Synopses & Reviews
In this collection, contributors argue that the Black Church must begin to address the significance of sexuality if it is to actually present liberation as a mode of existence that fully appreciates the body. According to the contributors, the Black Church has been extremely silent about issues surrounding the sexual dimension of the body, the appreciation of the body, and the erotic. The contributors argue that we not only have to look at the Black Church in this discussion, but also explore black Christianity in general.
Review
"
Loving the Body arrives with miraculous timing. By moving embodiment, pleasure and sexuality to the center of the discussion of black religious studies, the authors call for a new, more inclusive sexual revolution accompanied by a new, and more progressive spiritual revolution. These insightful and courageous essays provide provocative new perspectives on one of the most significant and significantly troubled partnerships in African American culture: sexuality and the Black Church. The essays provide a valuable critical framework for scholars and mainstream readers grappling with innovative ways to unite the body and the spirit."--Kimberly Wallace-Sanders, Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts and Women's Studies, Emory University
Review
"Loving the Body arrives with miraculous timing. By moving embodiment, pleasure and sexuality to the center of the discussion of black religious studies, the authors call for a new, more inclusive sexual revolution accompanied by a new and more progressive spiritual revolution. These insightful and courageous essays provide provocative new perspectives on one of the most significant and significantly troubled partnerships in African American culture: sexuality and the Black Church. The essays provide a valuable critical framework for scholars and mainstream readers grappling with innovative ways to unite the body and the spirit."--Kimberly Wallace-Sanders, Assistant Professor Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts and Women's Studies, Emory University
Synopsis
A collection of essays that explores the significance of sexuality and the erotic within the context of black religious studies as a discipline.
About the Author
Anthony B. Pinn is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University, and teaches courses on African-American religion, history of black religious thought, and black theology. He is the author of several books, including Why Lord? Suffering and Evil in Black Theology and Varieties of African American Religious Experience.
Dwight N. Hopkins is editor, with Linda Thomas, of the Black Religion/Womanist Thought/Social Justice series and is the author of Down, Up & Over: Slave Religion and Black Theology and Heart and Head: Black Theology Past, Present, and Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). He is associate professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Table of Contents
Introduction *
Ethics * Creature of Dust, Creature of Thought, Creature of Divinity--Katie Cannon * No Body to Shame--Traci West *
Biblical Studies * Constructing a Doctrine for the Ecclesia Militans--Michael Brown * A Bump in the Road on a Dangerous Intersection--Abraham Smith * African American Women and Queen Vashti--Allen Callahan * P
astoral Studies * The Spirit is Willing and the Flesh is Too--Lee Butler * Sexuality and Freedom--Rene Hill * Toward a True Black Liberation Theology--Horace Griffin *
Theology * Embracing Nimrod's Legacy--Anthony B. Pinn * The Construction of the Black Male Body--Dwight N. Hopkins * The Erotic in Biblical and Black Women's Literature--Karen Baker-Fletcher *
Musical Studies * Salome's Veiled Dance and David's Full Monty--Cheryl Kirk-Duggan * Black Spirituals, Eroticism and Religion--Arthur C. Jones *
Hermeneutics and Cultural Criticism * Erotic Body Language in Black Church Worship--Riggins Earl * Sexuality and Africentric Spirituality--Will Coleman * My Brother My Sister--Victor Anderson *
Comparative Religions * The Sarah Baarton Phenomenon--Linda E. Thomas * Desiring Booty and Killing the Body--Edward Antonio *
Sociology of Religion * Teaching the Body--Alton Pollard * The Black Church and Homosexuality--Kelly Brown Douglas