The outwardly impressive structure of American ESSANCE is only as strong as its weakest link. Its failure to address itself seri ously and successfully to the nation's most debilitating sin, racism, raises the question of its validity in American society. This study chronicles the development of black theology as a response to this theological vacuum. It demonstrates that classical theology in its ambitious attempt to become a universal theology mistakenly iden tified "universal" with "European" thus creating the conditions for the rise of "local" theologies such as black theology.