Theological Aesthetics in the African American Anthropologies of Emilie M

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA Theological Aesthetics in the African American Anthropologies of Emilie M. Townes and M. Shawn Copeland A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the Historical and Systematic Theology Area School of Theology and Religious Studies Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy © Copyright All Rights Reserved By Audrey Coretta Price Washington, D.C. 2017 Theological Aesthetics in the African American Anthropologies of Emilie Townes and Shawn Copeland Audrey Coretta Price, Ph.D. Director: Susan Wessel, Ph.D. This study analyzes the theological ethics of Emilie M. Townes and theological anthropology of M. Shawn Copeland in order to determine the implications for the construction of a theological aesthetics defending Black woman personhood. The study explores the beauty and goodness of the female soul and body—to explore how Copeland and Townes treat beauty and justice in suffering and oppression among African American women and their bodies. This reading points the way toward Eucharistic solidarity where the imago Dei is imprinted in the tapestry of diversity in community. Townes and Copeland are themselves working not in theological aesthetics, but in Womanist and Black theology. Black theology is a liberation theology based on the social location of African Americans, which seeks to reclaim the human dignity that has been abused, subjugated and assassinated in persons of African descent by examining the effects of slavery on the “Black body”—spiritually, physically, psychologically and culturally. Womanist theology, a derivative of Black theology, focuses on the experience of African American women. The enslavement of people of African origin in America was an abhorrent oppression that has left substantial scars on the minds and lives of African Americans. Copeland maintains that it is through suffering that human dignity is witnessed, recognized and reaffirmed. For example, the sufferings of Christ did not undermine the divinity of Christ, who was God enfleshed; rather Christ’s human sufferings testified to the glory of God, who raised Christ from the dead. Similarly, enslaved Africans did not succumb to slavery; rather, they cherished their human dignity and affirmed their faith in the omnipotent God, in whose image they were created and whose image they bore. During the centuries of slavery, the bodies of enslaved Africans, particularly women, were defiled, mutilated, abused, and discarded simply because they were black. Reflections that link the body of Jesus of Nazareth and the bodies of Black women uncover both the human capacity for inhumanity and the divine capacity for love. God’s declaration of the male and female, body and soul as beautiful and good is a focus of theological anthropology; thus, African American anthropology and theological aesthetics proclaim the beauty of African American personhood grounded in the imago dei. Building on the work of Townes and Copeland, I argue that countermemory and Beauty in Eucharistic solidarity, spoken from the pulpit in the Black Church, offer a way toward healing and hope in theological aesthetics so that all are welcomed and affirmed at Christ’s table as co-equal human beings in the body of Christ. This dissertation by Audrey Coretta Price fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Systematic Theology approved by Susan Wessel, Ph.D., as Director, and by Rev. Raymond Studzinski, O.S.B., Ph.D., Michael Root, Ph.D., and Beverly E. Mitchell, Ph.D. as Readers. __________________________________ Susan Wessel, Ph.D., Director __________________________________ Michael Root, Ph.D., Reader __________________________________ Raymond Studzinski, O.S.B., Ph.D., Reader __________________________________ Beverly E. Mitchell, Ph.D., Reader ii Dedication 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 This study has been a journey of finding my own voice and being a voice within the African American community on behalf of Black women. It has been a blessed journey that has not always felt so glorious, rewarding, or quite frankly exciting. The countless hours of research, reading and writing; the frustrations, disappointments and missed deadlines now seem all worthwhile. As a budding theologian who walks comfortably in my Black skin and my divinely fashioned African American body, a womanist theological aesthetics—that affirms, celebrates and honors Black woman personhood—is intimately precious and dear to my very being. For this reason, I dedicate this work to the women who have taken this journey with me…not just Black women, but all women; not just heterosexual women, but all women, not just those who are named, but the unnamed. I am grateful for the fellowship, support and sisterhood experienced among my clergy sisters. First established within a covenant group of graduated seminarians who journeyed with each other for several years. We laughed and cried together, prayed for and cheered each other on, and attended each other’s ordination. Black women answering their vocational call...despite heretical claims that God does not call women to preach the gospel. I am deeply grateful for the exceptional scholars whose teaching, coaching, mentoring and collegiality have been the wind beneath my study wings. Dr. Beverly E. Mitchell, the professor who awakened my love and thirst for systematic theology. Beverly helped me identify the deep desire within me to have theology be a liberative vehicle for all of humanity. Dr. Susan Wessel, an extraordinary church historian, who I encountered my first year of coursework in the doctoral program. Susan’s commitment to excellence is paralleled with her nonsensical coaching and care of students with potential who need a gentle nudge. Having Beverly as a reader and Susan as my dissertation director are a great honor that both humbled and challenged me to give nothing but my very best to my first official scholarship. I am abundantly thankful for the years I have co-taught with Dr. Denise Dombkowski Hopkins at Wesley Theological Seminary in the field education program. I was astonished during our first semester of co-teaching when Denise invited me to be a contributing voice in her volume on Psalms, Books 2-3, in the Wisdom Commentary series. Denise facilitated the first official publication of my womanist voice. iii I offer libations in honor of the cloud of witnesses of Black women who suffered atrocities of dehumanization, whose strength carried them through the Middle Passage, whose tenacity fortified them to survive slavery, and whose sassiness equips them to persevere inequity in the workplace, domicile, and sadly even the church in the twenty-first century. For all the women who the world has attempted to silence—the abused, assaulted, dehumanized, marginalized, and ostracized because of their fierce gender— àse̩ ̩. Thank you God for the bundles of blessings you bestowed in my life, my daughter Micaiah Denae Wiggins and, my son, Marcellus Kinley Wiggins. When I wanted to give up on this pursuit, looking in their loving faces, receiving a hug or seeing their innocent smiles—that only comes with blissful youthfulness—recharged my resolve and pushed me across the finish line. For all those I have named, and for those whose names are unmentioned but remain close to my heart, I remain grateful. iv Table of Contents Introduction: Black Theology and Womanist Theology ................................................................ 1 Slavery and the “Self” ................................................................................................................. 9 Black Theology: Healing and Division ..................................................................................... 26 Womanist Theology: An African American Female Voice ..................................................... 34 Womanist Theological Aesthetics ............................................................................................ 41 Chapter 1: Theological Aesthetics ................................................................................................ 45 Beauty ....................................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 2: M. Shawn Copeland .................................................................................................... 64 Catholic Roots ........................................................................................................................... 68 Theology of Suffering: Womanist Perspective ......................................................................... 84 Theological Anthropology ........................................................................................................ 92 Freeing the Body ..................................................................................................................... 103 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 108 Chapter 3: Emilie M. Townes ..................................................................................................... 109 Townes’ Womanist Spirituality .............................................................................................

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