Caribbean Prophet: The Public Theology of Ashley Smith

Description

Ashley Smith was a reformed Jamaican theologian and minister of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Well known for his unapologetic, anti-imperial, Afro-centric interpretation of scriptures, Smith’s contribution in shaping the post-independence theological discourse in Jamaica is significant.  Without fear or favour, Smith acted as a critical voice on church and society from the 1950s to the time of his passing in 2020. Deconstructing the Western myth of hierarchical concepts of human races in which self-interest placed White Europeans at the top and Black Africans at the bottom, Smith argued relentlessly for a restructuring of the world away from a European interpretation and understanding to an incorporation of the worldviews of other cultures. A major public figure in the 1970s, Smith’s prolific writing on theology and development set him apart as a pioneering theologian from the Reformed tradition contributing greatly to the development of a Caribbean theology.

In Caribbean Prophet: The Public Theology of Ashley Smith, the contributors – leading scholars within Jamaica from different faith traditions – articulate the different ways in which Smith’s public theology utilized the experiences of African-Jamaicans to redefine their humanity and identity focusing on their resilience to build agency. The result is an exposition of Ashley Smith, the pioneer, his speaking truth to power, his contribution to Caribbean theology as an educator and scholar and his enduring legacy.