Womanist Theology

Womanist theology is a religious conceptual framework which reconsiders and revises the traditions, practices, scriptures, and biblical interpretation with a special lens to empower and liberate African American women in America. Womanist theology associates with and departs from Feminist theology and Black theology specifically because it integrates the perspectives and experiences of African American and other women of color. The former's lack of attention to the everyday realities of women of color and the latter's lack of understanding of the full dimension of liberation from the unique oppressions of Black women require bringing them together in Womanist Theology. The goals of womanist theology include interrogating the social construction of black womanhood in relation to the Black community and to assume a liberatory perspective so that African American women can live emboldened lives within the African American community and within the larger society. Some of its tasks are excavating the life stories of poor women of African descent in the church and to understanding the "languages" of black women. It is strongly associated with Black feminism. Womanist theology is not only for African women; it attempts to embrace women of color all over the world.

The term Womanist was developed by author Alice Walker in her first collection of non-fiction, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983), and referred primarily to African-American women, but also for women in general. In her own words: “A Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.”

The roots of modern theological womanism grew out of the theology of James Hal Cone, Katie G. Cannon, Jacquelyn Grant, and Delores Williams. Cone developed black theology which sought to make sense out of theology from black experience in America. In his book A Black Theology of Liberation, Cone argued that “God is black” in an effort to demonstrate that God identifies with oppressed black Americans. Then, Grant, a first generation womanist theologian, argued that Cone did not attend to the fullness of black experience – specifically that of black women. She argued that the oppression of black women is different than that of black men. Grant pointed out that lower-class black women must navigate between the threefold oppression of racism, sexism, and classism in her books Womanist Theology and White Woman's Christ Black Women's Jesus. For her, Jesus is a “divine co-sufferer” who suffered in his time like black women today. Grant concludes that black women are more oppressed and in need of further liberation than black men and especially white women. Delores Williams took the work of theologians such as Cone and Grant and expanded upon them. She suggested that womanist theologians need to “search for the voices, actions, opinions, experience, and faith” of black women in order to experience the God who “makes a way out of no way.” She defines womanism in the following way:

Womanist theology is a prophetic voice concerned about the well-being of the entire African American community, male and female, adults and children. Womanist theology attempts to help black women see, affirm, and have confidence in the importance of their experience and faith for determining the character of the Christian religion in the African American community. Womanist theology challenges all oppressive forces impeding black women’s struggle for survival and for the development of a positive, productive quality of life conducive to women’s and the family’s freedom and well-being. Womanist theology opposes all oppression based on race, sex, class, sexual preference, physical ability, and caste.

With the increasing use of womanist theory and theology in Master of Divinity, African American Studies, and Women's Studies, programs have clearly begun to incorporate womanism into university and seminary courses.