Introduction PART I: NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA A Beautiful Be-ing: Religious Humanism and the Aesthetics of a New Salvation; A.B.Pinn The Foolish Woman Grows Angry Because They Teach Her: Influences of Sexism in Black Church Worship; N.L.Westfield Spiritual Matters: The Aesthetics of Ritual Substances in Umbanda; L.Hale From Hattie to Halle: Black Female Bodies and Spectatorship as Ritual in Hollywood Cinema; C.B.Duncan PART II: THE CARIBBEAN Giving Form to Les Invisibles: Spirits and Rituals in Haitian Painting; L.Paravisini-Gebert Dancing with Ochún: Imagining How a Black Goddess Became White; M.De La Torre PART THREE: EUROPE Black Suit Matters: Identity, Spirituality and Representation in the British Religious Documentary; R.Beckford A Dialectical Spirituality of Improvisation: The Ambiguity of Black Engagements with Sacred Texts; A.Reddie PART FOUR: AFRICA The Aesthetic Dimensions of Religion in South Africa: Africa Initiated Churches Considered; L.E.Thomas Aesthetics in Africa Art: Implications for African Theology; E.K.Bongmba

A great deal of attention has been given to the sociopolitical and theological importance of Black Religion. However, of less academic concern up to this point is the aesthetic qualities that define much of what is said and done within the context of Black Religion. Recognizing the centrality of the black body for black religious thought and life, this book proposes a conversation concerning various dimensions of the aesthetic considerations and qualities of Black Religion as found in various parts of the world, including the the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. In this respect, Black Religion is simply meant to connote the religious orientations and arrangements of people of African descent across the globe.

ANTHONY PINN is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities at Rice University, Texas, USA.