Christopher M. Driscoll, Monica R. Miller, Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-1138541511

2019

Kendrick Lamar has established himself at the forefront of contemporary hip-hop culture. Artistically adventurous and socially conscious, he has been unapologetic in using his art form, rap music, to address issues affecting black lives while also exploring subjects fundamental to the human experience, such as religious belief. This book is the first to provide an interdisciplinary academic analysis of the impact of Lamar’s corpus. In doing so, it highlights how Lamar’s music reflects current tensions that are keenly felt when dealing with the subjects of race, religion and politics.

Juan M. Floyd-Thomas, Anthony B. Pinn, Editors

ISBN-13: 978-1350041035

2018

This is the first book to focus on the significance of religion during President Obama's years in the White House. Addressing issues ranging from identity politics, immigration, income inequality, Islamophobia and international affairs, Religion in the Age of Obama explores the religious and moral underpinnings of the Obama presidency and subsequent debates regarding his tenure in the White House. It provides an analysis of Obama's beliefs and their relationship to his vision of public life, as well as the way in which the general ethos of religion and non-religion has shifted over the past decade in the United States under his presidency.

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-1634311229

2017

The future of the United States rests in many ways on how the ongoing challenge of racial injustice in the country is addressed. Yet, humanists remain divided over what if any agenda should guide humanist thought and action toward questions of race. In this volume, Anthony B. Pinn makes a clear case for why humanism should embrace racial justice as part of its commitment to the well-being of life in general and human flourishing in particular. As a first step, humanists should stop asking why so many racial minorities remain committed to religious traditions that have destroyed lives, perverted justice, and justified racial discrimination. Rather, Pinn argues, humanists must first confront a more pertinent and pressing question: why has humanism failed to provide a more compelling alternative to theism for so many minority groups? For only with a bit of humility and perspective—and a recognition of the various ways in which we each contribute to racial injustice—can we truly fight for justice.

Anthony B. Pinn, Editor

ISBN-13: 978-0028663524

2016

The Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks: Religion series serves undergraduate students and interested lay readers who have had little or no exposure to the academic study of religion. Each handbook provides an introduction to a subfield of the study of religion. "Handbook" is to be understood in the simple sense of "This is how you do it." The volumes strive for both intellectual clarity and a genuinely accessible voice, always emphasizing this how-to approach. Interdisciplinary in nature, the volumes employ numerous perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and the arts to interrogate and explore those complex sets of human experience and activity that have traditionally been gathered under the rubric of "religion." For example, the volume (and summary Primer chapter) on material culture will show how exhibiting sacred art provides an illuminating lens through which to enter religious studies. Each chapter ends with a summary. Each volume is overseen by a specialist in its field.

Anthony B. Pinn, Editor

ISBN-13: 978-3319317137

2016

This book interrogates the ways in which new technological advances impact the thought and practices of humanism. Chapters investigate the social, political, and cultural implications of the creation and use of advanced forms of technology, examining both defining benefits and potential dangers. Contributors also discuss technology’s relationship to and impact on the shifting definitions we hold for humankind. 

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International and multi-disciplinary in nature and scope, the volume presents an exploration of humanism and technology that is both racially diverse and gender sensitive. With great depth and self-awareness, contributors offer suggestions for how humanists and humanist organizations might think about and relate to technology in a rapidly changing world. More broadly, the book offers a critical humanistic interrogation of the concept of “progress” especially as it relates to technological advancement. 

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-1472581419

2015

The demographics of the United States are changing, marked most profoundly by the religiously unaffiliated, or what we have to come to call the "Nones". Spread across generations in the United States, this group encompasses a wide range of philosophical and ideological perspectives, from some in line with various forms of theism to those who are atheistic, and all sorts of combinations in between. Similar changes to demographics are taking place in Europe and elsewhere.

This volume provides a much-needed humanities-based analysis and description of humanism in relation to these cultural markers. Whereas most existing analysis attempts to explain humanism through the natural and social sciences (the "what" of life), Anthony B. Pinn explores humanism in relation to "how" life is arranged, socialized, ritualized, and framed.

The New Disciples: A Novel

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-1634310086

2015

Confessions, communions, sermons, and community service—Father Ford did it all. Although he never fully understood what led him to the priesthood and at times just went through the motions as best he could, he managed to avoid the conflicts and dilemmas that so often destroyed the careers of fellow clergy—no sexual misconduct of any kind, no stealing, nothing that would bring disgrace to the Church. But when the Church forces the closure of his low-income congregation and assigns him to a new church in a rich part of town, a hotbed of sin, he begins to question whether the Church establishment is truly honoring God’s will. Challenged by a troubled parishioner who reminds him that violence and murder have long been a vital story within the saga of human salvation, Father Ford starts to understand that God has sent this messenger for a reason. He comes to the realization that perhaps his true calling is to do whatever is necessary to purify all who sin through extreme penance. In the sanctuary of the confessional, Father Ford and his unlikely partner commit to doing the work of Christ that the Church can’t or won’t do . . . bloody work—a divine charge to cleanse the congregation and safeguard the body of Christ from sinners. Together, in order to save, they resolve to kill.

Monica R. Miller, Anthony B. Pinn, Bernard 'Bun B' Freeman, Editors

ISBN-13: 978-1472509079

2015

Now a global and transnational phenomenon, hip hop culture continues to affect and be affected by the institutional, cultural, religious, social, economic and political landscape of American society and beyond. Over the past two decades, numerous disciplines have taken up hip hop culture for its intellectual weight and contributions to the cultural life and self-understanding of the US. More recently, the academic study of religion has given hip hop culture closer and more critical attention, yet this conversation is often limited to discussions of hip hop and traditional understandings of religion and a methodological hyper-focus on lyrical and textual analyses. This volume features 14 original contributions representative of this new terrain within three sections representing major thematic issues over the past two decades. The Preface is written by Michael Eric Dyson, and the inclusion of and collaboration with Bernard 'Bun B' Freeman  encourages conversation between artists and academics.

Dale McGowan, Anthony B. Pinn, Editors

ISBN-13: 978-1781790458

2014

Everyday Humanism seeks to move the discussion of humanism's positive contributions to life away from the macro-level to focus on the everyday, or micro-dimensions of our individual and collective existence. How might humanist principles impact parenting? How might these principles inform our take on aging, on health, on friendship? These are just a few of the issues around everyday life that needed interpretation from a humanist perspective. Through attention to key issues, the volume seeks to promote the value of humanism at the level of the ordinary, typical occurrences and conditions of our existence.

Katie G, Cannon, Anthony B. Pinn, Editors

ISBN-13: 978-0199755653

2014

African American theology has a long and important history. With modern roots in the civil rights movements of the 1960s, African American theology has gone beyond issues of justice and social transformation to participate in broader dialogues of theological inquiry. This volume brings together leading scholars in the field to offer a critical and comprehensive analysis of this theological tradition in its many forms and contexts. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this Oxford Handbook examines the nature, structures, and functions of African American Theology. The volume surveys the field by highlighting its sources, doctrines, internal debates, current challenges, and future prospects in order to present key topics related to the wider palette of Black Religion in a sustained scholarly format. This formative collection presents current scholarship on African American Theology and scripture, eschatology, Christology, womanist theology, sexuality, ontology, the global economy, and much more.

Anthony B. Pinn, Editor

ISBN: 9781137472182

​2014

Theists often argue that the United States is a Christian nation, and therefore theistic sensibilities, language, and insight should play a role in developing the policies and procedures that guide public life. Nontheists often counter by arguing this isn't a Christian nation, and public life is harmed by the limited sense of morality and ethics provided by theism(s). Hence, public policy should be guided by secular ideals not tied to any particular mode of theism and that highlight the best of our democratic principles. Often missing from this exchange, however, is a discussion of the nature of theism's actual presence in public life: Does theism dominate the language and practices of public life in the United States? This volume explores this question from a humanist perspective.

Anthony B. Pinn and Monica R. Miller, Editors

ISBN-13: 978-0-415-74101-9

2014

Edited by two recognized scholars of African-American religion and culture, this reader, the first of its kind, provides the essential texts for an important and emerging field of study – religion and hip hop. Until now, the discipline of religious studies lacked a consistent and coherent text that highlights the developing work at the intersections of hip hop, religion and theology. Moving beyond an institutional understanding of religion and offering a multidimensional assortment of essays, this new volume charts new ground by bringing together voices who, to this point, have been a disparate and scattered few. Comprehensively organized with the foundational and most influential works that continue to provide a base for current scholarship, The Hip Hop and Religion Reader frames the lively and expanding conversation on hip hop’s influence on the academic study of religion.

Anthony B. Pinn
ISBN-13: 978-1616148430
2014

Anthony B. Pinn preached his first sermon at age twelve. At eighteen he became one of the youngest ordained ministers in his denomination. He then quickly moved up the ministerial ranks, earning a BA from Columbia University, Master of Divinity in theology and a PhD in religion from Harvard University. As his intellectual horizons expanded, he became less confident in theism. He became aware that his church could offer only anemic responses to social ills. In his mid-twenties, he finally decided to leave the ministry and committed the rest of his life to academia. He went on to become a distinguished scholar of African American humanism and religion. The once fully committed believer evolved into an equally committed nonbeliever convinced that a secular approach to life offers the best hope of solving humanity's problems.

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-1137380500

​2013

The role in public life of religious organizations such as black churches has been a contested and heated topic. This book offers a creative and compelling way to think about this dilemma. Drawing attention to the basic elements of organizations such as black churches – theology, organizational hierarchy, and so on – Pinn argues these churches (and other religious organizations by extension) are not structured in such a way as to allow participation in the public arena in ways that appreciate and nurture the diversity of that arena. Instead, Pinn calls for recognition of their value in the private life of some, but their failure to have usefulness within the public arena.

Anthony B. Pinn, editor

ISBN-13: 978-0195340839​

​2013

We live in a world of social, political, economic, and religious rupture. Ideologies polarise to fuel confrontation within communities, nations and regions of the world. At this point in the twenty-first century, humanism’s focus on reason, ethics and justice offers the potential to rethink and re-engage in new ways. What Is Humanism, and Why Does It Matter? brings together leading humanist thinkers and activists to examine humanism and how it can work in the world. Humanism is often misunderstood.  What Is Humanism, and Why Does It Matter? presents an overview and exploration of the meaning and nature of humanism, both as a philosophy and as a way of engaging with the challenges of the world.

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-0195340839​

​2012

The End of God-Talk outlines the first systematic African American non-theistic theology. Pinn offers a new center for theological inquiry, grounded in a more scientific notion of the human than the imago Dei ideas that dominates African American theistic theologies. Through a turn to embodied human life as the proper arena and content of theologizing, Pinn's The End of God-Talk opens up a new theological path with important implications for ongoing work in African American religious studies.

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-68-3459876038524

​2012

This book offers a creative and unique approach to the history of African American religion. Tracing what it has meant to be African American and religious within the context of the United States, it provides a vital snapshot of some of the traditions that have shaped the religious imagination of the country. Major themes and problems encountered by African Americans involved in a variety of traditions are depicted in a clear and engaging fashion.

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-0800698461

​2011

Is there really a "monolithic black church" ? Distilling the arguments of Pinn's important and provocative work in Terror and Triumph, this brief work asks the central question: What really is African American religion? Sketching the religious landscape of African American communities today, Pinn makes explicit the tension in traditional conversations about black religion that privilege either Christianity in particular or organizations (with doctrines and creeds) in general. Discussing the misunderstandings and historical inaccuracies of such views, Pinn offers an alternate theory of black religion that begins with a basic push for embodied meaning as its core impulse.

Anthony B. Pinn, Caroline F. Levander, Michael O. Emerson, Editors

ISBN-13: 978-0230615120

2010

Interdisciplinary work across the humanities and social sciences is moving beyond analysis of any one nation in isolation and instead placing urgent questions in the larger matrix of the Americas as a hemisphere. Teaching and Studying the Americas is designed to give close consideration to the range of fundamental challenges and questions that a hemispheric studies perspective raises. It is unique in its primary concern with questions of institutional practice, pedagogic transformation, and research perspectives. 

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-0814767757

​2010

Black theology tends to be a theology about no-body. Though one might assume that black and womanist theology have already given significant attention to the nature and meaning of black bodies as a theological issue, this inquiry has primarily taken the form of a focus on issues relating to liberation, treating the body in abstract terms rather than focusing on the experiencing of a material, fleshy reality. By focusing on the body as a physical entity and not just a metaphorical one, Pinn offers a new approach to theological thinking about race, gender, and sexuality.

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-1556353017

2010

What is the nature and purpose of the Black Church? What is the relationship of the scholar of religion to the Black Church? While black churches have been a major component of the religious landscape of African American communities for centuries, little critical attention has been given to these questions outside an apologetic stance. This book seeks to correct this trend by examining some of the major issues facing black churches in the twenty-first century. 

Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, Anthony B. Pinn, Editors

ISBN-13: 978-0814727652

​2010

The editors have brought together a stellar group of liberation theology scholars to provide a synthetic introduction to the historical development, context, theory, and goals of a range of U.S.-born liberation theologies. Chapters cover Black Theology, Womanist Theology, Latino/Hispanic Theology, Latina Theology, Asian American Theology, Asian American Feminist Theology, Native American Theology, Native Feminist Theology, Gay and Lesbian Theology, and Feminist Theology.

Anthony B. Pinn, Benjamin Valentine, Editors

ISBN-13: 978-0822345664

​2009

Creating Ourselves is a unique effort to lay the cultural and theological groundwork for collaboration between the African and Latino/a American communities.Corresponding to a particular form of popular culture, each section features two essays, one by an African American scholar and one by a Latino/a scholar, as well as a short response by each scholar to the other’s essay. This text helps make popular culture available as a resource for theology and religious studies and for facilitating meaningful discussions across racial and ethnic boundaries.

Anthony B. Pinn, Editor

ISBN-13: 978-1576074701

2009

Like no previous reference, African American Religious Cultures captures the full scope of African American religious identity. This breakthrough encyclopedia offers alphabetically organized entries on every major spiritual belief system as it has evolved among African American communities, covering its beginnings, development, major doctrinal points, rituals, important figures, and defining moments. In addition, the work illustrates how the social and economic realities of life for African Americans have shaped beliefs across the spectrum of religious cultures.

Anthony B. Pinn, Editor

ISBN-13: 978-0230605503

​2009

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. 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. 

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-1556353024

​2008

This volume is the first book to map the contours of Pauli Murray's religious life and theological thought. It provides simply the rough outline of her development as a deeply religious person and the ways in which this development ultimately required a certain type of surrender of her life to the will of God, as she understood it.

Anthony B. Pinn, Allen Dwight Callahan, editors

ISBN-13: 978-1403968272

2007​

From support for racial discrimination to justification for struggle against the status quo, the biblical text and its key figures have played a prominent role in the development of religious discourse on pressing socio-political issues.  Slavery and continued discrimination were given theological sanction through the Old Testament story of Ham, but what of his descendent Nimrod the hunter? African American Religious Life and the Story of Nimrod interrogates the nature and meaning of the biblical figure Nimrod's legacy for the children of Africa, shedding light on an intriguing question:  For people of African descent is Nimrod famous, or infamous? 

ISBN-13: 978-1570756467

​Anthony B. Pinn, editor

2006

Pauli Murray was a bold thinker whose passion for racial justice, equality, and freedom was rooted in a deep and sustaining religious life. A pioneer throughout her life, she was an early activist in the civil rights movement; a professor of law at Brandeis, a poet and author of two acclaimed memoirs, a cofounder of the National Organization of Women; and finally at age 66, the first African-America woman ordained in the Episcopal Church.

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-0813031972

2005

The African American Religious Experience in America provides readers with an introduction to the tremendous religious diversity of African American communities in the United States, with snapshots of 11 religious traditions practiced by African Americans—from Buddhism to Catholicism, from Judaism to Voodoo. Each snapshot provides readers a better understanding of how African Americans practice their faiths in the United States.

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-1403966247

​2004

As Anthony Pinn argues in his latest collection, humanism comes in many colors. Using the biblical figure Nimrod as symbol, African American Humanist Principles demonstrates African American humanists' intellectual and praxis-related grounding in a history of rebellion against over-determined and oppressive limitations on human doing and being. Pinn maintains that it is this quest for a fuller sense of being -- for greater existential and ontological worth -- that informs the basic principles of African American humanism.

Anthony B. Pinn, Dwight N. Hopkins, editors

ISBN-13: 978-1403963253

2004

In this collection, contributors argue that the Black Church must begin to address the significance of sexuality if it is to actually present liberation as a mode of existence that fully appreciates the body. According to the contributors, the Black Church has been extremely silent about issues surrounding the sexual dimension of the body, the appreciation of the body, and the erotic. The contributors argue that we not only have to look at the Black Church in this discussion, but also explore black Christianity in general.

Rebecca Moore, Anthony B. Pinn, Mary R. Sawyer, editors

ISBN-13: 978-0253216557

​2004

The Peoples Temple movement ended on November 18, 1978, when more than 900 men, women, and children died in a ritual of murder and suicide in their utopianist community of Jonestown, Guyana. Only a handful lived to tell their story. As is well known, Jim Jones, the leader of Peoples Temple, was white, but most of his followers were black. Despite that, little has been written about Peoples Temple in the context of black religion in America. In 10 essays, writers from various disciplines address this gap in the scholarship. Twenty-five years after the tragedy at Jonestown, they assess the impact of the black religious experience on Peoples Temple.

Anthony B. Pinn, editor

ISBN-13: 978-0814766996

2003

Rap music is often seen as a Black secular response to pressing issues of our time. Yet, like spirituals, the blues, and gospel music, rap has deep connections to African American religious traditions.

Noise and Spirit explores the diverse religious dimensions of rap stemming from Islam (including the Nation of Islam and Five Percent Nation), Rastafarianism, and Humanism, as well as Christianity. The volume examines rap's dialogue with religious traditions, from the ways in which Islamic rap music is used as a method of religious and political instruction to the uses of both the blues and Black women's rap for considering the distinction between God and the Devil.

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-0800636012

​2003

Scholarly and eminently readable, Anthony Pinn's thoroughly researched and authoritatively presented history will be welcomed by students, scholars, and general readers alike. With exquisite attention to cultural detail and a brilliant interpretation of interdisciplinary sources, Terror and Triumph is essential reading for all who want to understand better the terror of human cruelty and the triumph of embodied resiliency.

Anthony B. Pinn, Editor

ISBN-13: 978-0813024547

​2002

This book, a collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century documents by African-Americans, traces the progression of black Christian theology's dominant response to the dilemma of evil in a God-protected world: the notion of suffering as redemptive. The volume brings clarity to the historical and epistemological underpinnings of one of the most pressing issues faced by African-American Christians.

Anne H. Pinn, Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-0800634421

​2001

Co-written by Anthony Pinn, and his mother, Pastor Anne H. Pinn, this introduction offers a readable, clear introductory reference guide to African-American church history. The text offers portraits of the seven largest black denominations, including, among others, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, followed by a short history of "liberation thought in the church," connecting the early 20th-century social gospel with the leadership of the black church during the civil rights movement, and outlining the development of black liberation theology. 

Anthony B. Pinn, Editor

ISBN-13: 978-0814766729

​2001

The Black church is often praised for its contribution to Black culture and politics. More recently Islam has been recognized as an important force in African American liberation. Anthony Pinn's new anthology  By These Hands  demonstrates the crucial, often overlooked role that Humanism has played in African American struggles for dignity, power and justice. Pinn collects the finest examples of African American Humanism and shows how its embrace by a variety of prominent figures in African American thought and letters has served as the basis for activism and resistance to American racism and sexism.

Anthony B. Pinn, Benjamin Valentin, Editors

ISBN-13: 978-0826413260

2001

Although African-American and Hispanic/Latino(a) theologies emerged side by side, the development and analysis of theology within these ethnic groups occurred independently of each other. Among the topics treated here are the core themes, concerns, and historical development of these two theologies; the roles played by scripture, tradition, imagination, and individual and collective experience; popular religion; Womanist and Mujerista theologies; ways of dealing with pain, suffering, and subjugation; and, finally, strategies for building bridges between communities of struggle.

Social Protest Thought in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1862-1939

Stephen W. Angell, Anthony B. Pinn, Editors

ISBN-13: 978-1572330665

2000

Although the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church has long been acknowledged as a crucial institution in African American life during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, relatively little attention has been given to the ways in which the church’s publications influenced social awareness and protest among its members and others, both in the United States and abroad. Filling that gap, this volume brings together a rich sampling of A.M.E. literature addressing a variety of social issues and controversies.

Anthony B. Pinn, Editor

ISBN-10: 1563382644

1999

Bishop Reverdy Ransom of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historically significant figure whose life and work provide a much fairer view of the richness of black religious life in the second quarter of the twentieth century than has heretofore been available. Making the Gospel Plain is a unique collection of Ransom's writings that are presently out of print or little known. The volume includes sermons and speeches, articles and editorials, and pamphlets and excerpts from his books. Explanatory footnotes are included where deemed necessary. A selected bibliography of relevant books and articles by Reverdy Ransom concludes this work. 

Anthony B. Pinn

ISBN-13: 978-0826412089

1999

In Pinn's first monograph, he takes the mantle of African American humanism from William R. Jones and outlines an early position of strong humanism as a theological response to moral evil as faced by the African American community. A must read for anyone interested in contextual theology or theology in the twenty-first century, Why Lord? adds substantially to the breadth and depth of black theology and provides a firm foundation from which Pinn's later work develops.

Anthony B. Pinn, Editor

ISBN-13: 978-0800629946

1998

Based on extensive interviews, travel, and research -- embellished with ample photos, bibliographies, and case studies -- Pinn provides an insider look at Voodoo, Orisha devotion, Santeria, the Nation of Islam, and Black Humanism in the U.S. Focusing less on institutional and doctrinal history and more on the varied popular religious practices and sites, his volume offers an emergent picture of African American Religion, more subtle, varied, and vibrant than traditional black Christian marks a new era in African American religious studies.