Loving the Body

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 Hear

• 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 Pastoral 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

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