Robert Beckford explores the dialogue between two central institutions in African Caribbean life: the church and the dancehall. He highlights how Dub – one of the central features of dancehall culture – can be mobilized as a framework for re-evaluating theology, taking apart doctrine and reconstructing it under the influence of a guiding theme.

Engaging with the social and cultural heritage that informs Christian African Caribbean culture, including the influence of slavery, Revival Christianity and working class Jamaican life, Black theology and music ranging from post-war Sound System to American Hip Hop, Jesus Dub is a detailed exploration of how throughout history, music and faith have been transformed in response to racialised oppression. Finally, Beckford demonstrates that dub style appears in the teachings of Jesus, and that Dub is a tool which can provide new ways of envisaging and practising spiritual gifts and financial giving, proposing a more inclusive theology for everyone.

Robert Beckford teaches at the University of Birmingham, in the department of American and Canadian Studies. He has written several books in the field of Black theology and Black culture in Britain, including God and the Gangs (2004), God of the Rahtid (2003), Dread and the Pentecostal (2000) and Jesus is Dread (1998). As well as writing and teaching, Robert is a British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) award-winning documentary presenter, working with Channel 4 television.