Loving the Body: Black Religious Studies and the Erotic

361 Pages·2004·1.417 MB·English

by  Anthony B. Pinn, Dwight N. Hopkins (eds.)

Loving the Body
BLACK RELIGION / WOMANIST THOUGHT /
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Series Editors Dwight N. Hopkins and Linda E. Thomas
Published by Palgrave:
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Edited by Alton B. Pollard, III and Love Henry Whelchel, Jr.
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By James Perkinson
The Myth of Ham in Nineteenth-Century American Christianity: Race, Heathens
andthe People of God
By Sylvester A. Johnson
African American Humanist Principles:Living and Thinking Like the Children of
Nimrod
By Anthony B. Pinn
Loving the Body: Black Religious Studies and the Erotic
Edited by Anthony B. Pinn and Dwight N. Hopkins
Loving the Body
Black Religious
Studies and the Erotic
Edited By
Anthony B.Pinn and Dwight N.Hopkins
LOVINGTHEBODY
© Anthony B.Pinn and Dwight N.Hopkins 2004.
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2004 by
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Union and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-4039-7638-3 ISBN 978-1-4039-8034-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781403980342
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Loving the body :Black religious studies and the erotic / edited by
Dwight N.Hopkins and Anthony B.Pinn.
p.cm.—(Black religion,womanist thought,social justice)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-4039-7638-3
1.African Americans—Religion.2.Sex—Religious aspects—
Christianity.I.Hopkins,Dwight N.II.Pinn,Anthony B.III.Series.
BR563.N4L68 2004
270(cid:1).089(cid:1)96—dc22 2004052348
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd.,Chennai,India.
First edition:December 2004
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the Ancestors
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Contents
About the Contributors xi
Introduction 1
Anthony B. Pinn
I. Ethics
1. Sexing Black Women: Liberation from the Prisonhouse of
Anatomical Authority 11
Katie G. Cannon
2. A Space for Faith, Sexual Desire, and Ethical Black
Ministerial Practices 31
Traci C. West
II. Biblical Studies
3. Constructing a Doctrine for the Ecclesia Militans 53
Michael Joseph Brown
4. The Bible, the Body and a Black Sexual Discourse of
Resistance 73
Abraham Smith
5. Vashti 91
Allen Callahan
III. Pastoral Studies
6. The Spirit is Willing and the Flesh is Too: Living Whole and
Holy Lives Through Integrating Spirituality and Sexuality 111
Lee Butler
viii Contents
7. When and Where I Enter, Then the Whole Race Enters
With Me: Que(e)rying Exodus 121
Irene Monroe
8. Toward a True Black Liberation Theology: Affirming
Homoeroticism, Black Gay Christians, and Their Love
Relationships 133
Horace Griffin
IV. Theology
9. Embracing Nimrod’s Legacy: The Erotic, the Irreverence
ofFantasy, and the Redemption of Black Theology 157
Anthony B. Pinn
10. The Construction of the Black Male Body: Eroticism and
Religion 179
Dwight N. Hopkins
11. The Erotic in Contemporary Black Women’s Writings 199
Karen Baker-Fletcher
V. Musical Studies
12. Salome’s Veiled Dance and David’s Full Monty: A
Womanist Reading on the Black Erotic in Blues,
Rap, R&B, and Gospel Blues 217
Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan
13. Black Spirituals, Physical Sensuality, and Sexuality:
Notes on a Neglected Field of Inquiry 235
Arthur C. Jones
VI. Hermeneutics and Cultural Criticism
14. Loving Our Black Bodies As God’s Luminously Dark
Temples: The Quest for Black Restoration 249
Riggins R. Earl, Jr.
15. Desiring Booty and Killing the Body: Toward “Negative”
Erotics 271
Edward Phillip Antonio
16. The Black Church and the Curious Body of the Black
Homosexual 297
Victor Anderson
Contents ix
VII. Sociology of Religion
17. Teaching the Body: Sexuality and the Black Church 315
Alton B. Pollard, III
18. The Black Church and the Politics of Sexuality 347
Kelly Brown Douglas