In this profoundly innovative book, Ashon T. Crawley engages a wide range of critical paradigms from black studies, queer theory, and sound studies to theology, continental philosophy, and performance studies to theorize the ways in which alternative or “otherwise” modes of existence can serve as disruptions against the marginalization of and violence against minoritarian lifeworlds and possibilities for flourishing. Examining the whooping, shouting, noise-making, and speaking in tongues of Black Pentecostalism—a multi-racial, multi-class, multi-national Christian sect with one strand of its modern genesis in 1906 Los Angeles—Blackpentecostal Breath reveals how these aesthetic practices allow for the emergence of alternative modes of social organization. As Crawley deftly reveals, these choreographic, sonic, and visual practices and the sensual experiences they create are not only important for imagining what Crawley identifies as “otherwise worlds of possibility,” they also yield a general hermeneutics, a methodology for reading culture in an era when such expressions are increasingly under siege.

Public Righteousness: The Performative Ethics of Human Flourishing is driven by the idea that part of what manifests as a disorderly display of virtue in public culture is underlined by the desire to see a more righteous society and an expression of the will to enact such an ideal world into reality. This book re-structures the ferment of such public displays and fashions an ethic that overturns the ostentatious signals of self-righteousness and the fierce contest of animating visions. This book engages the work of social ethicist Nimi Wariboko to explore an idea of public righteousness. In place of smug superiority and phony pieties, the performative ethics that inaugurate this public righteousness offer an intellectual and moral competence that establishes rectitude and culminates in human flourishing.

This open access book studies breath and breathing in literature and culture and provides crucial insights into the history of medicine, health and the emotions, the foundations of beliefs concerning body, spirit and world, the connections between breath and creativity and the phenomenology of breath and breathlessness. Contributions span the classical, medieval, early modern, Romantic, Victorian, modern and contemporary periods, drawing on medical writings, philosophy, theology and the visual arts as well as on literary, historical and cultural studies. The collection illustrates the complex significance and symbolic power of breath and breathlessness across time: breath is written deeply into ideas of nature, spirituality, emotion, creativity and being, and is inextricable from notions of consciousness, spirit, inspiration, voice, feeling, freedom and movement. The volume also demonstrates the long-standing connections between breath and place, politics and aesthetics, illuminating both contrasts and continuities.

A groundbreaking collection of writings that place queer ritual at the center of the theological conversation. In this collection of essays, leading scholars in queer theology and liturgical studies explore the ways in which the distinctive theological voices of LGBTQIA+ Christians challenge and expand thinking and practice around worship in new directions. This challenge has expanded in the past decades, as obstacles to the full participation of queer Christians—particularly in marriage and ordination—have fallen. Organized into three main parts, the volume begins with an introduction to queer engagement with ritual practices, continues with a series of case studies that examine queer texts and contexts, and concludes with an examination of the horizons of queer liturgical theology and practice. Throughout the volume, Queering Christian Worship provides new imagination and tools to those who study and curate Christian worship across traditions.

In The Lonely Letters, A tells Moth: “Writing about and thinking with joy is what sustains me, daily. It nourishes me. I do not write about joy primarily because I always have it. I write about joy, Black joy, because I want to generate it, I want it to emerge, I want to participate in its constant unfolding.” But alongside joy, A admits to Moth, come loneliness, exclusion, and unfulfilled desire. The Lonely Letters is an epistolary blackqueer critique of the normative world in which Ashon T. Crawley—writing as A—meditates on the interrelation of blackqueer life, sounds of the Black church, theology, mysticism, and love. Throughout his letters, A explores blackness and queerness in the musical and embodied experience of Blackpentecostal spaces and the potential for platonic and erotic connection in a world that conspires against blackqueer life. Both a rigorous study and a performance, The Lonely Letters gestures toward understanding the capacity for what we study to work on us, to transform us, and to change how we inhabit the world.

This volume fulfills the need for an accessible academic book that addresses the gender issues that women face as Christian disciples, whether in formal leadership roles or engaging leadership in informal means, and considers these issues in the context of world Christianity. In an era in which mission is “from everywhere, to everywhere,” when local churches strive to be missional, and when Christians are engaged in intercultural ministry, this book invites a scholar-practitioner conversation, engaging multiple disciplines and perspectives to explore the role of women in the mission of God. An interdisciplinary and intercultural conversation about women will enrich the church’s ongoing effort to be faithful to God’s call to women (and men) to participate in God’s work in the world.

Two renowned theologians open up the reality of God's glory in this book, offering readers a dynamic foundation for glorifying God in the twenty-first century. Drawing from Christian spirituality, liturgy, poetry, hymns, iconography, seminal "glory" texts in the Bible, the Nicene Creed, and theologians throughout the ages who caught sight of the glory of God in diverse ways, this book explores the immensely rich and generative soteriological theme of glorification. It shows students how to integrate theology into the life of faith and demonstrates how the practices of Christian worship influence theological thinking. Metaphors, descriptions, evocations, concepts, narratives, and more highlight the amazing, abundant reality of glorification. This is the first book in the Soteriology and Doxology series. These introductory textbooks cover key topics in soteriology, providing substantive treatments of doctrine while pointing to the setting of theology in doxology. Series editors are Kent Eilers and Kyle C. Strobel.