A Progressive Christian Primer, Part 3: “Jesus & the Disinherited”

Part 3 of my blog-before-it-becomes-a-book. Feedback welcome!

Chapter 1: “Jesus and the Disinherited”

One of the most influential theologians for me in rethinking my Christian faith is the eminent black theologian Howard Thurman. Thurman is not well-known among lay people, but he was the theological father of the Civil Rights Movement. He heavily influenced the thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and many other influential civil rights leaders, and provided the theological framework for much of what became black liberationist theology. He wrote a small but powerful book in the early 20th century called “Jesus And the Disinherited.”

I have chosen this title as the first chapter of this book firstly because I think you should read it, but also because I think it aptly sums up what the definition of “Christian theology” should be. For so many like me raised in Reformed-adjacent Christian spaces ([Ana]Baptist, Pentecostal, holiness, evangelical, and Calvinist denominations), and to a lesser extent, Roman Catholicism, “theology” is more or less synonymous with “systematic theology”- that is, a system that makes sense of belief about God. Theology, in this framework, essentially means doctrine- a more or less internally consistent system of dogma and statements about the truth of God.