Liberating Our Dignity, Saving Our Souls: A New Theory of African American Identity Formation - Paperback

by Lee H. Butler (Author)

In Lee Butlers own words, "This book is an attempt to answer the question, Who are we as African Americans?" Attempting to answer this question is one way we participate in the works of salvation. Liberating Our Dignity, Saving Our Souls is a study of African American identity aimed at pointing a way out of a current crisis into a new liberation and salvation. Butler combines insights and methodologies from developmental psychology, liberation theology, and African and African American history to plot a new course for contemporary African Americans to gain a sense of identity that will guide them away from the identity the European and American cultures have traditionally forced upon them. This involves determining identity by personal worth, not by occupation, economic class, or social class.

Author Biography

Lee H. Butler, Jr., Ph.D., is professor of theology and psychology at the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS). He is founder of the Center for the Study of Black Faith and Life at CTS, president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, past chairperson of the Committee on Race and Ethnicity in Theological Education (a standing committee of the Association of Theological Schools), and is a member of the Association of Black Psychologists, the Society for Pastoral Theology, and the American Academy of Religion.