Heart and Head : Black Theology-Past, Present, and Future

In this intimate and compelling look at black theology, Dwight N. Hopkins asserts that in order to calm the raging waters of a "me-first" way of life and growing racial intolerance, we need to embrace the values of both the heart and the head. In a post-Civil Rights, post-affirmative action era, Hopkins challenges the African American community to speak through race to the larger issues of America while urging the diverse segments of the entire nation to continually deal with race. From a perspective of black theology or a spirituality of liberation, he sees the healing of the nation's racial divide in a quest for a healthy community and believes that all people, regardless of race, must join together in forging a new common wealth. Heart and Head navigates us between the seemingly polar opposites of either the personal or the political, reform or revolution, and economics or culture. Offering a detailed perspective on a new racial, gender, and economic democracy in the United States, Hopkins illustrates that black theology can be the key to personal and global liberation.

An ordained Baptist minister, Dwight N. Hopkins holds Master of Divinity and Master of Philosophy, and two Ph.D. degrees from Union Theological Seminary and from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and is Associate Professor of Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Hopkins has authored or edited nearly a dozen books, such as Down, Up & Over: Slave Religion and Black Theology, and he is co-editor, with Linda Thomas, of the Black Religion/Womanist Thought/Social Justice series (Palgrave). He lives with his family on Chicago's south side.