Promotional Information

"Faith, Health, and Healing in African American Life magnificently weaves together the experiences and analysis of diverse scholars, from an interreligious perspective to excavate the communal aspects of faith, health (activities that foster healing and wholeness), and healing. This book is a must read for those curious about or committed to the incredible richness and intrigue of studying systems and individuals and how they emerge and have an impact on Black health and health care through multiple faith traditions." -- Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Ph.D., Professor of Theology and Women's Studies, Shaw University Divinity School, Raleigh, NC "Faith, Health, and Healing in African American Life offers interdisciplinary and thick interrogation of faith and health in ways that promotes an important re-thinking of past assumptions and approaches. Readers will close the book with a rich and complex understanding of the construction and practice of health. This book is a vital addition to existing scholarship. It will change the way you think about this significant issue. I highly recommend it." -- Anthony B. Pinn, Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities, Rice University

Table of Contents

Series Foreword Introduction Part I. Ancestral Songs Chapter 1 Natural/Supernatural: African American Hoodoo Narratives of Sickness and Healing Yvonne Chireau Chapter 2 Holistic Health and Healing: Environmental Racism and Ecological Justice Dwight N. Hopkins Part II. Health and Healing across the Diaspora Chapter 3 Bodies in Time and the Healing of Spaces: Religion, Temporalities, and Health Charles H. Long Chapter 4 Spiritual Illness and Healing: If the Lord Wills Arvilla Payne-Jackson Part III. The Arts of Ritual and Practice Chapter 5 The Marking of the Body, Memory, and the Meaning of Suffering in Phyllis Alesia Perrys Stigmata Carolyn M. Jones Chapter 6 Just Awailing and Aweeping: Grief, Lament, and Hope as We Face the End of Life Emilie M. Townes Chapter 7 Honoring the Body: Ritual of Breath and Breathing C. S'thembile West Part IV. Analyzing Social Realities Chapter 8 The Destruction of Aunt Esters House: Faith, Health, and Healing in the African American Community Terri Baltimore and Mindy Thompson Fullilove Chapter 9 The Unspoken, the Spoken, and Affirmed: Meanings of Healing, Same Gender-Loving African Americans, and Black Churches Linda L. Barnes Part V. Finding/Making Wellness Chapter 10 "Seeking Help for the Body in the Well Being of the Soul Rosemary Gooden Chapter 11 Too Old for the Club, But Always at Home in the Club: Health, Spirituality, and Social Support Among Adult Black Gay Men in Oaklands Cable Reef D. Mark Wilson Chapter 12 Spiritual Wellness in the Lives of African American Women Stephanie Y. Mitchem Bibliography About the Editors and Contributors

About the Author

Stephanie Y. Mitchem is Associate Professor, University of South Carolina. She is the author of African American Women Tapping Power and Spiritual Wellness, Introducing Womanist Theology, and numerous articles and book chapters. Emilie M. Townes is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African-American Religion and Theology, Yale Divinity School. She is the author or editor of several books including Breaking the Fine Rain of Death: African American Health Care and A Womanist Ethic of Care, Embracing the Spirit: Womanist Perspectives on Hope, Salvation, and Transformation, In a Blaze of Glory: Womanist Spirituality as Social Witness and others, as well as journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, and other publications.

Reviews

This is a most interesting work. It provides insight into the traditional African-American health practices that are not dealt with in most conventional medical literature. The essays, furthermore, place these practices into a broader historical context, one in existence before the institution of slavery in the Americas.
*MultiCultural Review*

Because residency programs are now recognizing the importance of cultural competency for their trainees, it is crucial that clinicians acknowledge the importance of religion in the health care of their patients. In fact, as more becomes known in this country about how different cultures approach health and wellness, this book, along with the others in the series, will be timely and useful to all involved in health care. FAITH, HEALTH, AND HEALING IN AFRICAN AMERICAN LIFE is an excellent guide to the health belief system of a key US community.
*Journal of the American Medical Association/JAMA*

Mitchem and Townes have edited a very important collection of multidisciplinary essays focused on faith, health, and healing in African American life. Since African Americans have been vulnerable to higher AIDS, this timely volume fills an important knowledge gap. Religious resources have often been neglected in biomedicine. The essays range from the historical contributions of African religious traditions to healing in Yvonne Chireau's 'Hoodoo' narratives and Charles Long's reflections on the conjure tradition to more contemporary foci such as Dwight Hopkins's elaboration of the relationship between environmental and ecological justice to health concerns in black communities… Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers.
*Choice*