Filled with the Spirit: Sexuality, Gender, and Radical Inclusivity in a Black Pentecostal Church Coalition - Softcover

Lewin, Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022653720X ISBN 13: 9780226537207

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2018

Synopsis

In 2001, a collection of open and affirming churches with predominantly African American membership and a Pentecostal style of worship formed a radically new coalition. The group, known now as the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries or TFAM, has at its core the idea of “radical inclusivity”: the powerful assertion that everyone, no matter how seemingly flawed or corrupted, has holiness within. Whether you are LGBT, have HIV/AIDS, have been in prison, abuse drugs or alcohol, are homeless, or are otherwise compromised and marginalized, TFAM tells its people, you are one of God’s creations.

In Filled with the Spirit, Ellen Lewin gives us a deeply empathetic ethnography of the worship and community central to TFAM, telling the story of how the doctrine of radical inclusivity has expanded beyond those it originally sought to serve to encompass people of all races, genders, sexualities, and religious backgrounds. Lewin examines the seemingly paradoxical relationship between TFAM and traditional black churches, focusing on how congregations and individual members reclaim the worship practices of these churches and simultaneously challenge their authority. The book looks closely at how TFAM worship is legitimated and enhanced by its use of gospel music and considers the images of food and African American culture that are central to liturgical imagery, as well as how understandings of personal authenticity tie into the desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Throughout, Lewin takes up what has been mostly missing from our discussions of race, gender, and sexuality—close attention to spirituality and faith.

About this title

About the Author

Ellen Lewin is professor of anthropology and of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies at the University of Iowa. She is the author of Gay Fatherhood: Narratives of Family and Citizenship in America.

Review

“Filled with the Spirit opens up a space to rethink how we theorize black homosexuality in the context of religion. Lewin complicates traditional views of black sexuality and spirituality by focusing on an institution that is steeped in the worship rituals of the traditional black church but whose “radical inclusivity” promotes an affirmation of homosexual identity (as well as other stigmatized identities) rather than a disavowal of it. This volume makes an enormous contribution to a number of different fields, including, but not limited to, anthropology, religious studies, queer studies, and black studies.” (E. Patrick Johnson, Northwestern University)

“[Filled with the Spirit] makes a significant contribution to scholarship on African American religion as well as religion and sexuality. . . .Written in an accessible style, the book is also exemplary in the way the author narrates her own experiences during the research and performs self-reflexivity with respect to her position as a white secular Jewish anthropologist who “never expected to study religion.”” (Reading Religion)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 022653720X
• ISBN 13: 9780226537207
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240