Yesterday saw the publication of Professor Anthony Reddie’s – the University’s first Professor of Black Theology – new book, Living Black Theology by Oxford University Press, the first book of its kind for OUP.

This book is a contribution to Black theology, which is a form of liberation theology, essentially meaning a form of faith practice and theory focused on social justice. In this case, Black theology is particularly a response to systemic forms of racism and the legacies of slavery and colonialism.

This book uses the ideas of Black theology to explore how we engage with British history and the contested legacies of colonialism and the British Empire. The two key areas Professor Reddie is exploring are: (a) How we think about these legacies from the vantage point of those whose ancestors have been enslaved people and colonial subjects. And (b) What does it mean to decolonise in the field of academic theology? How do we rethink knowledge and what it means to talk about ‘the truth’?

In some ways, this book is a very loose sequel to Professor Reddie’s 2019 book Theologising Brexit. Anthony started at Regent’s in January 2020, and the end of his first Hilary Term saw the spread of Coronavirus and national lockdowns, and later the murder of George Floyd. As Anthony described it, “These two pandemics – the new virus Covid-19 and the much older virus of systemic racism – both forced many people and institutions to ‘think again’ about how we live and treat one another as human beings, especially people of faith.”

“Living through that moment got me thinking about how the past continues to infiltrate our present and influence our futures. As a Black liberation theologian, I believe that the God of Judeo-Christian tradition calls us to care for those on the margins, those who are told they do not matter and are scapegoated as the problem. This book is a commitment to giving a voice to those who are often silent and seen in negative terms.”

For Anthony, Living Black Theology is a very personal book – he writes inside that it is a summation of over 30 years of work and activism.

“It is undoubtedly informed by being the first ever Professor of Black Theology in the long and illustrious history of the University of Oxford. I am reflecting on how I use the comparative privilege and prestige of this role to speak ‘truth to power’. I think it is significant that my position as Professor of Black Theology has been augmented by a new college role as the Director of the Centre for Black Theology, Regent’s Park College, which I feel reinforces our belief that Regent’s has a radical dissenting historical tradition.”

Living Black Theology can be purchased directly from Oxford University Press, and is available now.

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With thanks to Professor Reddie for his contributions.