Loving the Body BLACK RELIGION / WOMANIST THOUGHT / SOCIAL JUSTICE Series Editors Dwight N. Hopkins and Linda E. Thomas Published by Palgrave: “How Long this Road”: Race, Religion, and the Legacy of C. Eric Lincoln Edited by Alton B. Pollard, III and Love Henry Whelchel, Jr. A White Theology of Solidarity: Signified upon and Sounded out 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 PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 and Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire,England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European 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 This page intentionally left blank 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