Recent and Upcoming Publications
Gifted Graces: A Womanist Systematic Theology of Relationality
Gifted Graces: A Womanist Systematic Theology of Relationality builds a systematic theological system based on a Womanist context or embodied relationality of thought, being, and existence, following Alice Walker’s thematic development of relationships in In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose. This aesthetic, political, and economic analysis is framed by the theo-poetical constructs of beauty, sacrality, and stewardship amid the praxis of acknowledgement, attitude, and action. Relationality is broad based, from ways of experiencing knowledge and life (epistemology, theology, psychology), and particular topics that affect our daily lives (economics, politics, health, values, and symbols), to attributes that pertain to ways of being (attitude, justice, and community). In process, Baylor University Press.
Belief Series Commentary: Joshua and Judges
Belief Series Commentary: Joshua and Judges is a part of the series from Westminster John Knox Press which "offer a fresh and invigorating approach to all the books of the Bible. Building on a wide range of sources from biblical studies, the history of theology, the church's liturgical and musical traditions, contemporary culture, and the Christian tradition, noted scholars focus less on traditional historical and literary angles in favor of a theologically focused commentary that considers the contemporary relevance of the texts. This series is an invaluable resource for those who want to probe beyond the backgrounds and words of biblical texts to their deep theological and ethical meanings for the church today." This commentary wrestles with the successful or less than successful conquest of Canaanite lands, the incredible amount of divinely orchestrated violence, and how we make meaning sense out of these texts today.
Wake Up!: Hip Hop, Christianity, and the Black Church, co-authored by Cheryl Kirk-Duggan and Marlon Hall, Abingdon, 2011.
The following is a conversation regarding the birth of the new volume, Wake Up!: Hip Hop, Christianity, and the Black Church, co-authored by Cheryl Kirk-Duggan and Marlon Hall, Abingdon, 2011.
…At exactly which point do you start to realize
That life without knowledge is, [RIP] in disguise?
Talib Kweli
That life without knowledge is, [RIP] in disguise?
Talib Kweli
Kathy Armistead, editor, Abingdon Press:
As with many books, the idea for this volume came from observing a felt need in the market place. This particular project also emerged out of a deep appreciation for music and what it can mean to the growth and transformation of souls. While I don’t know much about Hip Hop, I do hear it on the radio, especially when my younger daughter is in the car with me. And I do know that Hip Hop music is in more and more churches, irrespective of denomination. And there are a large number of people curious about Hip Hop’s impact as well as its artists.
After identifying a felt need, the next step in publishing is to find an author with the skill, knowledge, and platform to write the book. As I thought of the people who could write a book on Hip Hop, Dr. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan came to mind. She is a noted scholar, writer, and musician–a perfect combination for a book about Hip Hop. But I also knew that Cheryl keeps a very busy schedule and might want a co-author to help. After a lengthy search and a number of recommendations, I contacted Marlon Hall. As it turned out, they hit it off and from there all I had to do, pretty much, was sit back and wait for manuscript delivery.
Kirk-Duggan: The same semester that Kathy Armistead, Abingdon’s Editor: Books, Bibles, Media, contacted me to discuss the idea of writing a book on hip hop was the same semester that I taught a readings course on hip hop at Shaw University Divinity School. The class emerged at the request of one of my students Leon D. Parker, now an alum, who asked if we could have such a course; that ministers in training needed to understand the dynamics and language of hip hop. The synchronicity of the timing was to compelling to ignore. Armistead’s suggestion that Marlon Hall and I collaborate sealed the deal.
Hall and I have never met. The writing unfolded through phone calls, emails, text messages, and attachments. Hall grew up on hip hop. I came to hip hop as the topic of research when first venturing to explore the life and music of Tupac Shakur, along with research where I juxtaposed Shakur and Lauryn Hill as prophetic hip hop artists. I learned so much from the subject matter, its expression, and questions my students raised. I learned much from Marlon. The process was completely dialogical. We each worked on particular sections of each chapter, and interwove them, the create one document. How amazing, that as I reread final proofs, there were times when I had to read twice to determine whether Marlon or I actually wrote the original text, before editing. We both read the work of the other in process.
Hall: The research, imagining, and laughter around the development of this book has been life to me. The research redefined much of what I knew about Hip Hop. I have a new appreciation for the very subject I was asked to be an authority on. This process taught me that no one can be an expert of this dynamic music. At best we are all enthusiasts of this beautifully complicated culture called Hip Hop. All at once it talks about everything and nothing. It makes presidents ponder and revolutionaries dance: it has subtly changed everything, including me. It took this book for me to learn so much and what I learned gave me life!
I was forced to be an imagineer who rethought the role an “oustside” or secular music could play inside the church and beyond. It is no longer “that” music from the streets but “this” music that can create change from “the pulpit to the pimp stick”. Writing Wake Up! awakened my mind to imagine Hip Hop to be a creation of God that we must be faithful over and not a product of an environment to be sold.
Lastly, writing with Cheryl Kirk-Duggan returned me to that” fifth grade kind of laughter” that makes you laugh so hard milk involuntarily comes out of your nose. Grins became smiles that turned into hilarious laughter each time we “met” to write. A friendship that was formed around this project no longer needs it to continue to grow and deepen.
Kweli was right. Life without knowledge makes us dead folk walking, and I am walking in a new kind of life because I helped to write this book. God bless you! Wake Up!, I stay woke.
Armistead: Their book, Wake Up! Hip Hop Christianity and the Black Church is the culmination of their research and writing efforts. After looking at Hip Hop’s socio-historical context including its African roots, the book shows how Hip Hop has come to embody the worldview of growing numbers of youth and young adults in today’s church. The authors make the case that Hip Hop represents the angst and hope of many youth and young adults and that by examining the inherent religious themes embedded in the music, the church can help shape the culture of Hip Hop by changing its own forms of preaching and worship so that it can more effectively offer a message of repentance and liberation.
As with many books, the idea for this volume came from observing a felt need in the market place. This particular project also emerged out of a deep appreciation for music and what it can mean to the growth and transformation of souls. While I don’t know much about Hip Hop, I do hear it on the radio, especially when my younger daughter is in the car with me. And I do know that Hip Hop music is in more and more churches, irrespective of denomination. And there are a large number of people curious about Hip Hop’s impact as well as its artists.
After identifying a felt need, the next step in publishing is to find an author with the skill, knowledge, and platform to write the book. As I thought of the people who could write a book on Hip Hop, Dr. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan came to mind. She is a noted scholar, writer, and musician–a perfect combination for a book about Hip Hop. But I also knew that Cheryl keeps a very busy schedule and might want a co-author to help. After a lengthy search and a number of recommendations, I contacted Marlon Hall. As it turned out, they hit it off and from there all I had to do, pretty much, was sit back and wait for manuscript delivery.
Kirk-Duggan: The same semester that Kathy Armistead, Abingdon’s Editor: Books, Bibles, Media, contacted me to discuss the idea of writing a book on hip hop was the same semester that I taught a readings course on hip hop at Shaw University Divinity School. The class emerged at the request of one of my students Leon D. Parker, now an alum, who asked if we could have such a course; that ministers in training needed to understand the dynamics and language of hip hop. The synchronicity of the timing was to compelling to ignore. Armistead’s suggestion that Marlon Hall and I collaborate sealed the deal.
Hall and I have never met. The writing unfolded through phone calls, emails, text messages, and attachments. Hall grew up on hip hop. I came to hip hop as the topic of research when first venturing to explore the life and music of Tupac Shakur, along with research where I juxtaposed Shakur and Lauryn Hill as prophetic hip hop artists. I learned so much from the subject matter, its expression, and questions my students raised. I learned much from Marlon. The process was completely dialogical. We each worked on particular sections of each chapter, and interwove them, the create one document. How amazing, that as I reread final proofs, there were times when I had to read twice to determine whether Marlon or I actually wrote the original text, before editing. We both read the work of the other in process.
Hall: The research, imagining, and laughter around the development of this book has been life to me. The research redefined much of what I knew about Hip Hop. I have a new appreciation for the very subject I was asked to be an authority on. This process taught me that no one can be an expert of this dynamic music. At best we are all enthusiasts of this beautifully complicated culture called Hip Hop. All at once it talks about everything and nothing. It makes presidents ponder and revolutionaries dance: it has subtly changed everything, including me. It took this book for me to learn so much and what I learned gave me life!
I was forced to be an imagineer who rethought the role an “oustside” or secular music could play inside the church and beyond. It is no longer “that” music from the streets but “this” music that can create change from “the pulpit to the pimp stick”. Writing Wake Up! awakened my mind to imagine Hip Hop to be a creation of God that we must be faithful over and not a product of an environment to be sold.
Lastly, writing with Cheryl Kirk-Duggan returned me to that” fifth grade kind of laughter” that makes you laugh so hard milk involuntarily comes out of your nose. Grins became smiles that turned into hilarious laughter each time we “met” to write. A friendship that was formed around this project no longer needs it to continue to grow and deepen.
Kweli was right. Life without knowledge makes us dead folk walking, and I am walking in a new kind of life because I helped to write this book. God bless you! Wake Up!, I stay woke.
Armistead: Their book, Wake Up! Hip Hop Christianity and the Black Church is the culmination of their research and writing efforts. After looking at Hip Hop’s socio-historical context including its African roots, the book shows how Hip Hop has come to embody the worldview of growing numbers of youth and young adults in today’s church. The authors make the case that Hip Hop represents the angst and hope of many youth and young adults and that by examining the inherent religious themes embedded in the music, the church can help shape the culture of Hip Hop by changing its own forms of preaching and worship so that it can more effectively offer a message of repentance and liberation.