The Struggle For Enslaved African Americans

Words: 436
Pages: 2

What does the reading say about God and human experience?
Enslaved African Americans maintain their religion and culture throughout the centuries. The slaves consider the slave owners hypocrite at believing slavery and Christianity are compatible. African Americans’ faith has been tested, but their belief in God as a liberation God encourages their powerful struggle for freedom. The slaves will continue to suffer in their struggle toward the goal of liberation. Today, the slaves’ faith in God transmitted to their descendants still sustains African Americans Christians in their struggle against racism.

2. What kind of argument is employed? Theological, historical, philosophical, biblical? How do you know?
The arguments employed are historical, philosophical, and biblical. The historical argument that despite the slave owners’ faith in God the slaves were treated not like human beings but like property dates to the sixteenth century (the 1500s) when over 10 million Africans were enslaved. The philosophical argument by Albert Raboteau notes that unlike the slaves’ owners, the slaves believe the Christianity faith is not compatible with slavery. In other words that slaveholding does not relate to Christianity. The biblical argument compares the slaves’ suffering to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
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What are the key themes of the article?
The key theme is God who breaks the chains of slavery. The faith in God sustains African American Christians throughout the centuries of struggle against racism. The enslaved African Americans’ belief that God is a liberator of the oppressed gives them the strength to struggle for freedom. The songs of God as a breaker of the slavery chains is heard in the churches, prayers and slaves’ quarters. God will break the chains to