Dogged Strength within the Veil

Using the writings of W.E.B. DuBois, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and others, Young seeks insights from the African American experience to break through the oppressiveness of a Christianity corrupted by white notions of power, suggesting a return to the gospel. He cites personal experiences from two study trips to Africa and the writings of Africans to uncover parallels in that continent's spiritual traditions to a Christianity based on the "mysterious love of God." In particular, he sees true interpretations of the Gospel in the work of African Christians like Engelbert Mveng, a Jesuit who was murdered in his native Cameroon for advocating human rights, but whose writings "invested Christian symbols with their original energy." Josiah Ulysses Young III is Professor of Systematic Theology at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. and is the author of No Difference in the Fare: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Problem of Racism, A Pan-African Theology Providence and the Legacies of the Ancestors, and other books.