him, though he knows that King was always his enemy in spirit and that he chose King because he thought King was the least of the evils available. The white Jesus tries to convince us that there is no difference between American democracy and Christian freedom, that vio- lence is no way to respond to inhumanity. Black theology must realize that the white Jesus has no place in the black community, and it is our task to destroy him. We must replace him with the black messiah, as Albert Cleage would say, a messiah who sees his existence as inseparable from black liberation and the destruction of white racism. S "The norm of black theology must take seriously two realities, actually two aspects of a single reality: the liberation of blacks and the revelation of Jesus Christ. With these two realities before us, what is the norm of black theology? The norm of all God-talk which seeks to be black-talk is the manifestation of Jesus as the black Christ who provides the necessary soul for black liberation. This is the the hermeneutical principl principle for black theology which guides its interpretation of the meaning of contemporary Christianity. Black theology refuses to accept any norm which does not focus on Jesus Christ, because he is the essence of the Christian gospel. But when we speak of the Christian gospel, we have merely scratched the surface by saying Jesus is at its center. It is so easy to make his name mean intellectual analysis, and we already have too much of that garbage in seminary libraries. What is needed is an application of the name to concrete human affairs. What does the name mean when black people are burning buildings and white people are responding with riot-police control? Whose side is Jesus on? The 39 The Sources and Norm of Black Theology norm of black theology, which identifies revelation as a manifesta- tion of the black Christ, says that he is those very blacks whom white society shoots and kills. The contemporary Christ is in the black ghetto, making decisions about white existence and black liberation. Of course, this interpretation of theology will seem strange to most whites, and even some blacks will wonder whether it is really true that Christ is black. But the truth of the statement is not dependent on white or black affirmation, but on the reality of Christ himself who is presently breaking the power of white racism. This and this alone is the norm for black-talk about God. 36 The Sources and Norm of Black Theology important than others? The answers to this question range from the fundamentalist's verbal-inspiration view to the archliberal view that the Bible is merely one of many records of religious experi- ences. In all cases, the importance and use of the Bible are deter- mined by the theological norm which is brought to the scripture. Theologies with a kerygmatic consciousness would like to think that the norm arises from scripture itself, but this is not always easy to determine. What is certain is that the theologian brings to the scripture the perspective of a community. Ideally, the concern of that commu- nity is consistent with the concern of the community that gave us the scriptures. It is the task of theology to keep these two communi- ties (biblical and contemporary) in constant tension in order that we may be able to speak meaningfully about God. Black theology seeks to create a theological norm in harmony with the black condition and biblical revelation. On the one hand, the norm must not be a private norm of a particular theologian but must arise from the black community itself. This means that there can be no norm for the black community which does not take seriously its reality in the world and what that means in a white racist society. Theology cannot be indifferent to the importance of blackness by making some kind of existential leap beyond black- ness to an undefined universalism. It must take seriously the ques- tions which arise from black existence and not even try to answer white questions, questions coming from the lips of those who know oppressed existence only through abstract reflections. If theology is to be relevant to the human condition which created it, it must relate itself to the questions which arise out of the community responsible for its reason for being. The very existence of black theology is dependent on its ability to relate itself to the human situation unique to oppressed persons generally and blacks particularly. If black theology fails to do this adequately, then the black community will and should destroy it. Blacks have heard enough about God. What they want to know is what God has to say about the black condition. Or, more importantly, what is God doing about it? What is the relevance of God in the struggle against the forces of evil which seek to destroy black being? These are the questions which must shape the character of the norm of black theology. The sources and form of black Freotogy On the other hand, black theology must not overlook biblical revelation. This means that black theology should not devise a norm which ignores the encounter of the black community with the revelation of God. Whatever it says about liberation must be said in the light of the black experience of Jesus Christ. The failure of many black radicals to win the enthusiasm of the black community may be due to their inability to take seriously the religious character inherent in that community. It is not possible to speak meaningfully to the black community about liberation unless it is analyzed from a Christian perspective which centers on Jesus Christ. This ac- counts for the influence of Martin Luther King, Jr. As a prophet, with a charisma never before witnessed in this century, King preached black liberation in the light of Jesus Christ and thus aroused the spirit of freedom in the black community. To be sure, one may argue that his method of nonviolence did not meet" the needs of the black community in an age of black power; but it is beyond question that it was King's influence and leadership in the black community which brought us to the period in which we now live, and for that we are in debt. His life and message demonstrate that the "soul" of the black community is inseparable from libera- tion but always liberation grounded in Jesus Christ. The task of black theology is to build on the foundation laid by King by recognizing the theological character of the black community, a community whose being is inseparable from liberation through Jesus Christ. ion This is an awesome task for black theology. It is so easy to sacrifice one for the other. There is a tendency, on the one hand, to deny the relevance of Jesus Christ for black liberation, especially in view of white prostitution of the gospel in the interests of slavery and white supremacy. One can be convinced that Jesus Christ is the savior and God of whites and thus can have nothing to do with black self-determination. And yet, what other name is there? The name of Jesus has a long history in the black community. Blacks know the source from which the name comes, but they also know the reality to which that name refers. Despite its misuse in the white community (even the devil is not prohibited from adopting God's name), the black community is convinced of the reality of Jesus Christ's presence and his total identification with their suffering. They never believed that slavery was his will. Every time a white