Varieties of African American Religious Experience: Toward a Comparative Black Theology - 20th Anniversary Edition

Twenty years ago, Anthony Pinn‘s engrossing survey highlighted the rich diversity of black religious life in America, revealing expressions of an ever-changing black religious quest in four non-Christian religious movements. Based on extensive research, travel, and interviews--and embellished with photos, bibliographies, and case studies--Pinn‘s work provides a fascinating look especially at Voodoo, Santeria, the Nation of Islam, and black humanism in the United States, and uses the diversity of religious belief to begin formulation of a comparative black theology--the first of its kind.

Focusing less on institutional and doctrinal history and more on the varied popular religious practices and sites, this volume highlights, for example, the significant influence of Caribbean religions in the United States, practices of divination and healing, the surge of black Muslims, the emergence of black humanism, and the religious influence and ethical practices of black women. The unique contribution of this volume, however, isn‘t the description of these traditions but instead it is the new method of theological work it begins to outline.

This twentieth-anniversary edition is an expanded version, including a new preface and a new concluding chapter. An important contribution to classroom studies!

Anthony B. Pinn is Agnes Cullen Arnold Distinguished Professor of Humanities and professor of religion at Rice University and teaches courses on African American religion, the history of Black religious thought, humanism, and Black theology. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and recipient of president's lifetime achievement award for volunteer service (2024). Pinn is also the author of more than thirty-five books, including, Varieties of African American Religious Experience, 20th Anniversary Edition (Fortress Press, 2017), Terror and Triumph: The Nature of Black Religion, 20th Anniversary Edition (Fortress Press, 2022) and What Is African American Religion?: Expanded Edition (Fortress Press, 2024).