The article introduces various reports published within the issue, including two on the book "Jesus is Dread," one on Black Pentecostalism and black theology, and one on biblical hermeneutics in the Caribbean region.
"This essay makes what may seem an obvious case: that authentic Black British God-talk needs to urgently engage with the diverse religious landscape of which it is a part. In the process, the essay seeks briefly to scrutinize past and present Black British theological discourse, explore the overtures with regard to engagement with multi-faith and interfaith issues and offer some tentative observations and practical suggestions on the way forward." (author)
"This brief essay seeks to reflect on the contextual background and cultural milieu that surrounding the writing of Jesus is Dread, the first fully articulated Black theology text in Britain. The author, who is now an accomplished and respected film maker and television presenter, was the first Black person to teach Black theology as a fully fledged, academic discipline within theological education and ministerial training in Britain. This essay offers some nascent thoughts on the Construction of this text, highlighting the reasons for its development, and the influences that enabled it to come to life. The latter part of the essay outlines the author's subjective analysis on the continuing developments in the Black theology in Britain movement since the emergence of Jesus is Dread in 1998." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR];
"This essay addresses the horrific struggles of enslaved Africans during the "Middle Passage" and argues that the "Black Atlantic" can be considered as a form of existential crucifixion for those whose lives were decimated during the traversing of this oceanic divide between their old world and the new. The author argues that this existential crucifixion represents a kind of collective experiential-historical "Low Saturday" for Diasporan African peoples, in that the failure of full freedom to emerge for "us" suggests that Easter Sunday is an aspirational dream rather than a contextual reality." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
