Since most ministers had little or no formal training in academic theology, they spoke from their hearts, appealing to their life experience, biblical stories, and the Spirit of God that empowered them to struggle for dignity and freedom. They proclaimed what they felt in song and sermon and let the truth of their proclamation bear witness to God’s redemptive presence in their resistance to oppression. Their sense of redemption through Jesus’ cross was not a propositional belief or a doctrine derived from the study of theology. Redemption was an amazing experience of salvation, an
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