In this timely, much-needed book, theologian, social psychologist, and
activist Christena Cleveland recounts her personal journey to dismantle
the cultural "whitemalegod" and uncover the Sacred Black Feminine,
introducing a Black Female God who imbues us with hope, healing, and
liberating presence.
For years, Christena Cleveland spoke about racial reconciliation to
congregations, justice organizations, and colleges. But she increasingly
felt she could no longer trust in the God she'd been implicitly taught
to worship--a white male God who preferentially empowered white men
despite his claim to love all people. A God who clearly did not relate
to, advocate for, or affirm a Black woman like Christena.
Her crisis of faith sent her on an intellectual and spiritual journey
through history and across France, on a 400-mile walking pilgrimage to
the ancient shrines of Black Madonnas to find healing in the Sacred
Black Feminine. God Is a Black Woman is the chronicle of her
liberating transformation and a critique of a society shaped by white
patriarchal Christianity and culture. Christena reveals how America's
collective idea of God as a white man has perpetuated hurt,
hopelessness, and racial and gender oppression. Integrating her powerful
personal story, womanist ideology, as well as theological, historical,
and social science research, she invites us to take seriously the truth
that God is not white nor male and gives us a new and hopeful path for
connecting with the divine and honoring the sacredness of all Black
people.
