The problem of the human in theological anthropology: Reading Jürgen Moltmann’s christology with intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance

Abstract

Jürgen Moltmann’s christology takes embodied life as the point of departure for knowledge of Christ. For Moltmann, christology is not primarily about the history of creeds, christology is christopraxis. That emphasis helps to prevent the problems of abstract theological doctrines that avoid the concrete and enable theological justification of politically oppressive ideology. Dietrich Bonhoeffer also argued for a social understanding of christology, which takes priority over creeds as guide for Christian life. Both of these German thinkers represent a theological engagement with the forces that Harlem Renaissance intellectuals name and address in their work to recalibrate humanity from false, harmful abstractions, towards real embodied life.