Theological Thinking and Eurocentric Epistemologies: A Challenge to Theologians from within Africana Religious Studies

Motivated by the work of scholars of Africana religions, this essay questions whether theology as a mode of critical reflection that depends on Christian-centric understandings of revelation can contribute toward a liberation from colonial relations of power. Actualizing liberation in a meaningful way requires a liberation from Eurocentric loci of rationality, yet theologians’ movement toward liberation often proceeds precisely from such a site—namely, a reception of revelation dominated by the Mediterranean world and Europe. To explain this tension, I first consider how work within Africana religious studies challenges Christian theological ways of thinking. Second, I focus on uses of revelation in theology and consider how even nuanced understandings of revelation often remain mired epistemologically in colonial relations of power. I conclude by concretizing a question, prompted by scholars of Africana religions, that theologians must address within projects responding to colonial relations of power.