Dwight Hopkins, whose important work in Black Theology has mediated class theological concerns through the prism of African American culture, here offers a fresh take on theological anthropology. Rather than define "the human" as one eternal or inviolable essence, however, Hopkins looks to the multiple and conflicting notions of the human in contemporary thought, and particularly three key variables: culture, self, and race. Hopkins' critical reframing of these concepts firmly locates human endeavor, development, transcendence, and liberation in the particular messiness of struggle and strife.