We Have Been Believers


Book Description

In this, the first full-scale black systematic theology in twenty years, James Evans emerges as a major and distinctive voice in American theology.Seeking to overcome the chasm between church practice and theological reflection, Evans situates theology squarely in the nexus of faith with freedom. There, with a sure touch, he uplifts revelatory aspects of black religious experience that reanimate classical areas of theology, and he creates a theology with a heart, a soul and a voice that speaks directly to our condition.




Bum Rush the Page


Book Description

Bum Rush the Page is a groundbreaking collection, capturing the best new work from the poets who have brought fresh energy, life, and relevance to American poetry. “Here is a democratic orchestration of voices and visions, poets of all ages, ethnicities, and geographic locations coming together to create a dialogue and to jam–not slam. This is our mouth on paper, our hearts on our sleeves, our refusal to shut up and swallow our silence. These poems are tough, honest, astute, perceptive, lyrical, blunt, sad, funny, heartbreaking, and true. They shout, they curse, they whisper, and sing. But most of all, they tell it like it is.” –Tony Medina, from the Introduction




Firsts


Book Description

A masterfully curated collection, drawn from a century of works in the acclaimed Yale Series of Younger Poets The Yale Younger Poets prize is the oldest annual literary award in the United States. Its winners include some of the most influential voices in American poetry, including Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, Margaret Walker, Carolyn Forché, and Robert Hass. In celebration of the prize's centennial, this collection presents three selections from each Younger Poets volume. It serves as both a testament to the enduring power and significance of poetic expression and an exploration of the ways poetry has evolved over the past century. In addition to judiciously assembling this wide-ranging anthology, Carl Phillips provides an introduction to the history and impact of the Yale Younger Poets prize and its winners in the wider context of American poetry, including the evolving roles of race, gender, and sexual orientation.




soulscript


Book Description

Black poets from the early twentieth century and onward come together for a moving anthology, edited and organized by the late, revered poet June Jordan. First published in 1970, soulscript is a poignant, panoramic collection of poetry from some of the most eloquent voices in the art. Selected for their literary excellence and by the dictates of Jordan’s heart, these works tell the story of both collective and personal experiences, in Jordan’s words, “in tears, in rage, in hope, in sonnet, in blank/free verse, in overwhelming rhetorical scream.” Soulscript features works by Jordan and other luminaries like Gwendolyn Brooks, Countee Cullen, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Gayl Jines, James Weldon Johnson, Audre Lorde, Claude McKay, Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, and Richard Wright, as well as the fresh voices of a turbulent era’s younger writers. Celebrated spoken-word poet Staceyann Chin, an original cast member of Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, has also added an introduction that speaks to Jordan’s legacy, helping to further cement soulscript as a visionary compilation that has already become a modern classic.




The Incredible Patience of God


Book Description







Stories of Desire and Narratives of Faith


Book Description

Stories are the foundation for identity and the ground of understanding. Stories of Desire and Narratives of Faith addresses humankind's search for identity and meaning through the stories of science and religion. Both arose in the mists of history. Both are awe inspiring. Both beggar the imagination. Both have always competed for authority. Science gained preeminence in our postmodern, pluralistic, globalized world as evidenced based, while religion (for many reasons) lost credibility. Yet religion has not disappeared. Stories is a concise, engaging, inspiring accessible account of the history of science (geological and biological evolution perceived through increasingly sophisticated technology) and the history of nine text-based world religions of antiquity. Stories avoids insider language, democratizing both God talk and scientific jargon without patronizing either. There is no attempt to identify the best or truest religion, and Stories disavows dogmatic religious triumphalism. The authors do follow the tradition of giving an account of their Christian faith, the only religious story with which they have experience. They invite others to do the same, paying attention to their own stories as they grapple with modern science, do theology, and engage faith. Stories proposes how and in what manner these disciplines can meaningfully converse in today's world.




This Far By Faith


Book Description

This Far By Faith brings together a collection of essays on the religious identities and experiences of African-American women. Spanning from the period of slavery to the present, the essays profile American figures such as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Willie Mae Ford Smith, exploring the role that religious institutions and impulses played in their lives.




Groaning


Book Description

When a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, that cop seared on to the American consciousness a lasting symbol of the injustices that communities of color have submitted to since slavery. Many people used the word “groaning” to describe their response to this murder. This book seeks a better understanding of this visceral reaction, and its pastoral importance. In Lamentations 1, groaning plays a pivotal role, and a witness to groaning is indispensable to relief. Groans are sounds in search of such a witness. This points up the silence of God as witness, crystalized in the symbol of the anti-shepherd. The book ends with the stark, impending reality of baleful, divine rejection. Yet, God does not intend for silence to be the final result. This book probes several openings to a cruciform model in which groaning is contextualized and transformed. Lamentations functions creatively in canonical relationship with Second Isaiah, the Gospel narrative of Jesus, and Paul’s description of the Spirit’s intercessory work. A range of Black religious thinkers—Cone, Evans, Glaude, Copeland—are analyzed for insights into addressing groaning. Finally, the indispensability of a witness challenges communities of faith to serve as witnesses to persons who struggle to flourish even as they carry their scars.




Three Translations of The Koran (Al-Qur'an) side by side


Book Description

"Three Translations of The Koran (Al-Qur'an) side by side" is an anonymous compilation of Koran translations. The Koran is one of the most important texts ever published, but, like many ancient writings, its translations can be up to interpretation. This book shows the similarities and differences between the three most popular English translations of this religious text in a fascinating show of what can change based simply on who performs a translation.