In this Black Theology Forum, Professor Robert Beckford will take us through his new book Decolonising Contemporary Gospel Music Through Praxis: Handsworth Revolutions (Bloomsbury, 2023). Beckford will explain how the Black British tradition fails to articulate in song the social teachings of Jesus. The roots of the predicament, Beckford identifies as the continuity of racist colonial Christian thought in the Black Church and consequently all its theological music(s), including contemporary gospel. In response to what Beckford perceives as a ‘crisis’ for the Black Church, he presents practical musical examples of how the genre can be transformed from his contemporary gospel music album, ’The Jamaican Bible Remix (2017). Beckford will also show how the album has impacted gospel music artists in the UK.
