| Black power was the political source of black theology, | | | | the world into the sacred and the secular, the |
| but black theology had another source --black religion. | | | | presence of the spirit of freedom in settings other than |
| Black religion, as it evolved from the remnants of | | | | the ecclesiastical was quite consistent with the |
| African traditional religions and slave religion, was the | | | | Afro-American religious sensibility. |
| spiritual source of black theology. Although one can | | | | Black religion, especially its creative use of symbolism, |
| speak about these sources as distinct entities, they | | | | gave black theology a distinctive language with which |
| are, in reality, inseparable. The traditional Western | | | | to express the deepest convictions and longings of an |
| separation of the physical and the spiritual, the sacred | | | | oppressed people. Its prayers, poetry, sermons, songs, |
| and the secular, is foreign to the Afro-American | | | | and litanies provided the context for the telling of the |
| sensibility. Black religion provides black theology with a | | | | black story. The folklore of black people contains |
| worldview and a metaphysical base from which to | | | | stories which are more than entertainment. These |
| view the physical world and the social order. It has | | | | stories embody, in narrative form, the historical hope |
| historically affirmed the inherent worth of black people, | | | | and eschatological confidence of black people. |
| their dignity as creations of God even in inhumane | | | | Black theology has always been expressed in the |
| situations, and God's special providential care for them. | | | | language of black religion and folklore. Because it |
| The emergence of black theology in the 1960s was a | | | | emerged from the experiential context of black people, |
| continuation of this radical tradition in the form of | | | | black theology expressed the deepest religious |
| intellectual freedom from the canons of white | | | | commitments of black people in a language they |
| theological thought. This radicalism was not limited to | | | | created. Therefore, black theology could not remain |
| the black church, but was seen in a variety of social | | | | true to its identity and adopt the language of Europe |
| and political expressions in the black community. | | | | and North America . It had to be expressed as a folk |
| However, because the black community did not divide | | | | theology. |