Books
Dr. Anthony Pinn's publications range from early explorations of the problem of moral evil, to ongoing interests in African American humanist positions, efforts to pay attention to the biophysical and discursive weight of bodies, and ongoing attention to theory and method in the study of African American religion, specifically, and theology and religious studies more generally. Here you'll find snippets from Pinn's texts and links to purchase the books.
ENCYCLOPEDIAS, HANDBOOKS, AND REFERENCE VOLUMES
Advisory Editor, Bloomsbury Religion in North America Online Resource, Bloomsbury Academic, (2021-present).
Jeffrey Kripal, editor; Anthony Pinn, associate editor; April DeConick, associate editor. Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks: Religion, Ten Volumes, New York: Macmillan (2016).
Martha Simmons and Frank A. Thomas, general editors; W. James Abbington, Charles E. Booth, Brad R. Braxton, Valerie Bridgeman Davis, Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Kirk Byron Jones, James Earl Massy, Marvin A. McMickle, Henry H. Mitchell, Anthony B. Pinn, Cheryl Sanders, Elton Weaver, contributing editors. Preaching with Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 to the Present, New York: W. W. Norton & Company (2010).
Charles H. Lippy and Peter W. Williams editors; Randall L. Balmer, Kathleen Flake, Philip Goff, Paula M. Kane, Timothy Matovina, Anthony B. Pinn, and Jonathan D. Sarna, associate editors. Encyclopedia of Religion in America, 4 Volumes, Washington, DC: CQ Press (2010).
Anthony B. Pinn, General Editor. The Encyclopedia of African American Religious Culture, 2 volumes, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO (2009).
SINGLE AUTHOR BOOKS
Biblical Outlaws: What the Bible’s Most Despised Characters Can Teach Us, Yale University Press (2026).
My Jams: Reflections on the Relationship between Music and Religion, Fortress Press (2025).
The Black Practice of Disbelief: An Introduction to the Principles, History, and Communities of Black Nonbelievers, Beacon Press (2024). [Represented by Salky Literary Management]
*Unitarian Universalist Association Book Club “Goodreads Pick” for December 2024.
Deathlife: Hip Hop and Thanatological Narrations of Blackness, Duke University Press (2024).
*Gold Medal in Performing Arts Category, Independent Publisher Book Award 2024
*Finalist, AAR Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Constructive-Reflective
Interplay of Things: Religion, Art, and Presence Together, Duke University Press (2021).
*Gold Medal in Religion Category, Independent Publisher Book Award 2022
Humanism: Essays in Race, Religion, and Cultural Production, Bloomsbury Academic (2015).
Introducing African American Religion, Routledge (2013).
The End of God-Talk: An African American Humanist Theology, Oxford University Press (2012).
Embodiment and the New Shape of Black Theological Thought, NYU Press (2010).
Understanding and Transforming the Black Church, Cascade Books (2010).
The African American Religious Experience in America, Greenwood Press (2005). Paperback by University Press of Florida (2007).
African American Humanist Principles: Living and Thinking Like the Children of Nimrod, Palgrave Macmillan (2004).
Terror and Triumph: The Nature of Black Religion, Fortress Press (2003). Expanded 20th Anniversary Edition published July 2022.
The Black Church in the Post-Civil Rights Era, Orbis Books (2002, 2nd Printing May 2003, 3rd Printing May 2004, 4th Printing May 2008, 5th Printing March 2009).
Varieties of African American Religious Experience, Fortress Press (1998). Expanded, 20th Anniversary Edition, published in 2017.
Why, Lord? Suffering and Evil in Black Theology, Continuum Hardcover (1995), Cassell Paperback (1999). Chinese Edition/ The Institute of Sino-Christian Studies (Hong Kong), 2006.
CO-AUTHORED BOOKS
Peter Derkx and Anthony Pinn, Meaningful Aging from a Humanist Perspective, Palgrave Macmillan (2024).
Brad Braxton and Anthony Pinn, A Master Class on Being Human: A Black Christian and a Black Secular Humanist on Religion, Race, and Justice, Beacon Press (2023, paperback 2024).
*Spirituality and Practice List of Best Books 2023
The CERCL Writing Collective (Pinn, et al), Religion and Black Embodiment, Equinox (2017).
The CERCL Writing Collective (Pinn et al), Breaking Bread, Breaking Beats: Churches and Hip Hop – A Basic Guide to Key Issues, Fortress Press (2014).
Coauthor Anne H. Pinn, Fortress Introduction to Black Church History, Fortress Press (2001).
SHORT-FORM BOOKS
What Has the Black Church to Do with Public Life? PIVOT series, Palgrave Macmillan (2013).
What is African American Religion? [Version of Terror and Triumph], Fortress Press (2011).
Anniversary edition published May 2024.
Becoming ‘America’s Problem Child’: An Outline of Pauli Murray’s Religious Life and Theology, Wipf & Stock Publishers/PickWick Publications (2008).
EDITED VOLUMES
Anthony Pinn, editor. Conversations on Humanity and Creativity, Bloomsbury Academic (2025).
Anthony Pinn, editor. To Speak a Defiant Word: Pauli Murray’s Sermons and Speeches on Justice and Transformation Yale University Press, (2023). [Represented by Salky Literary Management]
*Yale University Press’s nominee for the Grawemeyer Award
*Seminary Coop Notable Books of 2023
Darrell Jones, Monifa Love, Anthony B. Pinn, editors. Speculations on Black Life: The Collected Writings of William R. Jones Bloomsbury, (2023).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Oxford Handbook of Humanism, Oxford University Press, (2021).
Christopher Driscoll, Anthony B. Pinn and Monica Miller, editors. Kendrick Lamar, Hip Hop and the Nature of Black Meaning Making, Routledge, (2019).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Humanism and the Challenge of Difference, Palgrave Macmillan (2018).
Juan Floyd-Thomas and Anthony B. Pinn, editors. Religion in the Age of Obama, Bloomsbury (2018, paperback 2020).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Humanism and Technology, Palgrave Macmillan (2016).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Just Religion, Vol. Four in Macmillan Handbooks (2016).
Monica Miller, Anthony B. Pinn, Bernard “Bun B” Freeman, editors. Religion in Hip Hop: Mapping the New Terrain in the US, Bloomsbury Publishing (2015).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Theism and Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan (2014).
Dale McGowan and Anthony B. Pinn, editors. Everyday Humanism, Equinox (2014).
Monica Miller and Anthony B. Pinn, editors. The Hip Hop and Religion Reader, Routledge (2014).
Katie G. Cannon and Anthony B. Pinn, editors. The Oxford Handbook of African American Theology, Oxford University Press (2014; paperback 2018).
*Black Caucus American Library Association Honor Book Award 2015
Anthony B. Pinn, editor, What Is Humanism, and Why Does It Matter? Acumen (2013).
Anthony B. Pinn, C. Levander and M. Emerson editors, Teaching and Studying the Americas, Palgrave Macmillan (2010).
Stacey Floyd-Thomas and Anthony B. Pinn, editors, Liberation Theologies in the United States: An Introduction, New York University Press (2010).
Anthony B. Pinn and Benjamin Valentin, editors, Creating Ourselves: African Americans and Latino/as, Popular Culture, and Religious Expression, Duke University Press (2009).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Black Religion and Aesthetics, Palgrave Macmillan (2009).
Anthony B. Pinn and Allen D. Callahan, editors. African American Religious Life and the Story of Nimrod, Palgrave Macmillan (2007).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Pauli Murray: Sermons and Writings, Orbis Books (2006).
Anthony B. Pinn and Dwight N. Hopkins, editors. Loving the Body: Black Religious Studies and the Erotic, Palgrave Macmillan (2004; Paper, 2006). My chapter was also published in Mary Dunn and Brenna Moore, Religious Intimacies (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2020).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Noise and Spirit: Rap Music’s Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities, New York University Press (2004).
Rebecca Moore, Anthony B. Pinn, and Mary R. Sawyer, editors. Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America, Indiana University Press (2004).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Moral Evil and Redemptive Suffering. University Press Florida, (2002).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. By These Hands, New York University Press, (2001).
Anthony B. Pinn and Benjamin Valentin, editors. The Ties That Bind, Continuum, (2001).
Stephen Angell and Anthony B. Pinn, editors. Protest Thought in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1862-1939, Vol. 1, University of Tennessee Press, (2000).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Making the Gospel Plain: The Writings of Bishop Reverdy C. Ransom, Trinity Press International, (1999).
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. ‘Saving’ Education: Religion and/in Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Leeds, UK: Emerald Publishing/Information Age Publishing (2025).
Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Identity Formation Within Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Spaces of Becoming, Bloomsbury Academic/Lexington Books (2025).
POPULAR PUBLICATIONS
When Colorblindness Isn’t the Answer: Humanism and the Challenge of Race, Pitchstone Publishing (2017).
The New Disciples: A Novel, Pitchstone Publishing (2015).
Writing God’s Obituary: How a Good Methodist Became a Better Atheist, Prometheus (2014).
Anthony B. Pinn and Gregory Colleton, editors, Life Sentences: Short Stories, Wipf & Stock Publishers (2007).