Description:
A collection of leading voices on the study of Black women in religious life
Womanist approaches to the study of religion and society have contributed much to our understanding of Black religious life, activism, and women's liberation. Deeper Shades of Purple explores the achievements of this movement over the past two decades and evaluates some of the leading voices and different perspectives within this burgeoning field. Deeper Shades of Purple brings together a who's who of scholars in the study of Black women and religion who view their scholarship through a womanist critical lens. The contributors revisit Alice Walker's definition of womanism for its viability for the approaches to discourses in religion of Black women scholars. Whereas Walker has defined what it means to be womanist, these contributors define what it means to practice womanism, and illuminate how womanism has been used as a vantage point for the theoretical orientations and methodological approaches of Black women scholar-activists. Contributors: Karen Baker-Fletcher, Katie G. Cannon, M. Shawn Copeland, Kelly Brown Douglas, Carol B. Duncan, Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, Rachel Elizabeth Harding, Rosemarie Freeney Harding, Melanie L. Harris, Diana L. Hayes, Dwight N. Hopkins, Ada María Isasi-Díaz, Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Kwok Pui-Lan, Daisy L. Machado, Debra Majeed, Anthony B. Pinn, Rosetta Ross, Letty M. Russell, Shani Settles, Dianne M. Stewart, Raedorah Stewart-Dodd, Emilie M. Townes, Traci C. West, and Nancy Lynne Westfield.Brief description: Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas is s The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Executive Director of both the Society of Christian Ethics (SCE) and the Black Religious Scholars Group (BRSG). She is co-founder of the Society for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Religion (SRER). She is the author of When the Good Life Goes Bad: The US and Its Seven Deadly Sins (Illinois, 2026) and Mining the Motherlode: Methods in Womanist Ethics (Pilgrim Press, 2006); coauthor of Black Church Studies: An Introduction (Abingdon Press, 2007); and (co)editor of our two edited volumes, Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society (New York University Press, 2006) and U. S. Liberation Theologies: An Introduction (New York University Press, 2010), as well as Beyond the Pale: Reading Ethics from the Margins (Westminister John Knox Press, 2011), and Beyond the Pale: Reading Theology from the Margins (Westminister John Knox Press, 2011). She is co-series editor of our Religion and Social Transformation book series She also hosts The Womanist Salon Podcast aimed at popularizing and making her profession and vocation intergenerationally accessible.
Review Quotes: "An important collection of the leading scholars in Womanist religion, ethics and theology. A must read!"--James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary