Black Religion and Aesthetics

ANTHONY PINN is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities at Rice University, Texas, USA.

"This is a rare book in Africana studies. Its writers nicely demonstrate how African peoples sought both liberation and salvation through the development of new aesthetic and artistic forms that rendered black bodies beautiful in spite of the countless brutal attacks perpetrated on them. Undoubtedly, this book will spark many additionalstudies along similar lines." - Peter J. Paris, Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor of Christian Social Ethics, Emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary "Pinn has once again challenged us to expand our understanding of the complexity of Black Religion. In these wide-ranging essays, we find a ground-breaking exploration of its aesthetic qualities, qualities that play an integral role in the power of Black Religion in the lives of individuals, and in its political and cultural impact...These essays invite scholars of religion to expand our frame of reference, just as they expose students to the complexity of religious life. This is a generative text, one likely to spark creative dialogue about religion across disciplines, as well as evoking new attention among scholars to the aesthetic dimensions of black religious thought and life. It is both timely and likely to have long-lasting impact." Sharon D. Welch, Provost and Professor of Theology, Meadville Lombard Theological School.

• Introduction PART I: NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA A Beautiful Be-ing: Religious Humanism and the Aesthetics of a New Salvation; A.B.Pinn The Foolish Woman Grows Angry Because They Teach Her: Influences of Sexism in Black Church Worship; N.L.Westfield Spiritual Matters: The Aesthetics of Ritual Substances in Umbanda; L.Hale From Hattie to Halle: Black Female Bodies and Spectatorship as Ritual in Hollywood Cinema; C.B.Duncan PART II: THE CARIBBEAN Giving Form to Les Invisibles: Spirits and Rituals in Haitian Painting; L.Paravisini-Gebert Dancing with Ochún: Imagining How a Black Goddess Became White; M.De La Torre PART THREE: EUROPE Black Suit Matters: Identity, Spirituality and Representation in the British Religious Documentary; R.Beckford A Dialectical Spirituality of Improvisation: The Ambiguity of Black Engagements with Sacred Texts; A.Reddie PART FOUR: AFRICA The Aesthetic Dimensions of Religion in South Africa: Africa Initiated Churches Considered; L.E.Thomas Aesthetics in Africa Art: Implications for African Theology; E.K.Bongmba