George Anthony Pratt, Contributing Writer
On a December day during the heat of finals week, I received a notification from a mentor that prompted me to pause from the blaze of essay writing. He posed a provocative question that spurred one of our usual philosophical engagements via text. Through a triplet of inquiries, he asked how does one promote the decolonization of Christianity in the Church? Warm with the embers of wordsmithing, I responded in this way:
Decolonizing Christianity requires the castration of empire from its ecclesial bodies. This work calls for one to revisit the strategy of Constantine and the decisions made at the Council of Nicea, in which the religion of Jesus emerged as a method of controlling the masses. The task of applying a decolonial framework to Christianity enables one to uncover the retelling of ancient stories, co-opted as literal truths, contained with symbols and allegories revealing ultimate universal truths.
In the case of African American expressions of Protestantism, Black religious institutions have inherited and adopted various forms of Constantinian Christianity, conveyed primarily through patriarchy. Constructing the Black Church presented men with the possibility of gaining the same power of their white oppressors. It was a vehicle in which they could use the masters’ tools to build a version of their own house. Decolonizing is the act of destroying this house, ridding it of its foundations from all forms of patriarchy and androcentrism.
This act of abolition also includes the work of transformation. It begins with the Sankofa look: the act of reclamation— reaching back to the past and fetching what is at danger of being lost— our collective spirit. The reaching back calls us to capture what is good from the past, followed by the act of imagination, the dreaming of new worlds with the “ideal cosmic community” in mind. It means doing the work of the future in the present to rebuild— the act of creation.
The Black Church must struggle to decolonize for its existence to remain relevant. While this may emerge as an uphill battle in consciousness for the masses of Black congregants trekking toward the proverbial promise land in their Christian journey, it can begin with a collective look in the mirror. We must recall the visions of wisdom from our past, remembering ways of being and knowing that are most ideal for the entire community. We must revive our spirit— our common ethos — the work of decolonization.
