Anthony G. Reddie

Powers, principalities and the spirit

book genres in the New Testament (e.g. epistles, apocalyptic). Furthermore, thinking about limitations still, I wonder if the way the experience of the Jamaican diaspora in Britain is framed implicitly essentializes “the black experience” because not all Jamaicans or Blacks in Britain live in urban settings nor do all Jamaicans in urban Britain like hip-hop or rap but may favour classical or even country music. Though it was not the intention of this project to do so, listeners might come away thinking there is only one experience of Jamaicans in the urban Black context of Britain. Of course, one book or album cannot cover every topic or book of the Bible and must create limits in some way, thus I hope there may be a future plan for another musical instalment, a series of albums that would be produced to continue this conversation about black liberation theology, church, culture, and context through more than words, but bodies and sound. Anyone interested in black life or black theology, lay or ordained, student or professor, janitor or CEO, Ph.D. or no D at all, all di people of God, should hear this remix of the Jamaican New Testament. It will not only change the listener’s view of the Bible, God, or Black life, it will change the listener’s life. This project is sonic salvation. Nuff said bredren.

Telling the Truth and Shaming the Devil: Using Caribbean Proverbial Wisdom for Raising the Critical Consciousness of African Caribbean People in Postcolonial Britain

Abstract This article outlines a creative, innovative and interdisciplinary approach to conscientizing ordinary Black people on the margins of British society. This approach is one I have termed “participative” Black theology. It seeks to move beyond largely theorizing to that which enables ordinary people to be active in a more praxis-based approach to building theological discourse from the bottom up. This particular, participative approach to Black theology is one in which I engage with Jamaican proverbs, as a means of utilizing African Caribbean folk wisdom in order to create a practical resource for raising the critical consciousness of ordinary Black people. This practical schema for engaging with Caribbean proverbial wisdom is used as a means of engaging critically with the Bible, in order to develop a reading strategy that will lend itself to more subversive and improvisatory approaches to understanding Black life in Britain.

Living Out Faith

Abstract This essay is concerned with the critical needs of ordinary Black Christians in Britain and how their faith engages with the materiality of their Blackness. The central argument of this essay is that “Black Christianity in Britain” needs to engage with the processes of critical reflection and learning in order to ensure that this phenomenon is better attuned to the environmental milieu in which this collective faith is located. This work calls for the utilization of transformative Christian education in order to assist ordinary Black Christians to reflect critically on their faith as it pertains to the historical formulations of Western Missionary Christianity that has helped to shape the dimensions of anti-Blackness that is replete in this religious framework. This essay argues that there are deep-seated issues of self-esteem and identity that are still replete within Black Christianity in Britain.