Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction to the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition xi

The Color Line: A Matter of White Supremacy xvi

From the Manger to the Cross xx

Introduction to the 1994 Edition xxiii

Who Is the Black Christ? xxix

Is the Black Christ Enough? xxxi

1 The Roots of the Black Christ 1

Slaveholding Christianity and the White Christ 3

Slave Christianity and the Black Christ 14

Black Nationalists and the Color of Christ 27

Early Black Literature and the Black Christ 30

2 The Black Struggle and the Black Christ 33

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Christ 35

Malcolm X and the Color of Christ 47

3 The Theological Development of the Black Christ 56

The Relationship between Blackness and Christ 58

The Significance of Liberation and Reconciliation 70

Violence or Nonviolence? 81

4 A Critical Assessment of the Black Christ 88

An Assessment of Each Claim 89

Is the Black Christ Adequate? 95

The Emergence of Womanist Theology 106

5 A Womanist Approach to the Black Christ 113

Laying a Womanist Foundation 113

Something More about the Blackness of Christ 125

The Womanist Black Christ Challenges Womanists and the Church 133

The Black Christ from a Womanist Eye 137

Index 139