Williams’ story of Hagar
Throughout Williams’ story of Hagar, two main themes revolve around it, the theme of wilderness and surrogacy of the Womanist theology. Surrogacy is a big part of the history of Africa American women, and even to this day, it continues to be a part of their experience too. Surrogacy is basically social role exploitation. In Hagar’s case, her surrogacy role was biological. The black woman experienced lots of surrogacy that are Williams does well to mimic in Hagar’s wilderness experience. There are two types of surrogacy: coerced surrogacy and voluntary surrogacy. Coerced surrogacy was observed during the antebellum, and it involved black women who were slaves at the time acted as mammies and breeders, just like Hagar endured where women are forced to reproduce as commanded by someone.
Black women also went through their form of coerced surrogacy as they had to play roles that under normal circumstances, they were not supposed to be theirs. These roles include acting as mothers to their master’s babies. Voluntary surrogacy, on the other hand, is a postbellum experience that poor black women go through amid the white racist, classist, and sexist word. The world and the role of the black women in society still haven’t changed a lot since even now the black women always go through voluntary surrogacy as they work for white families and act like their kid’s mothers. Additionally, they have had to play the roles of heads of the family due to the fact that there have been many absent fathers.
To some extent, we may look at the suffering of Christ as coerced surrogacy since he did so to obey his father. But again, if he suffered voluntarily, we may look at that as voluntary surrogacy as well. In both views suffering is made to sound like a divine experience of some sort and makes Christianity a sedative for those who have no option but to suffer. However, Williams has a completely different view on the whole thing. According to her, there is no redemptive suffering; she believes when one encounters suffering, they have already encountered sin as opposed to holiness, or the will of God. She understands that Jesus was promoting a “ministerial vision” that enhanced the relationship between them and God. Williams believes that one thing we should take from the crucifixion of Christ is the righting of the relationships in the world and not the vicarious suffering. Therefore looking at surrogacy without using the scope that is the Womanist theology is wrong as it gives the oppressed the impression that surrogacy is holy and right.
As such, according to the Womanist theology, we should not look at the veneration of the cross but instead, concentrate on the ministerial vision. This can be termed as the correcting of the relationship between body, mind as well as spirit. Additionally, the Christological motivation in this case again is not the cross, but Jesus overcoming suffering, that is, resurrection. Through this, the Womanist theology gives the oppressed African American woman to witness God’s faithfulness, which will help her survive the suffering. But not necessarily in the way that is presupposed where one is required to suffer so that Christ can be revealed to them.