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Christ Our Black Mother Speaks
An 84-page, full color collection of art, essays, questions and practices to deepen our connection to the Dark Divine Feminine.
From the Preface:
Our conditioning has taught us to automatically perceive femininity as untrustworthy and blackness as dirty. So, black femininity is perceived as wholly unholy.
There’s something very evil about the way black women in particular are perceived as distant from the Divine. It brings to mind the Jezebel stereotype, the idea that black women are lascivious by nature, which has long plagued black women... [and] continues to thrive today...
In this volume of essays, I turn toward images of Christ on the cross. As I continue my exploration of the wholly holy female face of God, I ask a deeper question.
What does God’s femaleness and blackness practically mean for my particular black female experience?
And what does God’s femaleness and blackness practically mean for all of us?
This deepening resource, which includes recommended reflection questions and interfaith spiritual practices, is a wonderful tool for personal and/or community exploration. So don't forget to purchase copies for your friends!
From the Preface:
Our conditioning has taught us to automatically perceive femininity as untrustworthy and blackness as dirty. So, black femininity is perceived as wholly unholy.
There’s something very evil about the way black women in particular are perceived as distant from the Divine. It brings to mind the Jezebel stereotype, the idea that black women are lascivious by nature, which has long plagued black women... [and] continues to thrive today...
In this volume of essays, I turn toward images of Christ on the cross. As I continue my exploration of the wholly holy female face of God, I ask a deeper question.
What does God’s femaleness and blackness practically mean for my particular black female experience?
And what does God’s femaleness and blackness practically mean for all of us?
This deepening resource, which includes recommended reflection questions and interfaith spiritual practices, is a wonderful tool for personal and/or community exploration. So don't forget to purchase copies for your friends!
84 pages, ebook
First published January 10, 2020
2 people are currently reading
181 people want to read
About the author
Christena Cleveland
15 books181 followersChristena Cleveland is a social psychologist with a hopeful passion for reconciling across cultural divisions. She is the first Associate Professor of the Practice of Reconciliation at Duke University’s Divinity School where she is also the faculty director of Duke’s Center for Reconciliation. Christena earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Her scholarly work includes integrating social psychological perspectives on intergroup and intercultural processes with current reconciliation dilemmas within the Christian church and the broader society. Her research examines how culture influences theological/ideological approaches to peacemaking and reconciliation; how social processes, such as identity and self-esteem, impede a group’s ability to reconcile with culturally-different groups; and how individual factors (e.g., professed theologies/ideologies) interact with social factors (e.g., the status of one’s social group) to allow certain individuals or groups to dominate others.
Christena has published her work in scholarly journals – such as Small Group Research for which she received a 2011 Best Article award – as well as magazines – such as Christianity Today, which named her as one of 33 millennials leading the next generation of Christian faith.
In her book, Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart (Intervarsity Press, 2013), she examines and offers research-based strategies to overcome the nonconscious cognitive, emotional, and identity processes that pull Christians into homogeneous groups, fuel inaccurate perceptions of culturally-different others, contribute to an “Us vs. Them” mentality, stimulate intergroup prejudice and hostility, and ultimately inhibit reconciliation. The book received a 2013 Leadership Journal Book Award. Christena is currently researching and writing The Priesthood of the Privileged, which investigates power and inequality in the church, and proposes methods for addressing and reducing this equality as a pathway to reconciliation.
A fifth generation minister, Christena comes from a long tradition of leadership in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) denomination, ranging from bishops to pastors to laypeople. She currently ministers in various ecumenical settings.
Christena is a lifelong Oakland A’s fan and holds a quality cup of tea in high regard. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.
Her scholarly work includes integrating social psychological perspectives on intergroup and intercultural processes with current reconciliation dilemmas within the Christian church and the broader society. Her research examines how culture influences theological/ideological approaches to peacemaking and reconciliation; how social processes, such as identity and self-esteem, impede a group’s ability to reconcile with culturally-different groups; and how individual factors (e.g., professed theologies/ideologies) interact with social factors (e.g., the status of one’s social group) to allow certain individuals or groups to dominate others.
Christena has published her work in scholarly journals – such as Small Group Research for which she received a 2011 Best Article award – as well as magazines – such as Christianity Today, which named her as one of 33 millennials leading the next generation of Christian faith.
In her book, Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart (Intervarsity Press, 2013), she examines and offers research-based strategies to overcome the nonconscious cognitive, emotional, and identity processes that pull Christians into homogeneous groups, fuel inaccurate perceptions of culturally-different others, contribute to an “Us vs. Them” mentality, stimulate intergroup prejudice and hostility, and ultimately inhibit reconciliation. The book received a 2013 Leadership Journal Book Award. Christena is currently researching and writing The Priesthood of the Privileged, which investigates power and inequality in the church, and proposes methods for addressing and reducing this equality as a pathway to reconciliation.
A fifth generation minister, Christena comes from a long tradition of leadership in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) denomination, ranging from bishops to pastors to laypeople. She currently ministers in various ecumenical settings.
Christena is a lifelong Oakland A’s fan and holds a quality cup of tea in high regard. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 10, 2021
I was a little surprised at how much thinking Christ as an African American woman made sense to me. Jesus was neither historically of European or African Descent (Though Jesus lived a whole lot closer to the continent of Africa than Europe!), but theologically seeing Jesus in the image of a Black Woman impacted and provided depth that I was not expecting.
Dr. Celeveland's collections of essays on Womanist Theology does a good job of exploring this. For me specifically to think beyond the primarily European male framework so much of Theology resides. It stretched me in some unexpected but good ways. Looking forward to reading more from Dr. Cleveland.
I recommend.
Dr. Celeveland's collections of essays on Womanist Theology does a good job of exploring this. For me specifically to think beyond the primarily European male framework so much of Theology resides. It stretched me in some unexpected but good ways. Looking forward to reading more from Dr. Cleveland.
I recommend.
June 8, 2020
"But when the tomb is a womb, nothing is final; everything has just begun."
There is no greater moment than now to hear Christ our Black Mother speaking into our world, convicting disciples of the whitemalegod and standing with those who can't breathe any longer so that we may all be miraculously birthed into life. Cleveland, along with the many voices she integrates into these essays, beautifully and powerfully invites us to listen.
There is no greater moment than now to hear Christ our Black Mother speaking into our world, convicting disciples of the whitemalegod and standing with those who can't breathe any longer so that we may all be miraculously birthed into life. Cleveland, along with the many voices she integrates into these essays, beautifully and powerfully invites us to listen.
June 28, 2020
Christ Our Black Mother Speaks helped me realize and reshape my "whitemangod" biases. I love that Christena's points are all deeply rooted in scripture.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews