Abstract
This article discusses Cornels West’s Prophesy Deliverance! against the backdrop of Black Pentecostal praxis and contemporary insurgent theologies. A Black Pentecostal liberation theology enfleshes West’s fifth stage, “Black Liberation Theology as Critique of Capitalist Civilization.” I understand Black Pentecostalism as a classed resistance that takes shape on a particular political and existential terrain. Western thought (prophetic Christian and Marxist thought) helps us to locate Black Pentecostalism as specific praxis in the present historical moment, the struggle for liberation. To overcome the shortcomings of the first four
stages of Black liberation theology, the present essay— toward a Black Pentecostal liberation theology—maps three sources: Black existentialist thought, contemporary insurgent theologies, and Black Pentecostalism. My
cartography is not, in any way, complete—instead, it names a few guideposts on the journey. I am pointing to a few key works that a responding to the contemporary crisis forged by the insurgency. I conclude this treatment on Prophesy Deliverance! by identifying possible next steps in this conversation about the relationship between claims in Prophesy Deliverance! and Black Pentecostal social theorization and Marxism.