ABSTRACT
One of the constant, self-congratulatory mantras of American Black and womanist theologies is that they deal with oppression on the basis of gender, race and class. Radical movements are never radical enough: it is notoriously difficult to begin at the beginning. At least in the first attempt it is impossible to avoid continuing with the presuppositions and assumptions of those from whom the radicals wish to dissociate themselves. Black theology was originally concerned only with race, with oppression caused by racial discrimination. Later it was to become involved in a trialogue with feminist theology and Latin American liberation theology. Gender, race and class were the original features of the three liberation theologies. They in turn were made possible because of three forms of critical consciousness, but all of them depended on the development of historical consciousness, the most important feature of modernity which appeared in Europe in the eighteenth century.
