Delores Williams was a student of James Cone, a theologian who first addressed black liberation theology. She did not see herself or other women reflected in the black liberation theology because it did not include the experience of black women. Because of this she went on to expand on the writings from Alice Walker about womanist theology. “The concept of womanist allows women to claim their roots in black history, religion, and culture” (Williams, 266). With the concept of womanism, women in church can affirm themselves as black while acknowledging their connection with feminism and with the Afro-American community.
Womanist scholars are given the freedom to explore the details of black women’s history and culture without being guided by what white feminists have already identified as women’s issues. Womanists seek to include everybody regardless of gender, sexuality, and class; however, it is specific with black women’s issues. Because womanists are not separatists, there are some…show more content… Truth dedicated her life to abolition and equal rights for women and men. Williams says that womanist theology has grounds for shaping a theology of the spirit informed by black women’s political action. In Sojourner Truth’s speech “Ar’nt I a Woman?” she refuted a white preacher’s claim that women could not have rights equal to men because Christ was not a woman. “Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him” (Truth, 195). Truth also says in her speech that since Eve was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, she must have been very powerful and that if women so called upset the world, that they should get the chance to set it right. Williams states that this suggests that womanist theology could eventually speak of God in a well-developed theology of the