Womanist theology
Womanist theology
Interested in reading about womanist theologies? Don't know where to start?
The
CTF has a growing collection of ebooks on womanist theology. The books highlighted below include works on worship, ethics, theology, and Biblical studies from a range of global perspectives. Search the full collection on eDiscover, or have a look at our recommendations below.
What is Womanist theology? Look up an introductory dictionary definition here.
Recent publications and new acquisitions
Explore
the most up to date publications and recent additions to the CTF
library on feminist and womanist theologies and women in the church.
Pamela R. Lightsey. Our Lives Matter : A Womanist Queer Theology. Pickwick Publications, 2015.
Using a womanist methodological approach, Pamela R. Lightsey helps readers explore the impact of oppression against Black LBTQ women while introducing them to the emergent intellectual movement known as queer theology. The author privileges their narratives and experiences as she reviews several doctrines and dogma of the Christian church.
Joy R. Bostic. African American Female Mysticism : Nineteenth-Century Religious Activism. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
African-American Female Mysticism: Nineteenth Century Religious Activism is an important book-length treatment of African-American female mysticism. The primary subjects of this book are three icons of black female spirituality and religious activism - Jarena Lee, Sojourner Truth, and Rebecca Cox Jackson.
Henderson, Carol. “My Soul Is A Witness”: Reimagining African American Women’s Spirituality and the Black Female Body in African American Literature. MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2021.
This special collection assembles some of the most pre-eminent scholars
in the field in African, African American, and American Studies to
explore the ways writers reclaim the Black female body in African
American literature using the theoretical, social, cultural, and
religious frameworks of spirituality and religion.
Parker, Angela N. If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I? : Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2021.
Drawing from her perspective as a Womanist New Testament
scholar, Parker describes how she learned to deconstruct White Christianity's oppressive
use of the Bible. To learn to breathe again, Parker says, we must “let God
breathe in us.”
Sechrest, Love Lazarus. Race and Rhyme : Rereading the New Testament. [N. P.]: Eerdmans, 2022.
A leading womanist biblical scholar reads passages from the New Testament in dialogue with modern-day issues of racial justice. Sechrest offers a rich bounty of new insights from Scripture—drawing out matters of justice and human dignity that spoke to early Christians and can speak still to Christians willing to listen today.
Highlights from the rest of the collection
Introductions and overviews
Looking for an
introduction to feminist and womanist theologies? Try these introductory guides, overviews,
and handbooks from the CTF collection, the Hub, and the Internet
Archive.
Cannon, Katie Geneva. Katie's Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community. Fortress Press, 2021.
This selection of essays weaves together the particularities of Cannon's own history and the oral tradition of African American women, African American women's literary traditions, and sociocultural and ethical analysis. Cannon addresses racism and economics, ethics, womanist preaching in the Black church, and slave ideology and biblical interpretation.
Cannon, Katie Geneva, Emilie M. Townes, Angela D. Sims. Womanist theological ethics: a reader. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011.
Writing across theological disciplines, nine African American women scholars reflect on what it means to live as responsible doers of justice. With some classic essays and some contributions published here for the first time, each chapter presents analytical strategies for understanding the story of womanist scholarship in the service of the black community.
Hayes, Diana. Standing in the shoes my mother made: a womanist theology. Fortress Press, 2010
Nyasha Junior. An Introduction to Womanist Biblical Interpretation. Westminster John Knox Press, 2015
Written in an accessible style, this book provides an introduction to womanist approaches to biblical interpretation. It argues that womanist biblical interpretation is not simply a by-product of feminist biblical interpretation but part of a distinctive tradition of African American women's engagement with biblical texts. This volume highlights the importance of both the Bible and race in the development of feminism and the emergence of womanism.
Mitchem, Stephanie Y. Introducing Womanist Theology. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 2002.
This book demonstrates how theology by women of color is
firmly rooted in their varied life experiences. By participating fully in the
construction of theology instead of simply learning theology from others, black
women are able to analyze church teachings, develop meaningful systems of
ethics, and challenge ecclesiastical structures, if needed. This book describes
the unique experiences of African American women and explores not only what
theology is, but how it is constructed.
Phillips, Layli. The womanist reader: the first quartercentury of womanist thought. Routledge, 2006.
Mitzi J. Smith. I Found God in Me : A Womanist Biblical Hermeneutics Reader. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2015.
In this volume, readers have access to articles on womanist interpretative theories and theology as well as cutting-edge womanist readings of biblical texts by womanist biblical scholars. This book is an excellent resource for relevant readings of the biblical text, womanist biblical hermeneutics, feminist interpretation, African American hermeneutics, and biblical studies that value diversity and dialogue.
Monica A. Coleman. Making a Way Out of No Way : A Womanist Theology. Fortress Press, 2008.
Coleman articulates the African American
expression of 'making a way out of no way' for today's context of
globalization, religious pluralism, and sexual diversity. Drawing on
womanist religious scholarship and process thought, Coleman describes
the symbiotic relationship among God, the ancestors, and humanity that
helps to change the world into the just society it ought to be. Coleman
proposes a communal theology that presents a dynamic way forward for
black churches, African traditional religions and grassroots
organizations.
Williams, Dolores S. Sisters in the Wilderness : The Challenge of Womanist God-talk. Orbis Books, 2013.
This landmark work first published 20 years ago helped establish the
field of African-American womanist theology. Drawing on the biblical figure of Hagar
mother of Ishmael, cast into the desert by Abraham and Sarah, but
protected by God Williams finds a proptype for the struggle of
African-American women. African slave, homeless exile, surrogate mother,
Hagar's story provides an image of survival and defiance appropriate to
black women today.
Further explorations
Want to delve deeper into this subject? The CTF database has over 300 titles focusing on feminist theology, womanist theology, and women in the church. These books offer a broad range of different approaches, disciplines, and perspectives across different religious denominations and time periods. Here are just a few highlights from this collection.
Biblical Studies
Smith, Mitzi J. Womanist Sass and Talk Back: Social(In)justice, Intersectionality, and Biblical Interpretation. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2018
Smith raises our consciousness about
pressing contemporary social (in)justice issues that impact communities
of color and the larger society. Systemic or structural oppression and
injustices, police profiling and brutality, oppressive pedagogy, and
gendered violence are placed in dialogue with sacred (con)texts. This
book is for readers interested in critical interpretations of sacred
(con)texts (ancient and contemporary) and in propagating the justice and
love of God while engaging those (con)texts.
Byron, Gay L., Lovelace, Vanessa. Womanist Interpretations of the Bible. SBL Press, 2016
This edited volume brings together cross-generational and cross-cultural readings of the Bible and other sacred sources by including scholars from the Caribbean, India, and Africa who have not traditionally fit into the narrow U.S., African American paradigm for understanding womanist biblical interpretation. The volume engages the reader in a wide range of interdisciplinary methods and perspectives, such as gender and feminist criticism, social-scientific methods, post-colonial and psychoanalytical theory that emphasize the inherently intersectional dynamics of race, ethnicity, and class at work in womanist thought and analysis.Biblical commentary
This book offers an Africana Womanist reading of First Corinthians that privileges the knowledge, experiences, histories, traditions, voices, and artifacts of Black women and the Black community that challenge or dissent from Paul's rhetorical epistemic constructions. Smith reads First Corinthians dialogically from the perspective of oppressed and marginalized readers situated in front of the text and those muted within and behind the letter.
Theological anthropology
Copeland, M. Shawn. Enfleshing freedom : body, race, and being. Second Edition Minneapolis, MN : Fortress Press, 2023.
In this incisive and important work, Copeland demonstrates
with rare insight and conviction how black women's historical experience and
oppression cast a completely different light on our theological ideas about
being human. Copeland argues that race and embodiment and relations of power
not only reframe theological anthropology but also our notions of discipleship,
church, and Christ.
Ecowomanism
Hub: Harris, Melanie L. Ecowomanism: African American Women
and Earth-Honoring Faiths. Ecology and Justice. Maryknoll: ORBIS, 2017.
Harris argues that African American women make distinctive
contributions to the environmental justice movement in the ways that they theologize,
theorize, practice spiritual activism, and come into religious understandings
about our relationship with the earth.
Baker-Fletcher, Karen. Sisters of dust, sisters of spirit: womanist wordings on God and creation. Minneapolis, MN : Fortress Press, 1998.
Baker-Fletcher cultivates the earthy potential of black womanism.
In her rich prose and poetry, she combines reflection on her own journey
with a keen awareness of environmental racism and a constructive
religious vision. She seeks to recover and renew the strong historic tie
of black and native peoples to the land, often broken by migration and
urbanization.
Ethics
Madlock, Annette D. and Glenn, Cerise L. Womanist ethical rhetoric: a call for liberation and social justice in turbulent times. LexingtonBooks, 2020
This book centers discourses of religious rhetoric and its influence on
Black women's aims for voice, empowerment, and social justice in these
turbulent times. Topics analyzed include
Black women's spiritual and professional identities in religious
organizations, the role of Black churches in Black Lives Matter, and the
inclusion of all Black women in racial academic achievement gaps.
Christology
Grant, Jacquelyn. White women's Christ and Black women's Jesus : feminist christology and womanist response. Atlanta, Ga. : Scholars Press, 1989. Internet Archive.
Feminist Christology confronts the dual tasks of explaining the significance of a male God-bearer for women and creating a Christological model adequate to feminist experience. Grant rehearses the development and challenges of feminist Christology and proposes a womanist theology and Christology that emerge from the reality of contemporary Black women.
Lutheran Theology
Streufort, Mary J. Transformative Lutheran theologies: feminist, womanist, and mujerista perspectives. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010.
The contributors to this multi-authored work share a common commitment to Lutheran theology as a continual process of reform. Luther is a partner in the conversation because of his 'theological insights and commitment to faithful criticism,' which the writers seek to continue. The book focuses on central themes that Luther addressed and that are representative of Lutheranism today, including justification by grace through faith and Luther's theology of the cross.Ministry and preaching
Session, Irie Lynne. Gathering, A Womanist Church: Origins, Stories, Sermons, and Litanies. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2020
A womanist church has great power to transform church and society, primarily because womanist theology centers the experiences of Black women while working for the survival and wholeness of all people and all creation. The Gathering, a womanist faith community in Dallas, Texas, welcomes all people to partner in pursuing racial equity, LGBTQ equality, and dismantling PMS (patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism), following Jesus in liberating the oppressed and lifting up the marginalized.Pastoral work
Myrna Thurmond-Malone. Midwifing—A Womanist Approach to Pastoral Counseling : Investigating the Fractured Self, Slavery, Violence, and the Black Woman. Pickwick Publications, 2019
This book is an investigation of intergenerational trauma. Exploring the impact of slavery, violence, racism, sexism, classism, and other isms on the self of the Black woman. This examination of the complexity of pain speaks to the multidimensional reality of some Black women and the necessity for a therapeutic technique that invites the fullness of the Black woman's historical narrative. This work also empowers women of African descent to become unarmored through the naming, claiming, and reauthoring of their story, and empowers therapists to become midwives adept at empathizing with the intense pain carried by some Black women.Practical theology
Sheppard Phillis Isabella. Self, culture, and others in womanist practical theology. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
To illustrate the complexities of black women's experiences of self-identification and racial embodiment, Phillis Isabella Sheppard provides an account that engages both psychoanalytic theory and the role of religion and cultural objects in self-understanding.Spirituality
Hayes, Diana L. No Crystal Stair: Womanist Spirituality. ORBIS, 2016
In this collection of essays, prayers, and meditations, Diana Hayes lays the foundation of womanist spirituality in the lived faith and struggles of African American women.Worship
Allen, Lisa, A Womanist Theology of Worship : Liturgy, Justice, and Communal Righteousness. Maryknoll: ORBIS, 2021.
Allen explores the development of liturgy in the Black Church and how Black congregations adapted liturgies from Euro-descended churches. She offers a new paradigm for Black worship that reimagines liturgy through a womanist lens and works to dismantle white supremacy in the Black Church. This paradigm centers African and African-descended cosmological and theological worldviews that employ a liberative hermeneutic of communal empowerment and agency.
Explore our Diversification Fund acquisitions.
Looking for further resources on this subject?
Explore these online bibliographies, reading lists, and digital resources:
Reading lists
Womanist Theology book list, University of Divinity
Other resources
8 Theologians and Women of Color You Should Be Reading - blogpost by the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology
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All text blurbs adapted from material provided by the publisher.