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398
Book Reviews
Vincent W. Lloyd,Religion of the Field Negro: On Black Secularism and Black Theol-
ogy(New York: Fordham University Press, 2017). 304 pp. $30.00 paperback.
“Black theology has been too modest. It has forgotten its original ambition” (5) declares Vincent Lloyd in the opening pages of Religion of the Field Negro. With this declaration he challenges the current state of Black theology with the voice of one crying in the wilderness. The problem is secularism, which lumps theology in with other disciplines as one among many paths. Further, secular- ism is dialog with multiculturalism reduces Black theology to simply “one of many ways to pluralize theology” (5). Although Black theology has forgotten its original ambition as social criticism, it’s role is more important today than ever concludes Lloyd. This criticism is necessarily a criticism of Whiteness and notions of White supremacy.
Noting that “all theology … is Black theology” and “all social criticism … is theological,” (5) Lloyd positions himself in the prophetic tradition of Mal- colm X, Albert Cleage, and James Cone while appealing to a great cloud of witnesses reaching back to Bishop Charles H. Mason, Zora Neale Hurston, and David Walker. Sadly, scholars of secularism too often ignore race and scholars of race too often ignore secularism, while scholars of Black theology too often ignore the theoretical insights of secular Black studies scholars and race theo- rists too often ignore the critical insights of religious thinkers.
Lloyd argues that not only is secularism entangled with the constraining ten- dencies of neoliberal economics as well as with Western imperialism, but it taints and neuters Black theology. His purpose is to un-entangle Black secular- ism from Black theology. Taking a cue from critics of secularism in other fields, Religion of the Field Negro probes the subtle ways in which religion is manip- ulated and marginalized in Black culture. With Barack Obama, Huey Newton, and Steve Biko as exemplas, Lloyd demonstrates how the criticism of Black sec- ularism is essential and foundational to all criticism. The book also makes a case for why criticism and grassroots organizing must go hand in hand.
Religion of the Field Negro participates in a conversation with thinkers such asIthielClemmons,M.ShawnCopeland,CherylSanders,andKellyBrownDou- glas. In her essay in From Bourgeois to Boojie, Douglass notes that “in its sincere efforts to advance the life of the people—thus making them more acceptable to white society—the black church has fostered a bourgeois culture” (250). In Bishop C.H. Mason and the Roots of the Church of God in Christ, Ithiel C. Clem- mons notes that Mason resisted assimilationist tendencies to make the Black church a mere replica of the white church. Clemmons notes that Mason “was dedicated to preserving the slaves’ cultural tradition … found in the black church” (18). Lloyd begins by citing the famous Malcolm X quotation about
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the two kinds of slaves—the house Negro and the field Negro. He cites the observation of MalcolmXthat “the field Negro was particularly intelligent; nev- ertheless, the revolutionary impulses of the field Negro were repressed by the anesthetic preaching of the house Negro” (1). In the back cover notes, M. Shawn Copeland laments, “We have betrayed black theology in our failure to uphold the wisdom of the marginalized, the cherished people of God.”
Religion of the Field Negro is organized into three main sections. The first section, “Cornerstones,” lays the theoretical foundation for Lloyd’s argument. Lloyd eclectically calls on a great cloud of witnesses such as James Cone, James Baldwin, Sylvia Wynter, and Achille Mbembe with the goal of developing a theo-political vision that challenges the racist paradigms of White supremacy.
In the next section, “Questions,” Lloyd raises and responds to four questions. Asking “What is BlackTradition?”, Lloyd notes that the Black father was system- atically “absented.” The slave master as White father supplanted the Black man as father in the Black community. This supplanting has continued through seg- regation and the mass incarceration of Black men. The impossibility of Black fatherhood gives rise to the impossibility of Black transmission. As a result, the values, memories, and hopes that are transmitted are those of Whites. This has consequences for the definitions and substance of Black organizing, for Black hope, and for White hope. Lloyd argues that White hope as desire, affect, and rhetoric affirms the status quo and is regressive, but hope as novelty, poverty, and theological virtue renounces privilege and the status quo and is progres- sive.
In the final section, “Exempla,” Lloyd utilizes Steve Biko, Huey Newton, Barack Obama, and Gillian Rose as examples of specific forms of Black theol- ogy.As the exemplaof “The Revelationof Race,”Bikois described as“transcend- ing and thwarting secular race politics” (163). Huey Newton is presented as the racial messiah, while Obama is presented as the post-racial saint. Finally, Lloyd describes the “soul politics” of Gillian Rose whose politics declare that “the soul isnevercapturedbyanysociallyascribedidentity”(221).Rosewasthesubjectof Lloyd’s dissertation. It is this idea of soul politics which is at the core of Lloyd’s definitions of Blackness and Whiteness. The book consistently defines Black- ness as an ontological category that goes beyond phenotype or ethic origin. Blackness is a way of being and thinking can be embraced by all. Whiteness is defined in terms of the “position of the comfortable, the privileged, and the wealthy,” whether that wealth is financial, social or cultural (7). Understood in this way, Blackness and Black theology are a worldview that resists and rebels against White supremacy.
One might expect more in Lloyd’s epilogue titled “Coda: The Birth of the Black Church.” A better title might have been “The Black Church Born Again”
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consistent with the theme and thesis of the chapter. Here Lloyd begins to engage with Eddie Glaude who famously declared in the Huffington Post that “the black church is dead.” Noting that Glaude is likely responding to secular- ism, Lloyd begins to construct a vision of how the Black church might be born again in the spirit of Black theology regaining the original ambition of Black theology, which is social criticism.
Religion of the Field Negro succeeds at engaging an audience outside of the academy. It is accessible to both lay and expert audiences. It seeks to broaden and deepen the discourse about Black theology and the Black church. It pro- vides an entry point into an important conversation as well as a foundation from which to expand the conversation. This collection of essays would be a solid addition to an upper division undergraduate, or first year graduate, course in Black theology or African and African American philosophy.
Darren Elzie
University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee [email protected]
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