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Churches, Blackness, and Contested MulticulturalismAnti-Black Problematics in Imperial and Contemporary British Christianity

Churches, Blackness, and Contested Multiculturalism: Anti-Black Problematics in Imperial and... [The anti-black problematic of Christianity in Britain,1 and also across the contours of the African Diaspora, arises from the realization that this phenomenon has had a long and interpenetrating relationship with colonialism and empire. I write this chapter as a child of Caribbean migrants, who themselves were the children of the British Empire, growing up as they did in Jamaica. My assessment vis-à-vis the colonial context in which Christianity in Britain is located can be witnessed, in part, in two dialogically marching responses to this phenomenon. The very fact that I write this chapter as a black, African Caribbean male whose parents come from the Caribbean island of Jamaica, tells you a great deal about the positionality of Britain with a part of the world several thousand miles from these shores. In the words of a poster beloved of the antiracist movements of the 1970s and 1980s, “We Are Here Because You Were There.”2 It should be axiomatic, therefore, that one cannot talk about Christianity in Britain without engaging with the broader thematic hinterland that is Empire and Colonialism. The overarching framework that incorporated the bulk of Black Diasporan Christianity has been that of “Imperial Mission Christianity.” In using this term, I am speaking of a historical phenomenon in which there has existed an interpenetrating relationship between European expansionism, notions of white superiority, and the material artifact of the apparatus of empire.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Churches, Blackness, and Contested MulticulturalismAnti-Black Problematics in Imperial and Contemporary British Christianity

Part of the Black Religion / Womanist Thought / Social Justice Book Series
Editors: Smith, R. Drew; Ackah, William; Reddie, Anthony G.
Reddie, Anthony G.
Churches, Blackness, and Contested Multiculturalism — Nov 5, 2015
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References (12)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2014
ISBN
978-1-349-48934-3
Pages
11 –30
DOI
10.1057/9781137386380_2
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The anti-black problematic of Christianity in Britain,1 and also across the contours of the African Diaspora, arises from the realization that this phenomenon has had a long and interpenetrating relationship with colonialism and empire. I write this chapter as a child of Caribbean migrants, who themselves were the children of the British Empire, growing up as they did in Jamaica. My assessment vis-à-vis the colonial context in which Christianity in Britain is located can be witnessed, in part, in two dialogically marching responses to this phenomenon. The very fact that I write this chapter as a black, African Caribbean male whose parents come from the Caribbean island of Jamaica, tells you a great deal about the positionality of Britain with a part of the world several thousand miles from these shores. In the words of a poster beloved of the antiracist movements of the 1970s and 1980s, “We Are Here Because You Were There.”2 It should be axiomatic, therefore, that one cannot talk about Christianity in Britain without engaging with the broader thematic hinterland that is Empire and Colonialism. The overarching framework that incorporated the bulk of Black Diasporan Christianity has been that of “Imperial Mission Christianity.” In using this term, I am speaking of a historical phenomenon in which there has existed an interpenetrating relationship between European expansionism, notions of white superiority, and the material artifact of the apparatus of empire.]

Published: Nov 5, 2015

Keywords: Black People; White People; Christian Faith; Black Church; Active Radicalism

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