Emilie Maureen Townes

This volume is an interdisciplinary exploration of the interplay between the contemporary Black Church in the United States and African American womanist spirituality and social witness. Historically, the Black Church itself has represented a strong yoking of social witness and spirituality. This blend has endured whether the primary theology and ethical import of the Church has been accomodationist or protest-oriented. African American women in the Church have carried this legacy in their lived witness of spirituality and social action. This volume will explore some of the historic roots of this journey, the literary testimony of this heritage, and offers a constructive ethic for a contemporary social witness which is steeped in spiritual formation and growth.

This book offers an important contribution to the recovery and articulation of African-American womanist experience. Ida Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) was an activist, social reformer, and churchwoman. Womanist justice, womanist hope recovers her life and historical context and examines the extent to which her perspective can be a resource for a contemporary womanist Christian social ethic. Beginning with a brief biographical sketch of Wells-Barnett, Emilie Townes examines the religious and social world in which she worked as well as her many speeches and publciations. Townes focuses especially on Wells-Barnett's participation in the anti-lynching campaigns of the late nineteenth century. She argues that Wells-Barnett's life and work can provide important lessons in leadership and social activism for contemporary Black churchwomen.

In A Troubling in My Soul, well-known womanist theologians explore the persistent question of evil and suffering in compelling new ways. Committed to an integrated analysis of race, gender, and class, they also address the shortcomings of traditional, feminist, and Black theologies in dealing with evil. Taking Alice Walker's definition of "womanist" as a framework, in Part I, "Responsible, in Charge," Clarice J. Martin explores "If God exists, why is there evil?"; Frances E. Wood shows how Christianity's idealization of suffering has harmed African-American women; and Jamie T. Phelps recounts the historic exclusion of African-American women - and men - in the Roman Catholic church. Part II, "It Wouldn't Be the First Time," includes Marcia Y. Riggs on the 19th century Black club women's response to moral evil; Emilie M. Townes on a womanist ethic based on the example of Ida B. Wells-Barrett; and Rosita deAnn Mathews on the role of chaplain-clergyperson as priest, prophet, and employee . Part III, "Love's the Spirit," includes M. Shawn Copeland on the narratives of enslaved and/or emancipated women of African descent; Delores S. Williams on sin and suffering in Black Christian theology; Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan on the spirituals as an Afrocentric Christian response to evil; and Karen Baker-Fletcher on the life of Dr. Anna Julia Cooper and the vitality of voice in womanist experience. In Part IV, "As Purple Is to Lavender," Patricia L. Hunter exposes the cosmetics industry's impact on Black women's self-understanding as creations of God. There is also Jacquelyn Grant on how a theology of servanthood degenerates into an apologetics for exploitation; Katie Geneva Cannon on the African-American folk sermon as genre; and, finally, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes on how Alice Walker's observations that one "loves food," "loves roundness," and "loves oneself" stand in opposition to the dominant culture's dictum that one can never be too rich or too thin. Vigorous and forthright, A Troubling in My Soul is must-reading for students, scholars, and everyone interested in African-American, women's, and contemporary religious studies.

"This book offers a better understanding of the varieties of religiously based approaches to healing and alternative models of healing and health found in black communities in the United States. Contributors address the communal aspects of faith and health and explore the contexts in which individuals make choices about their health, the roles institutions play in shaping these decisions, and the practices individuals engage in when seeking better health or coping with the health they have. By paying attention to the role of faith and spirit, the book offers a fuller sense of the varieties of ways black health and healthcare are perceived and addressed."--BOOK JACKET.