Changing Church

Profiles: Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman

“Womanist theologies of salvation state that Jesus Christ can be seen as a black woman,” Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman writes in her book Making a Way Out of No Way. “Postmodern womanist theology argues that a black woman is often Christ. The Savior may be a teenager, a person living with a disability, a lesbian woman.” In the womanist tradition of engaging black women’s literature, one illustration of a Savior comes from Parable of the Sower, a science fiction novel by Octavia E. Butler. Lauren Oya Olamina, the African American teenage protagonist of the novel, walks north from a fictional suburb of Los Angeles when in 2024 her neighborhood enclave and family are destroyed. Other refugees join her journey, and she teaches them her “God-is-Change” theology, which she calls “Earthseed.” Rev. Dr. Coleman comments: “Lauren emerges as a Savior because she courageously uses her abilities to creatively transform. We know a Savior by what she does. Nevertheless, Lauren is an unlikely Savior. Because Lauren is young, black, and female, her leadership is questioned by the larger world.”

In Making a Way Out of No Way, Rev. Dr. Coleman gives another example of a Savior: Rev. Dr. Kathi Elaine Martin, founder of God, Self, and Neighbor (GSN) Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia, offering religious community to people who experience racism and heterosexism in both Christian communities and the wider society. “As an openly black lesbian woman with mental health challenges and multiple sclerosis, Martin does not appear to have the characteristics of a Savior. Yet as a theologian, teacher, preacher, and activist, Martin proves to be a worthy Savior. Like postmodern womanist theology, GSN understands the Savior as one who puts forth a theology of love and justice while generating greater awareness and health in the community.”