2017 Theses Master's

For The Love of Darkness - A Dark Theology

Morris, Wesley

As a theologian, I ask myself, how do I take the experiences often claimed as useless, worthless, dangerous, unworthy and named dark or darkness, and bring them into the notion of God’s ultimate promise of communion with human personality.

The geographic context of my research will focus primarily on the present-day socio-political climate of the United States of America and later a broadening to a global context to examine postcolonial language in African diaspora communities. A language is a powerful tool of communication that human beings like other sentient beings have used to exchange and transfer values and information. Although the cultural designation of “dark” as problematic, evil, wicked and lacking in positive spiritual qualities is part of the global white power structure, the primary focus of my decolonization of theological language project is United States (U.S.) specific.

The goal of this project is to weave marginalized voices that emerge from biographical accounts, theological study and social sciences into a transvaluation of the dark in the present moment. This reappraisal is not based in a claim of moral goodness; it is rooted in an unruliness that unbinds Blackness from definitions of darkness that remain anti-Black in their assumptions.