Dennis W. Wiley writes on God. Not the doctrine of God, but God. The direct application of this chapter is somewhat obscured by his analysis of variations on God among black theologians. While helpful, Wiley's analytic throat-clearing obscures if only a little the punch God delivers as liberator.
A few points of contact with the traditional doctrine of God. First, in black liberation theology "there is a balance between God's transcendence and immanence." Second, of his transcendence, quoting black theologian Major Jones, "'of God alone can one speak of a self-existent, absolute reality who is also a good and living person.'" Yet of God's immanence, "God is affected by our welfare." Impassibility is not an attribute of God.
Third, while both wrath and love characterize God, God as liberator "best differentiates this God from the God of white theology." Liberation, in turn, is "a holistic concept that refers not simply to physical liberation, but to spiritual, psychological, emotional, social, political, and economic liberation." Summarizing James Cone,
(1) The Christian understanding of God arises from the biblical view of revelation, a revelation of God that takes place in the liberation of oppressed Israel and is completed in the incarnation in Jesus Christ.
(2) The doctrine of God in black theology must be of the God who is participating in the liberation of the oppressed of the land.
Finally, God is black. After surveying what black theologians have meant by the phrase "God is black," Wiley summarizes it such that
Black is more than a color -- it is a symbol that points to a condition of suffering, humiliation, and oppression that demands liberation. Anyone can participate in this liberation, whether physically white, black, or any color in-between. But whoever participates -- including God -- must at least be black ontologically.
In other words, just as oppression is blackness, liberation must assume the form of black. Only then can reconciliation take place.
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