Beyond liberated: divine transcendence and cultural hybridity in the theologies of Clement of Alexandria and James Hal Cone

Abstract

The mission of this thesis is to study how differing notions of divine transcendence , in the theologies of Clement of Alexandria and James Hal Cone, were read against the prevailing cultural milieus of their historical contexts for the purpose of resisting hegemony. Because God as Wholly Other chooses to share space with planetary creatures through the Incarnation of the Word as well as the glorious indwelling of God's image in humankind, I will put forward a few possible contours for a U.S. Black postcolonial model of divine transcendence. It is in the hopes of opposing reductionist accounts of cultures and individual persons that a postcolonial doctrine of divine transcendence can function as a way to undermine imperial structures and ideologies. This rough sketch may give license for Womanist and Black liberationist theologians to remain in dialogue with early Christianities and as well as the Nicene-Chalcedonian creedal formulas all the while maintaining a commitment to emancipating ourselves from racist ideologies and institutions. It is in the encounter of the Lord who comes from Beyond that humanity is confronted for the purpose of fellowship in the presence of both the divine and human Other