GOD IN ALICE WALKER’S THE COLOR PURPLE; A PARADOX OF THE DIVINE

Over time, as secularization took root in Black churches during the CivilRights era, the prevalent framework in understanding African Americanspirituality discourse has shifted from theology to sociology. This paper triesto discern this major shift from the black literature perspective. It aims todiscuss the main charachers’ paradoxical state of mind in understandingGod in the novel The Color Purple. The 1982 Pulitzer Prize for fiction winneris organized around an intimate conversation between two femalecharacters, Celie and Shug Avery, whose understanding of God werechallanged by complexity of sexism and racism in the black family.Sociological approach is adopted to understand the characters’ dynamicconcept of God. Discussion in this paper suggested that Alice Walker’snaturalist theology is embodied in Celie and Shug Avery’s conceptualizationof God in the novel.Keywords: Black Theology, The Color Purple, God in Black Literature