The End of God-Talk An African American Humanist Theology [Paperback]

In this groundbreaking study, Anthony B. Pinn challenges the long held assumption that African American theology is solely theist, arguing that this assumption has stunted African American theological discourse and excluded a rapidly growing segment of the African American population - non-theists. Rejecting the assumption of theism as the African American orientation, Pinn poses a crucial question: What is a non-theistic theology?

The End of God-Talk outlines the first systematic African American non-theistic theology. Pinn offers a new center for theological inquiry, grounded in a more scientific notion of the human than the imago Dei ideas that dominates African American theistic theologies. He proposes a turn to Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Alice Walker in order to effect a sense of ethical conduct consistent with African American non-theistic humanism. The End of God-Talk ends with an exploration of the religious significance of ordinary spaces and activities as settings for humanist theological engagement.

Through a turn to embodied human life as the proper arena and content of theologizing, Pinn opens up a new theological path with important implications for ongoing work in African American religious studies.

Acknowledgements
Note on Terminology
Introduction
Chapter One: The Ordinary as Theological Source Material
Chapter Two: Community as Centering Category
Chapter Three: The Humanist Human - Self, Subject, Subjectivity
Chapter Four: On Theologizing Symmetry
Chapter Five: African American Humanist Ethics
Chapter Six: Humanist Celebration and the Ritualizing of Life
Conclusion: Theologizing at the End of God-Talk
Bibliography

The End of God-Talkis a major contribution to theological discourse by a leading interpreter of African American religion. -- James H. Cone, Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology, Union Theological Seminary