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A Queering of Black TheologyThe Prolonged Religious Crisis

A Queering of Black Theology: The Prolonged Religious Crisis [In The Fire Next Time James Baldwin recounts at the age of 14 undergoing a “prolonged religious crisis.”1 The onset of the crisis is shaped by Baldwin’s awareness of “God, His saints and angels, and His blazing Hell” and a fear of the evil, within and without of himself.2 The “evil” is the soulful awareness of sexuality that makes him and the other girls and boys “… unutterably different and fantastically present.”3 The awareness of his newfound fantastic inward sexual awareness and outward fantasized and fetishized body presence created fear in Baldwin. The fear for Baldwin is not the sexual presence itself or its power, but the unquestionable desire to be wanted by someone and the social and religious accountability that comes along with it.4 Desire for Baldwin rests uncomfortably at the crossroad of the church and street: one a (religious) call of “spiritual seduction” and the other a call to “carnal knowledge.”5] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Queering of Black TheologyThe Prolonged Religious Crisis

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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2013
ISBN
978-1-349-47855-2
Pages
13 –38
DOI
10.1057/9781137376473_2
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[In The Fire Next Time James Baldwin recounts at the age of 14 undergoing a “prolonged religious crisis.”1 The onset of the crisis is shaped by Baldwin’s awareness of “God, His saints and angels, and His blazing Hell” and a fear of the evil, within and without of himself.2 The “evil” is the soulful awareness of sexuality that makes him and the other girls and boys “… unutterably different and fantastically present.”3 The awareness of his newfound fantastic inward sexual awareness and outward fantasized and fetishized body presence created fear in Baldwin. The fear for Baldwin is not the sexual presence itself or its power, but the unquestionable desire to be wanted by someone and the social and religious accountability that comes along with it.4 Desire for Baldwin rests uncomfortably at the crossroad of the church and street: one a (religious) call of “spiritual seduction” and the other a call to “carnal knowledge.”5]

Published: Oct 30, 2015

Keywords: Black Body; Black People; Moral Authority; Black Church; Biblical Text

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