Capturing the Beauty of Materialism: Black Bodies, Ontic Desires, and Processes of Humanization

Document Type

Contribution to Book

Source Publication

Terror and Triumph: The Nature of Black Religion, 20th Anniversary Edition

Publication Date

7-26-2022

Editor

Anthony B. Pinn

Publisher

Fortress Press

City

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Edition

1st

ISBN

9781506474731

First Page

243

Last Page

251

Department

Religious Studies

Description

Anthony Pinn’s nuanced, rich, and capacious conceptions of black religiosity in Terror and Triumph (2003) is distinctive in offering some of the most sustaining, original insights into African-American religion from the vantage point of its existential and ontological concerns. Noteworthy in primarily conceptualizing African American religion as a “quest for complex subjectivity,” Terror and Triumph is far-reaching, richly enhancing the innovative conceptual space in which I and other philosophers of religion often work. In this chapter, I comment briefly on the significance of Terror and Triumph for current theoretical insights associated with the New Materialism. More specifically, I read Pinn’s text through the lens of religious naturalism—one model of the new materialism—and reflect on his innovative view that black “bodies” are as essential focal point for understanding the profundity of black religiosity. In doing so, I consider Pinn’s insights into the empirical facticity (or materiality) that grounds black religion, and I also illuminate crucial “materialist” insights that emerge when asking about the relevance of his work 20 years later.

Comments

Chapter 14, Carol W, White, author

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