Jeffrey J. Kripal

Varieties of African American Religious Experience

Theology

“Varieties of African American Experience is a prophetic reflection on the moral, existential, and theological paradoxes inherent in radical comparison, by which I mean: comparison from no particular religious system or community. Paradoxes abound in such an intellectual act. Here, after all, we have the clear voice of an atheist theologian, of a humanist who cares deeply about religion and religious people, of a black intellectual who insists that the discourse around race and religion must not be restricted to black voices. Such intellectual paradox is a most effective way to confront and answer existential absurdity, here the absurdity of moral evil, unjust suffering, and the immeasurable (and continued) suffering of black bodies at the auction blocks, nooses, and now gun barrels and righteous ideologies of white religious people. The rock of Sisyphus has clearly rolled down the hill again. We are at a moment of immense gravity and apparent despair. We have “hit bottom.” But it is not time to complain or hesitate. It is time to push the rock back up the hill again. So is Tony Pinn’s message to all of us on the 20th anniversary of this now classic work.”

Varieties of African American Religious Experience

World Religions

“Varieties of African American Religious Experience is a prophetic reflection on the moral, existential, and theological paradoxes inherent in radical comparison, by which I mean comparison from no particular religious system or community. Paradoxes abound in such an intellectual act. Here, after all, we have the clear voice of an atheist theologian, of a humanist who cares deeply about religion and religious people, of a black intellectual who insists that the discourse around race and religion must not be restricted to black voices. Such intellectual paradox is a most effective way to confront and answer existential absurdity—here the absurdity of moral evil, unjust suffering, and the immeasurable (and continued) suffering of black bodies at the auction blocks, nooses, and now gun barrels and righteous ideologies of white religious people. The rock of Sisyphus has clearly rolled down the hill again. We are at a moment of immense gravity and apparent despair. We have ‘hit bottom.’ But it is not time to complain or hesitate. It is time to push the rock back up the hill again. Such is Anthony B. Pinn’s message to all of us on the twentieth anniversary of this now classic work.”