Caribbean Theology

This book will represent a major contribution to the emerging concept of
Emancipation Theology as proposed by Rev’d Dr. Devon Dick of the Jamaica Baptist Union, a Caribbean theologian. The book will bring together some of the most talented young Caribbean theologians grappling with the Caribbean crises, using theology as a way to advocate, argue and address these moral ‘dis-eases’ and political rhetoric. Further, this book will be an invaluable resource for Caribbean political leaders who are seeking to transform the lived reality of Caribbean people everywhere but currently do not have a contextual, ethical and theological framework to do so.
Lastly, the hope is that a compilation like this will act as a stimulant to pastors and theologians of the early Caribbean theology project to pursue this project and that it will inspire young Caribbean theologians to be faithful to those who have gone before us.

It can be argued that theology in the Caribbean has, until recently, been reticent in engaging cultural studies, and particularly in using African Caribbean religiocultural heritages and art-forms such as carnival, reggae, stickfigting, Obeah and Myal, as examples, as sites for theological reflection. Undergirding this reticence is a colonially inherited belief in a dichotomy between the sacred and the secular; between the church and culture; and consequently, between theology and the social sciences. This paper argues that
despite popular mis-conceptions, Junkanoo, a mainly Anglophone Caribbean street festival fundamental
to Bahamian identity, has always functioned as a new and liberative way of doing theology in that context.
Its complex relationship with the church deeply challenges concepts of sacredness, secularity, profanity,
and idolatry as they are lived out in contemporary Bahamian life. This insight is important not only for
theological research and discourse, but also for cultural studies and various forms of social research, since
accessing the dynamic truths of such African Caribbean religiocultural productions and experiences require
such an interdisciplinary approach.

This paper is divided into two parts and is concerned with the need to revisit contemporary concepts of the Holy Spirit, particularly in African Caribbean theological discourse. Firstly, it explores the colonial context in which the Car- ibbean Church’s concept of the Holy Spirit was formalized. The argument advanced here is that within the context of colonial religio-cultural oppression and the intense “othering” of the African person, pneumatologically oriented African Caribbean religiosity (and spirituality), has simultaneously been a place for reformation in the context of a colonial Christianity and the driving force behind African Caribbean forms of resistance and self-affirmation. Secondly, it argues for a “hermeneutic of embrace” where theology within the African Caribbean religio-cultural milieu will explore the continuities between the elusive nature of the Holy Spirit within Scripture, Christian history, and the very African religiosity particularly expressed in African Caribbean religio-cul- tural productions. Such an exploration would combat a Western theological tendency, as it always has done, to dismiss what are, clearly, powerful resources for Christian pneumatology.

The focus of this paper will be to reflect on biblical theology within a Caribbean context, and investigate whether the Caribbean Theology Project should rewrite, reshape, and reconcile its theological landscape in lieu of its present ineffectiveness in the socio-economic, political, and religious spheres of the Caribbean.

As part of the Anglophone African Caribbean, the Bahamas is such a society with varying degrees of embedded self-hatred akin to the psychology of the colonized that Frantz Fanon describes in Black Skin, White Masks, or the "double consciousness" W.E.B. DuBois coined in The Souls of Black Folk. One is hard pressed to find a better example of this than in the ambiguous attitudes towards Junkanoo, a carnival-like street festival integral to Bahamian national and cultural identity, particularly in its relationship to the Church within Bahamian society The central thesis of this article is that, as a thriving African religio-cultural retention within the Anglophone Caribbean, Junkanoo for Bahamian people, just like folk and popular culture for Caribbean people generally, is indispensable to Caribbean Christianity, especially in regards to the critical issue of self-negation.

The Development of Power, Privilege, Position and Status Within the Foundations of Historical literature and Divine Intervention.

Abstract
Do the Poems of Homer and Hesiod’s Theogony and the Biblical Stories provide a Basis to Begin to Understand the Problem and Consequences of Human Dynamics in the Development of Human Society?

This paper is part of special theological project research written for the MINTS site in Grenada (GITE) that seeks to draw attention to the church in Grenada via a Caribbean Theology lens. The writer uses observations, educated guesses and general statistics, to give a socio-theological reflection on the church in Grenada, its ministry and missions endeavours and its current approach to theological education. The paper makes recommendations for a Caribbean theological approach to reimagining its praxis so that it can be impactful and transformative for the new millennium.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2 NRSV). It is the Spirit of Revolution that is the breath of life, giving essential life to all existence. In Genesis 2:7 we see how humanity was created; then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man [humanity] became a living being (Gen 2:7 NRSV). It is this breath of life that the authors of this paper argue is the Spirit of Revolution; however, imagination which is what sparks the thought to revolt and cannot be excluded from the process of revolution. The Imaginative Revolution was breathed into our incipient ancestors with the intention of doing something new by being advocates of life and seeking liberation for all oppression. St. Basil writes:

The ecumenical movement in its principle and faith praxis presents to the world an alternative paradigm for human system of economic interaction and cohabitation, which operates on the biblical ethics of neighbourliness and love. The New Testament writers presented this concept as the Kingdom of God. Using the both the Hebrew and New Testament scriptures, this paper attest that the Church should address the culture of greed and where possible eliminate this culture by presenting the Kingdom of God as the ethical standard by which people exist.

This paper is an attempt to interrogate Scholar’s song, “Breaker” (Song of Resilience) using a mixture of Judeo-Christian Biblical strategies including,  form, genre, historical and literary criticisms as a way to honour Scholar, inform the author’s theological reflection and demonstrate the benefits of engaging ‘other’ Caribbean music for the benefit of a wider audience. Grenadian cultural icon Scholar (Finely Jeffrey, B.Ed. M.Sc) wrote and performed the song ‘Breaker’, (2020) with his daughter Zaedel Jeffrey. The song is about six minutes and twenty-five seconds (6.25) in length and it contains three (3) stanzas. Paul Thomas of Mt. Zion Studio in Grenada produced it. Further, the song was mixed and mastered at Mt. Zion Studio. In the genre of Caribbean music, it falls in the class of a Calypso. It is a spiritual ballad that tells the story of Grenadians and Grenada’s resiliency, resolved and revolutionary hope in light of the challenges COVID-19.

Biblical interpretation is inherently contextual. Various social forces, ideas, and experiences shape the process of biblical interpretation. That admission also acknowledges the Bible's own particular historical, social, and religious contexts. Proper biblical interpretation is carried out in light of both the biblical and contemporary contexts. However, it is possible to attend so resolutely to context that we miss the integrated theology that holds the Bible's grand narrative together. God conveys the biblical message as a unified story that begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. The narrative develops through various plot structures that bring the message into focus. The Bible tells the story of God's boundless love for creation and his plan of redemption, centered in the life of Christ and whereby we are active participants, awaiting a final renewal. That story gives structure and meaning (and even correction) to a vast assortment of theological formulations. By recognizing the novel ways the biblical story unfolds, we can allow its message to have a holistic impact on Caribbean life and theology. Current practices of biblical interpretation in the Caribbean need to take the whole biblical narrative into greater consideration. This paper addresses the need for a genuinely holistic reading of the Bible by exploring an approach that pays attention to the canonical storyline. A holistic reading of Scripture is not a hindrance to contextualization but is an indispensable component of biblical interpretation for the sake of the church.