There is a blindspot in black theological method. Particularly, as womanist scholars have correctly observed, black male theologians have not taken seriously the complexities of sexism and gender as central components comprising the terrain of black religious studies in North America. Because of the premium placed upon black male voices and black male-oriented ecclesial and political arrangements within black theological methodology, the trajectory of the discipline, if left unchecked, is doomed to continue the dismissiveness of black female perspectives.

This project suggests that a plausible alternative in response to the dearth of attention to sexuality and gender within black theological method, involves a reinterpretation of human community. More work is needed to clarify the interior dimensions of the development of human selves in the context of community. To this end, this project frames a modality of human relationality in which the above concerns regarding self-formation and reconstruction are addressed. I argue that black theological method, informed by a theory of reciprocity rooted in womanist conceptions of human relationality, offers the best way to address the lack of critical attention to sex and gender bias. Making use of the dialogical theory of human relationships outlined within Martin Buber's philosophy and the cultural criticism of womanist and black feminist scholars to frame a new interpretation of relationality, I offer a theory of reciprocity meant to expand and breathe new life into black theological discourse and further suggest how a reconstruction of the understanding of human relationships has potential to also reconstruct more harmful manifestations of black male identity and masculinity that often find expression in black Christian communities.