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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2025
164 James H. Cone, God of the Oppressed, rev. ed. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997; originally published by Seabury Press, 1975).
165 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 233.
166 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 233.
167 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 234.
168 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 234.
169 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 234.
170 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 234.
171 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 234.
172 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 234.
173 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 234.
174 See Matthew J. Cressler, “‘Real Good and Sincere Catholics’: White Catholicism and Massive Resistance to Desegregation in Chicago, 1965–1968,” Religion and American Culture 30, no. 2 (Summer 2020): 273–306.
175 “Real good and sincere Catholics” is a direct quote from a letter by a white Chicago Catholic; see Cressler, “Real Good and Sincere Catholics,” 275–76.
176 Cressler, “Real Good and Sincere Catholics,” 274.
177 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 235.
178 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 235.
179 As is well known, at that time, with now-Saint John Paul II as pope and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) heading the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the tenor of the 1984 Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation” still prevailed. See https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19840806_theology-liberation_en.html, accessed September 4, 2024. Pope Francis has signaled greater openness to liberationist views, for example, by his amicable meeting with Gustavo Gutiérrez shortly after becoming pope in 2013 and by his personal friendship with Sr. Jeannine Gramick, the cofounder of New Ways Ministry.
180 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 233.
181 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 247.
182 Following Cone’s usage, Connolly uses the term “American” to denote the racial identity we now refer to as “white,” even as he acknowledges the problems with claiming a continental identity for whiteness. See Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 232n1.
183 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 235.
184 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 247. The language of inclusion is still common, but because it can perpetuate a problematic us/them binary, it is not universally embraced. For a now-classic treatment, see Sara Ahmed, On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012).
185 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 248.
186 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 235.
187 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 251.
188 Conversation with the author, Catholic Theological Society of America banquet, San Antonio, TX, June 10, 2006.
189 In a phone conversation, Connolly confirmed that he never returned to Black theology in any subsequent academic publications, largely due to the near-total silence with which the academy greeted “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression.” He pivoted to other scholarly interests until his retirement twelve years later. Conversation with the author, September 3, 2024.
190 As of September 1, 2024, an ATLA search yields one scholarly use of Connolly’s article: Christopher Pramuk references it multiple times in “‘Strange Fruit’: Black Suffering/White Revelation,” Theological Studies 67 (2006): 345–77. According to Google Scholar, which is not comprehensive (here, it misses at least the Theological Studies citation) but is used by many as a starting point, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression” is cited in a handful of dissertations and books, none of which went on to become bestsellers. See https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=1464759612972512809&as_sdt=2005&sciodt=0,5&hl=en.
191 Elena Procario-Foley, “Editor’s Introduction [to the Anniversary Roundtable],” Horizons 51, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 163–64, at 163.
192 Elena Procario-Foley, “From the Editor,” Horizons 50, no. 1 (Spring 2023): iii–viii, at iii.
193 Email communication to the author, June 12, 2024.
194 Christopher Pramuk, “‘Living in the Master’s House’: Race and Rhetoric in the Theology of M. Shawn Copeland,” Horizons 32, no. 2 (Fall 2005): 295–331; Charles E. Curran, “White Privilege,” Horizons 32, no. 2 (Fall 2005): 361–67. According to the editor, articles are peer-reviewed; editorial articles, roundtables, review symposia, and the like usually are not. Email communication to the author, July 27, 2024.
195 Some might divide the ten years by “counting” the 2010 review symposium of Bryan Massingale’s Racial Justice and the Catholic Church: Laurie Cassidy, Charles E. Curran, James H. Evans, Jr., Jana Bennett, and Bryan N. Massingale, “Review Symposium [Racial Justice and the Catholic Church],” Horizons 37, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 127–42. Cassidy’s review stands out for its sophisticated engagement with Massingale’s claims, but not all reviewers understand the book, and none of the four are Black Catholics. Massingale’s brief response largely clarifies his argument.
196 Walker Grimes, Katie, “Racialized Humility: The White Supremacist Sainthood of Peter Claver, SJ,” Horizons 42, no. 2 (December 2015): 296–316Google Scholar; Jaycox, Michael P., “Black Lives Matter and Catholic Whiteness: A Tale of Two Performances,” Horizons 44, no. 2 (December 2017): CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lincoln Rice, “The Catholic Worker Movement and Racial Justice: A Precarious Relationship,” Horizons 46, no. 1 (June 2019): 53–78. Also in this period, John P. Slattery briefly discussed antebellum white Catholics’ proslavery positions as “dissent” in a 2018 roundtable: “Examining Theological Appropriations of Problematic Historical Dissent,” Horizons 45, no. 1 (June 2018): 149–54. Regarding the latter discussion, new research suggests that “dissent” is too strong a word; see Kellerman, Christopher J. SJ, All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2022).Google Scholar
197 Only Connolly and Curran were senior scholars when their essays were published.
198 Flipper, Joseph and Pramuk, Christopher, “Teaching Antiracism,” Horizons 48, no. 1 (June 2021): Google Scholar; Bantu, Vince L., “‘Is a Cushite Made in the Image of God?’ Christian Visions of Race in Late Antiquity,” Horizons 49, no. 1 (June 2022): CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Coblentz, Jessica, Ward, Kate, and McCabe, Megan K., “Critical Reflections on White Womanhood in US Catholic Theology,” Horizons 50, no. 1 (June 2023): 180–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
199 Cyril Orji, “A Reappropriation of the Joseph Story in Genesis 39 and Surah 12 for Contemporary Race-Discourse,” Horizons 51, no. 1 (June 2024): 1–32; Slattery, John P., “The Extent and Impact of Racism and Eugenics in the Writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.,” Horizons 51, no. 1 (June 2024): 33–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The June 2024 issue also includes an editorial essay article by Kathleen Holscher documenting clergy abuse against mostly Hispano boys in New Mexico: Holscher, Kathleen, “A Priest, a Ranch, and los Muchachos: A Study of Race and Clerical Abuse from New Mexico,” Horizons 51, no. 1 (June 2024): 195–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
200 I borrow this turn of phrase from Massingale, Bryan N., “Has the Silence Been Broken? Catholic Theological Ethics and Racial Justice,” Theological Studies 75, no. 1 (March 2014): CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cassidy, Laurie M. and Mikulich, Alex, eds., Interrupting White Privilege: Catholic Theologians Break the Silence (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007)Google Scholar; and Cone, “Theology’s Great Sin: Silence in the Face of White Supremacy.”
201 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 252.
202 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 252.
203 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 252.
204 Connolly, “Revelation as Liberation from Oppression,” 234.
205 O’Connell, Maureen H., Undoing the Knots: Five Generations of Catholic Anti-Blackness (Boston, MA: Beacon Publishing, 2022), .Google Scholar
206 O’Connell, Undoing the Knots, 37.
207 O’Connell, Undoing the Knots, 37.
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