Search -
Tribal Talk: Black Theology, Hermeneutics, and African/American Ways of "Telling the Story"
Tribal Talk Black Theology Hermeneutics and African/American Ways of Telling the Story Author:Will Coleman A refreshing approach to reading, interpreting, and understanding the theological and literary nature of African American slave narratives. This book is unique in that it uses various interpretative strategiesPaul Riceours philosophical approach, African American literary critical approaches and the hermeneutics of black theol... more »ogyto demonstrate the ways in which slave narratives are indeed a basis for black theology. Barbara Christian, University of California, Berkeley Since the 1960s a whole new field and orientation of historical analysis on the slave narratives has opened up, but this field has largely ignored what seems to have been extremely important in the narratives themselves: the religious experience. Coleman corrects this oversight through his keen sensitivity to the transformative blending of Euro-American Christian symbols and traditional African symbols and practices. Rebecca S. Chopp, Candler School of Theology, Emory University One important way that enslaved African Americans recorded their experience was through slave narratives, also called liberation narratives. Although much has been written about these narratives as repositories for slave culture and religion, Tribal Talk explores them as a unique and rich source for a contemporary, constructive black theology. Exploring the oral traditions of African American culture from a theological, historical, and literary perspective, Will Coleman describes the narrative as a means of reproducing and preserving mythic origins and cultural ways of knowing, as well as representing religious experience through symbolic languagestrategies by which African Americans retain their heritage. In his analysis of myths and narratives drawn from African storytellers and African American slaves and ex-slaves, Coleman uses a variety of reading techniques to interpret their stories theologically. Ultimately, he revises contemporary black theology by linking it with the language and religious experiences of enslaved black people.« less