Loving the Body Black Religious Studies and the Erotic

Why has the sensuality and eroticism of the black body, so evident in black culture and African-American life, remained a taboo topic in the study of African-American religion? Loving the Body builds on this query by bringing together diverse approaches to sexuality and religion. Authors subsume Christian discourse within the broader conversation in both sacred and profane manifestations of the contentions over what it means to construct the eroticism of black materiality. Due to high demand, this ground-breaking book is now being offered in paperback for courses. Providing students with compelling arguments and unique perspectives, it is essential reading for students in Black Theology, Liberation Theology, and Women in Religion courses.

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 Heart and Head: Black Theology Past, Present, and Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). He is associate professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School.