Our Bodies Are Alive
Self-Literacy as an Embodied Healing and Liberative Practice
- Women
- Publisher: Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2025
FritzSearch.com earns a commission on purchases made through Bookshop.org links.
Publisher's Description
Our bodies are ALIVE is a statement suggesting that we physically and energetically exist as dynamic and active beings. Even when unaware, our bodies are engaging and mapping all that exists around them and consequently are creating and supporting narratives we would do well to investigate. These narratives have the power to lodge within the scripts of our bodies while at the same time continuing to inform our choices and decisions without explicit permission. We are so much more than our physical brains because our minds exist throughout the entirety of our bodies; they are bodies that can hold knowledge and wisdom from ages past and have the ability to inform themselves. Intentional mining of this gold within can significantly inform the impact leaders have on others and the state of their own physical and mental health. Any healing and liberative work then begins with self-literacy. From the disciplines of neuroscience, womanist theology, psychology, and indigenous spirituality, conversations with African American clergy women reveal fascinating insights on embodied self-relationship, pain, and healing, as well as paths toward more integrated and effective leadership practices. It is ultimately an invitation to radical self-regard, respect of body intelligence, and the process of healing FIERCELY.
Endorsements (3)
“In this profoundly integrative work, seasoned chaplain and clinical pastoral educator Bridget Piggue, in conversation with African American clergy women, draws creatively upon the disciplines of neuroscience, womanist theology, psychology, and indigenous spirituality to demonstrate how radical self-regard and respect for body intelligence do provide a process of healing and path toward effective leadership practices in church and community.”
“In 1964, Civil Rights icon Malcolm X poignantly observed, ‘the most disrespected person in America is the Black woman.’ Almost one hundred years later, this statement is still true now more than ever. Dr. Bridget Piggue courageously shines a light on the current sociopolitical plight of Black women and provides a useful, much-needed caring practice that spiritual care providers desperately yearn for especially today. While the Black woman’s body has been weaponized and used as a battleground since the inception of African enslavement in 1619, Dr. Piggue’s project restores the Black woman’s body as healing balm in a sick world. The pages of this work will prick your consciousness and heart and inspire you to collective action on behalf of the most disrespected in America.”
“Research on trauma has helped us to understand that there is no liberation without liberation of the body. In Our Bodies Are Alive, Bridget Piggue points us to a liberating praxis that frees African American women’s minds, bodies, and souls from theological and cultural bondage.”
See something wrong on this page? Report a problem