Being Human Cloth: RaceCulture and Religion

by Dwight N. Hopkins

Whether concerned with health, law, ethics, socialrelations, or relationship with God, religious thoughttoday runs squarely into the what does it mean tobe human?Dwight Hopkins, whose important work in Black Theologyhas mediated classic theological concerns through the prismof African American culture, here offers a fresh take ontheological anthropology. Rather than defining "thehuman" as one eternal or inviolable essence, however,Hopkins looks to the multiple and conflicting notions ofthe human in contemporary thought, and particularly threekey culture, self, and race.What in a traditionalframework were seen as "accidents" now take center stage,and Hopkins's critical reframing of these concepts firmlylocates human endeavor, development, transcendence, andliberation in the particular messiness of struggle and strife.This major work from a leading black theologian frames thedebate about being human in a way that opens rather thancloses our self-questioning.

Genres: Theology, Religion

221 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2005

Reviews

[Jenn Cavanaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second-generation black liberation theologian Dwight N. Hopkins writes Being Human to counter the reigning American theological anthropology of demonically self-centered individualism with one of compassion and empowerment for the marginalized that offers healing for all human communities. Hopkins freely admits that “all thoughts about God and being human reveal the limited autobiography of the thinker,” mandating conversation with other perspectives (2). He further demonstrates that all theologies are “adjectival” (15), that is, contextual, non-normative, human constructs, introducing four contemporary stances which incorporate, with varying degrees of awareness and stability, core concepts of culture, self and race. Far from being accidents of a universal human form, our unique understandings of self, race, and culture determine our humanity (ix). “Culture itself emerges from the fluid creative play of a community (the selves) framing the formation of an individual (the self)” (3), with race constituting “the first marker that introduces and classifies a person and a group in obsessively racialized America (4). He sums up his logic and thesis here: “Christian revelation is a cultural dynamic colored by the social conditions and collective experiences of peripheral communities in the biblical witness. Theological anthropology is thus a cultural process, in which an ultimate intermingles with the penultimate (that is, the God-human connection is profoundly situated in culture)” (56).
Relying heavily on the work of black and African thinkers, Hopkins shows that culture is sacred as the “contested terrain between marks of life and death” in matters including economics, politics, aesthetics, kinship, recreation, religion and ethics, and because human culture “is where the sacred reveals itself” (78-79). Since we cannot approach God in our own efforts, God self-reveals by entering the human condition. In the Incarnation “God pours out Godself into human culture” (55), which proceeds to surface “from below, from the interaction and creative configurations of the spirit dwelling with real human beings quilted together in the flow of life” (82).
Hopkins discerns that “the self becomes a self via introduction into the selves” (82) because of our mutual dependence, received genetic and cultural legacies and a spiritual dimension of collective beliefs, values and rituals. Individual participants in community reach maturity in what Benezet Bujo calls a “’continuous flow of life’ emanating from God and pervading all of the created order” (87). They have the potential and the responsibility to craft a common good that benefits themselves and their neighbors and to establish a political economy based on shalom and koinonia. This kind of communal life does not squelch the individual; rather the individual self only acquires the freedom for actualization and agency through personal spontaneity and reflexivity in the context of a reflexive community (108-109). The self retains individuality and choice and grows in the healthy self-reliance Jesus requires of those he heals and the vitalized self-concept which, combined with the Christian belief in a God who wills justice, spurs us to creative action in the world (111-112).
Hopkins describes psychological, political, economic, geographical, biblical (so-called), and cultural theories of race – all of which ignore the scientific fact that, biologically, we are all one genetically African human race (120-125). He remains optimistic “that whites will not monopolize normalcy ad infinitum. Just as humans created the system and the morality, humans can participate in totally dismantling it and establishing a new individual self and common wealth.” (131). He traces the philosophical, anthropological and missiological thinking which established and entrenched racist notions of white supremacy in American society (131-159). Hopkins concludes that “white supremacy is perhaps the most egregious material revelation of how dark-skinned peoples in the United States and globally and their passionate relation to God are demeaned. All peoples are involved in a healthy theological anthropology. They are made in God’s image (imago dei) and are equally called to pursue the missio dei (mission of God)” (159).
Black folktales “illustrate a multiplicity of life-affirming indicators as gifts to the rest of humanity” (169). The trickster models reversal and human flourishing; the conjurer harnesses the spiritual power of creation for human advancement; the outlaw, with his ambiguous morality, maintains the importance of individual desire; the stories of Christian witness empower a spirituality of compassion for the poor (169-183). “The practice of freedom is love,” both of which direct us to live in the imago dei and into the missio dei (184). “God has created and called humanity to be full human beings – to attain the maximum level of their God-given human capabilities at every human level in service to the least in society” (167). Fundamental theological presupposition of liberation: “The individual matures by service to others.... This is the crossroad of the transcendent and personal dimensions. The self tied to community realizes a spirit of liberation. In sum, a human being is one involved in service to the least in any society, while all community members have equal access to the/ communal resources to forge the fullest and most wholesome individual and communal practices possible” (168-169).
Ultimately, Hopkin’s text demonstrates how a person may only know what she or he is created to be and called to do through the human created realm of culture” (79). His asserted norm for culture is both provocative and evocative: “the norm is liberation; that is, whatever fosters the freedom of the individual self and the interests of those structurally occupying the bottom of community… is good culture because the movement toward practicing freedom for the poor marks the revelation of God” (79). Texts which assert blackness as a precondition for salvation often leave me wondering: what is the white, bourgeois-born Christian to do? Rather than treating my mere existence as part of the problem, Hopkins offers the option of solidarity, becoming black. Although Hopkins grants considerable space to feminist and womanist considerations of gender, incorporates gender critique throughout, it somehow it does not make the cut of the top three conditions of possibility for contemporary theological work. While he addresses them separately, race and the relation between self and selves are cultural phenomena, so he could have easily made room in his need trinity. I wonder if he considers gender to be more physiological and less cultural of a construct? Does he not feel qualified (or credentialed) to address it himself or does he see his three chosen concepts operating largely independent of gender? Despite the “religion” in the sub-title, Hopkins’ anthropology is not especially religious, in the sense of cultural construction – he does not refer to folk religion as such - but he does seek to be faithful to the person of Jesus Christ, the presuppositions of liberation theology, and the Christian witness of the black community. I place him barely on the passing side of a crucial theological litmus test: Is there room for dialogue with those reflecting theologically on disparate experiences? I know he would agree in theory, but he comes dangerously close to countering white supremacist assumptions that God is exclusively with us with opposing exclusive claims. We all need to learn how to articulate and celebrate how God is especially with us and others without saying God is exclusively with us or others. He does exemplary work in this area with his theological reading of black folktales. The “adjectival” evolution of theology is a failure for the Church if it divides us into new theological camps, but can be a boon for unity if it simply recognizes the diversity of Christian experience, admitting we cannot all adequately speak for each other, but we can listen and be guided by one another toward Christ the center.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good introduction to theological anthropology from the perspective of black theology. I found Hopkin's framework of 'culture, self and race' particularly helpful. This book feels like the first few chapters of a bigger project, and so feels unfinished. An expanded 2nd edition would be very welcome!

[Jonny Gerig Meyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like what Hopkins has to say in general, but his topic is simply too vague for this book to be very useful. He tries to define things like "culture" -- it simply can't be done well, and this book suffers from a lack of clarity and concreteness.