Womanist theology and how it has evolved

Black women’s wisdom

by Eboni Marshall Turman

IN 1985, while presenting her essay “The Emergence of every person matters. Womanist theology is aimed at support­
Black Feminist Consciousness” to a room filled almost entirely ing all oppressed communities in the work of liberation while
with white theologians at the annual meeting of the American affirming black women’s capacities, wisdom, and independence.
Academy of Religion, Katie Geneva Cannon fainted. It’s little When Cannon gave her courageous, groundbreaking aca­
wonder she was nervous. Hers was the first paper ever present­ demic talk, she knew this organic, communal, and deeply
ed on womanist theology at the AAR, and it was a daring and grounded womanism intimately. She had been living it her
dangerous proposition at the time. In the theological academy entire life.
until the 1980s, as black feminist Akasha Gloria Hull notes, “all
the women were white and all the blacks were men.” n the early 1980s, Cannon was a doctoral student at Union
Cannon, however, was brave. Together with four other black
women inquirers, she advanced the fundaments of a new form
of discourse and emerged as a matriarch of theological woman-
ism—a theology that affirms the significance of black women’s
I Theological Seminary in New York along with Jacquelyn
Grant and Delores S. Williams. Cannon was studying with
white feminist Christian ethicist Beverly Wildung Harrison. Gran
and Williams were students of James Hal Cone, the progenitor of
God-talk, survival, and flourishing for determining the sub­ 20th-century black theology. Grant’s 1979 essay, “Black Theology
stance of faithful Christian discourse and praxis. and the Black Woman,” first examined the invisibility of black
Long before Cannon brought womanist God-talk into the women in black theology, arguing that black women cannot “con­
realm of academic discussion, however, it was flourishing in the tinue to be treated as if they were invisible creatures who are on
faithful lives of black Christian women. Womanism was bom the outside looking into the ... theological enterprise.”
around black women’s kitchen tables, on front porches, in beauty In addition to their theological studies, Cannon, Grant, and
shops, in women’s clubs, in the varieties of black women’s prayer Williams were reading black feminist theory and literature.
closets, and in various “women’s spaces” within the black church.
In these spaces, as black women came to know the love, mercy,
and justice of God for themselves, they forged a theology that Womanist theology is
boldly affirms that black women’s lives are significant and valu­
able not only to God but also to the church and the world. In the
“doing the work our
social, political, and religious realms that so often erased black
women’s experiences, black women of faith had the courage to
souls must have.”
believe and assert, “I am”: I am here, I am fully human, and I am They were particularly influenced by Alice Walker’s In Search
“fearfully and wonderfully” made in the image of God. of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose. Together in commu­
Womanist theology grew organically and in many spaces at nity, these three black women students began to articulate the­
once. In all of its manifestations, it is deeply grounded in the ologically the quandary of black women, adopting Walker’s lan­
long, fecund history of black women’s traditions of survival and guage of womanism. It seemed a fitting framework, since it
flourishing, rituals of celebration, and resistance to white racism complemented and accentuated a way of knowing and talking
and patriarchy. Black women’s hope and courage in resisting about God that was indigenous to the flesh-and-blood realities
race-, gender-, and class-based oppression stems from their of black women in the United States.
rootedness in faith—a faith in God that has been passed down Cannon, Grant, and Williams sought to articulate how black
through generations of women of African descent throughout women’s lived experiences are distinct from those of black men
the diaspora. and those of white women. Following Cannon’s infamous AAR
At the heart of this faith is love: an unapologetic self-love in presentation, in 1986 Grant published “Womanist Theology:
a world that has historically despised black women; love for the
Spirit; and a deep love of creation, culture, joy, and laughter. Eboni Marshall Turman teaches theology, ethics, and African American reli­
Womanist theology loves out loud. And it loves widely. gion at Yale Divinity School and is the author of Toward a Womanist
Womanism is deeply concerned about the well-being of the Ethic of Incarnation. She is cochair of the Black Theology unit of the
entire community, male and female. In a womanist garden, American Academy of Religion.

Christian Century March 13, 2019 30

 URTESY OF CENTER FOR WOMANIST LEADERSHIP / UNION PRESBYTERIAN SEMINARY
Black Women’s Experience as a Source gy, particularly its emphasis on the sig­
for Doing Theology with Special Refer­ nificance of Jesus’ suffering and death
ence to Christology.” In 1987 Williams for the black community. Positioning
published “Womanist Theology: Black black women’s suffering against white
Women’s Voices.” This trinity of essays atonement theories, Williams argued
developed the first scholarly assertions of that Jesus’ suffering does not save black
womanist theology women. To venerate the blood of the
Cannon, Grant, and Williams under­ cross is to glorify surrogacy—the idea
stood that a black man who is antiracist that the suffering of one allows for the
can also be committed to patriarchy, just redemption of many. Because black
as a white feminist who is antisexist can women have historically been surro­
be staunchly committed to white gates, to glorify surrogacy is to regard
supremacy And they knew that the con­ black women’s subjection as sacred.
sequences for black women of living Black women have stood in the
with multiple forms of oppression— place of others, domestically and other­
based on race, gender, class, sexuality, wise, for centuries. Whether by coer­
and ability—can be brutal. Echoing Katie Geneva Cannon cion (as in the role of Mammy) or vol­
Walker’s Miss Sofia in The Color untarily (as the Nanny), black women
Purple, a black womanist talks back to this sort of existential have suffered because of their status as surrogates. The idea of
rending with a resounding, “Hell no!” redemptive suffering that emerges from atonement theory,
As doctoral students, Cannon, Grant, and Williams found Williams noted, has not left space for church and society to cri­
themselves welded between the masculinist erections of black tique the causes of black women’s suffering but has led to deep­
liberation theology and the overwhelmingly white middle-class er pathologizing of black women’s lives. To glorify the cross of
vexations of feminist liberation theology, both of which ignored Jesus (as a redemptive tool) is to glorify suffering. Black women
the experiences of poor black women in the United States. But carry enough crosses to know that there is no glory in suffering.
they had inherited the wisdom of countless unlettered but Instead Williams emphasized Jesus’ “life and ministerial
“responsible, in charge, serious” black women who knew the vision,” calling followers of Christ into resistance that engen­
words and worth of prayer. ders and buoys black women’s survival and quality of life.
With Harrison and Cone’s encouragement, Cannon and Williams honed her arguments about the sin of surrogacy by
Grant began to think and speak theologically from the intersec­ examining the story of Hagar as told in Genesis 16 and 21. She
tion of blackness and womanhood. Their approach was novel, identified Hagar as an African slave woman who was subject to
but they weren’t alone in this radical new way of doing theolo­ racial, gender, class, and sexual oppressions. However, Williams
gy. As Emilie M. Townes asserts, “all forms of womanist thought noted, Hagar is also a single mother who resists her oppressors
in the theological academy” are inherently done in community. and, in the wilderness, names God for herself. This God does
In the years following Cannon’s pivotal AAR paper and the not liberate her but does provide her the means to survive in
womanist essays it provoked, several book-length treatments of the wilderness.
womanist theology were published. These characteristics make Hagar a sister to the many black
Cannon’s Black Womanist Ethics, published in 1988, women who find themselves in the wilderness of multiple
addressed the moral character, traditions, and value of African social, political, and economic jeopardies. They can readily iden­
American women’s communities. The same year, Renita J. tify with Hagar. They can find hope in her story. Hagar and her
Weems, the first black woman ever to earn a Ph.D. in Old sisters in today’s world provide bold answers to the question
Testament, published Just a Sister Away: A Womanist Vision of Williams frequently posed when reading scripture: “Whose
Women’s Relationships in the Bible, which engaged biblical sis­ voice is not present here?”
terhood and black women’s healing. The following year, Grant,
the first black woman ever to earn a Ph.D. in systematic theol­ omanist theology is a diamond with several facets,
ogy, published White Women’s Christ and Black Women’s Jesus:
Feminist Christology and Womanist Response, wherein she
unqualifiedly asserted that the white woman’s Christ is a racist,
with no salvific worth for black women.
W which were first illuminated in the work of Cannon
(ethics), Grant (theology), Williams (theology),
Weems (Bible), and Townes (ethics). It has evolved in some
nificant ways since its early days, returning to Williams’s funda­
mental hermeneutical question about whose voices are miss­
n 1993,Townes published Womanist Justice, Womanist Hope, ing—and giving increasingly broader answers. Yet it remains

I which pressed womanist theologians and ethicists toward

questions of activism by asking what womanist God-talk

marked the publication of Williams’s groundbreaking Sisters in

committed to its original orientation: a concern for the black
church and community, the privileging of black women’s expe­
reveals about black women for community. That same year riences, an intersectional perspective that sees oppression as
multidimensional, and a blunt interrogation of doctrine and
the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk, which con­ prior theological claims (as evident in the critical scholarship of
demned the patriarchal assumptions of black liberation theolo­ Karen Baker-Fletcher and M. Shawn Copeland).

31 Christian Century March 13, 2019

 This interrogation includes incisive Christ for black women?” must now be
questions that remain as poignant today restated as “Who is Jesus Christ for
as they were when they were first posed. black trans women?” or “Who is God
Who is Jesus Christ for black women, and in Christ for black girls kidnapped in
why does that matter? Who is God and Nigeria or sexually assaulted by a
what is God doing in the world? Who Grammy-winning singer in Chicago?”
does God call us to be as people of faith?
What forms of moral wisdom should we everal other shifts have helped
seek out? What are the unique contribu­ reshape womanist theology in
tions of black women’s creative agency to recent years. One significant
communal flourishing? change involves the decentering of the
The answers to these questions black church. Black churches have been
remain unsettled, perhaps in part a source of strength and empowerment
because womanist methodology is inher­ for black women because they have, as
ently expansive. Committed to hearing womanist ethicist Marcia Y. Riggs has
suppressed voices and incorporating asserted, been places where black
multiple perspectives, womanist theolo­ women come to know a God of love
gy is at once focused and flexible. One Emilie M. Townes and justice; places where black women
significant shift in womanist theology in have affirmed, with womanist theolo­
recent years has involved broadening the category of “black gian JoAnne Terrell, that there is “power in the blood.”
woman” beyond the social locations of its progenitors. Both Womanist sociologist of religion Cheryl Townsend Gilkes shows,
black and woman are now being viewed through wider lenses. further, that black churches have often been women’s spaces.
The first years of womanist theology seemed to be dominated Through programming like Women’s Day, as well as ministries
by southern black American women’s perspectives. However, and auxiliaries like the Women’s Ministry and Mother’s Board,
early on Cannon and Grant began collaborating with the African black churches have empowered women to practice their faith,
feminist theologian Mercy Amba Oduyoye to connect continental strengthen their Christian discipleship, and support their com­
and diasporan black women with one another. The goal was to munities through various types of service.
enhance the quality of life of women and girls of African descent At the same time, the black church has been overwhelming­
worldwide. Conversations between African women and women of ly led by black men. Male power and sexism in the church have
African descent in the diaspora (including the United States) have induced gendered violence against women, often with appeals
taken on new life in recent years. The Daughters of the African to the name of God. Many practices contribute to such a cul­
Atlantic Fund under the leadership of womanist ethicist Rosetta ture: the exclusion of women from pastoral leadership and from
E. Ross has hosted biennial consultations on religion and theology lay leadership, the tokenizing of women with no power in pas­
since 2012. The newly founded Katie Geneva Cannon Center for toral and lay leadership, misogynist and homophobic preaching
Womanist Leadership at Union Presbyterian Seminary supports that belittles and demonizes women and LGBTQ persons, sex­
engagement between women of African descent across the world. ist preaching that affirms the subordination of women to men,
Interrogating the social category “black woman” also demands the theological and sexual objectification of women and girls,
making space for the many varieties of black women’s sexualities, the labor exploitation of black women volunteers who mobilize
gender identities, and family ethics, including the perspectives of and sustain the church (and who, because of gender, could
black trans women and black femmes. Although queer black never be compensated pastoral leaders), and the consistent use
women have consistently been leaders in womanist theology, its of male pronouns for God. These types of practices give a
emphasis on Christian experience—which tends to erase the lives sacred aura to women’s suffering and oppression.
of black queer folks—has limited its ability to engage robustly In addition, the black church has tended to dismiss the sig­
with heterosexism, homophobia, and transphobia. nificance of varieties of spiritual experience that exist outside of
The scholarship and activist commitments of thinkers like it. A decentering of the black church in womanist theology
womanist ethicist Jennifer Leath, womanist theologian Pamela opens up space for asserting that not all black women are
D. Lightsey, black queer ethicist Thelathia “Nikki” Young, and Christian. In fact, black women’s religious experiences stretch
sexual ethicist Monique Moultrie represent this critical strand of beyond the Abrahamic boundaries of Christianity, Judaism, and
black women’s theoethical discourse that deepens the earlier Islam, encompassing African diasporan and indigenous tradi­
contributions of theologians like Kelly Brown Douglas. Benae tions and practice. As Monica Coleman’s scholarship indicates,
Beamon, Elyse Ambrose, and Whitney Bond are doctoral stu­ womanist theology must be accountable to the experiences of
dents whose black queer ethics and womanist sexual ethics trace non-Christian black women too. It must also attend to the the­
their roots to black feminist and womanist foundations even as ological significance and moral viability of black subaltern
they gesture toward more expansive theological and ethical sacred spaces and aesthetic practices—like the dance hall, black
imaginations. As womanist theologians continue to engage visual art, and black performance art—that allow space for
broader constructions of the category “black woman,” their ques­ black women’s spiritual yearning to bloom beyond the some­
tions take on new meanings. Williams’s question “Who is Jesus times confining structures of institutional religion.

33 Christian Century March 13, 2019

 From the matriarchs’ adoption of the g has by no means replaced the signifi-
word womanist in the 1980s, black | cance of black women’s suffering in
women’s creative voices have been a cru­ 3 womanist theology. Black women and
cial component of womanist theological %
73
their children continue to suffer as the
inquiry and imagination. As black 1 poorest of the poor in the world. A new
women’s bodies were rendered invisible in t generation of womanist theologians
church and society, so were their words and | and ethicists like AnneMarie Mingo,
stories systemically erased from the histor­ § Michele Watkins, Amey Adkins-Jones,
ical record. Further, as Toni Morrison has Oluwatomisin Oredein, and Georgette
pointed out, black women’s lived experi­ Ledgister continue to be concerned
ences are often too terrible to talk about or with the social, political, and economic
to be passed down through oral tradition. implications of black women’s surroga­
Storytelling—in literature, visual arts, and cy and suffering.
music—offers a resource into the interiori- But these black womanist theolo­
ty of black women’s lives, a mechanism for gians are now also endeavoring to mine
telling “what really happened” in ways that the content of black women’s survival
allow distance between the pain and the and thriving—which in some ways
present moment. Renita J.
Weems points back to the “quality of life” that
In recent years, womanist theology Williams wrote about in the beginning.
has amplified its engagement with black women’s cultural sources This flourishing includes black women’s celebration, black
to include e-platforms, social media, fashion, hip-hop culture, and women’s joy, black women’s self-care and “squad care,” and black
other forms of pop culture. Attending to the entire imaginative girl magic, all of which are proactive mechanisms of resistance in
culture that generates communal survival and flourishing for a world that continues to despise black women.
black women, womanists are using new modes of communication. This emphasis on flourishing is significant. It means that there
Recently, Melanie Jones and Liz Alexander have asserted “mil­ is a future for black women beyond the strongholds of racism,
lennial womanism” as a way of “doing womanist work in the age sexism, and economic, sexual, and environmental injustice—a
of social media, Black Lives Matter, Say Her Name, trap music, future that is proclaimed in the preaching genius of homileti-
mass incarceration, religious pluralism, [and] a kaleidoscope cians like Teresa Fry Brown, Lisa L. Thompson, Melva Sampson,
of gender and sexual identities.” Millennial womanists like Donyelle McCray, and Neichelle Guidry; exegeted in the sacred
Lyvonne “Proverbs” Picou, Danyelle Thomas, Candace Simpson, text by biblical scholars like Gay Byron, Wil Gafney, Shively
Onleilove Alston, Candice Benbow, and storae michele have Smith, Shanell Smith, and Jennifer Kaalund; nurtured in the pas­
engaged this work through the creation of sacred e- and aesthet­ toral theologies and radical pedagogies of thinkers like Phyllis
ic interventions that “do ministry and advocacy without waiting Shepherd, Stephanie Crumpton, Almeda Wright, and LaKisha
for traditional institutions” to hire millennial black women. Lockhart; pronounced in the ecowomanist visions of Melanie L.
Harris; and practiced in community by womanist pastors and
rom its origins to its contemporary form, womanist theolo­ practitioners like Leslie Callahan, Gina Stewart, Emma Jordan-

F gy and ethics have always been concerned with black

women’s representation in the public square. Townes’s
Simpson, Traci Blackmon, Cynthia Hale, Irie Lynn Sessions,
Racquel Gill, Monica Roberts, and Dionne Boissiere.
Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil and This representative sample of black women’s ever-evolving
Douglas’s Black Bodies and the Black Church: A Blues Slant pro­ theological terrain reveals an important truth: black women do
pel a contemporary conversation about portrayals of black women not have to wait for whites to not be racist and men to not be
that began with Williams’s interrogation of the complexities of sexist in order to love their whole selves and community fully
black womanhood. The tragic images of black women driven by and deeply. It shows that womanist theology moves into the
the white imagination—as asexual Mammies, sexually deviant future fighting and dancing, recognizing that black women’s
Jezebels, wild and loud Sapphires, and wicked Welfare Queens— stories can be told many ways.
continue to dominate in popular culture. Many womanist ethicists Womanist theology has moved the theological conversation
and black feminist religious scholars, including Stacey Floyd- beyond the demonic navel-gazing of whiteness and masculinity,
Thomas, Angela D. Sims, Keri Day, and Tamura Lomax, have used always aiming for a more inclusive vision. It has grown in
a variety of methods to confront this challenge with scholarly rigor. increasingly expansive ways, posing new questions even while its
Some have also interpreted the cultural production of popular original questions continue to reverberate throughout the theo­
black women icons like Beyonce, Solange, Michelle Obama, and logical world. Accompanied and compelled by the Spirit, the
Shonda Rhimes as rife with insurgent theological significance that story of womanist theology is, as Cannon would often say, the
defies the mainstream caricature of black women. story of black women “doing the work our souls must have.” It
One of the most promising recent developments involves confirms today what it has asserted from the moment Cannon
the move toward emphasizing black women’s flourishing as a stood before that white audience at the AAR: black women will
primary and proactive source for the development of construc­ “make a way out of no way”—a way of moral wisdom, truth
tive womanist theologies and ethics. Black women’s flourishing telling, willful virtue, “furious dancing,” and deep faith. &

Christian Century March 13, 2019 34

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