Flourishing in Babylon: Black British Agency and Self-Determination

Black theology has long been about oppression and liberation. But is there a different story to tell? Can the black story be one about a quest for flourishing through agency and self-determination and not only an existence of nihilistic struggle? Drawing on a fresh reading of Jeremiah’s letter to Jewish exiles, and his own Pentecostal tradition, Joe Aldred offers a fresh understanding of the Black British experience which draws on a realised eschatology rooted in identity, empowerment and an agenda. In a contested diasporan context in the shadow of empire there exists opportunity to fully flourish without apology – or as Jeremiah puts it to those in exile, to ‘settle, build and grow'.