Book Review: Creating Ourselves: African Americans and Hispanic Americans on Popular Culture and Religious Expression

Last updated on: May 30, 2016 at 10:34 am by Guest Contributor

Book Review: Creating Ourselves: African Americans and Hispanic Americans on Popular Culture and Religious Expression 2016-05-30T10:34:08-05:00 Guest Contributor

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by Andre E. Johnson

R3 Editor

Anthony B. Pinn and Benjamin Valentin, Editors, Creating Ourselves: African Americans and Hispanic Americans on Popular Culture and Religious Expression. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. Pg 432 Cloth: $89.95, Paper: $24.95

In 2001, African American and Latino/a scholars discovered that despite the “unique web of historical and cultural relations that links African Americans and Latinos/as” and “despite the parallel history of struggle,” African American and Latino/a theologians and religious scholars did not communicate effectively with each other. Further, they recognized that despite their similarities and parallel histories and despite their penchant for theologies of liberation and their analyses of theologies and religious expression as best understood as a “dialogical practice,” religious research had come “independently of each other.” Moreover, a cursory examination of the research within each tradition revealed scant attention to “academic resources from the other tradition” (1).

To address these and other concerns, Anthony Pinn and Benjamin Valentin edited a volume aimed at putting these traditions in dialogue with each other. In Ties that Bind: African American and Hispanic American/Latino/a Theologies in Dialogue, the editors attempted to bring together the theological discourses emanating from these two groups. In bringing the two together, the project illuminated and provided readers with insight on both traditions as well as exposed similarities and differences between the two. In addition, through a reading of this material, one could discern theological and ethical messages the writers not only offered their respective communities, but also society at large. Within the African American and Latino theological and religious studies communities, the volume was well received and the subject led to more conference presentations, academic forums and other meaningful collaborations.

Creating Ourselves:African Americans and Hispanic Americans on Popular Culture and Religious Expression is a follow-up or, in the spirit of the volume, a sequel to Ties That Bind. However, this time, the collaborators attempt to move from the hall of academia–the ivory towers of theological and religious research and delve into the murky waters of cultural production. In short, the editors want scholars to explore the religious and theological significance of “popular culture.” While noting that engaging in popular culture is nothing new to African American and Latino/a theologians and religious scholars, the editors argue that much of this exploration is limited to the cultural production of music or research that focuses on elements of “popular religion”(5). Therefore, the editors call for a richer and deeper understanding of cultural production that would further embrace other elements of popular culture.

The book is organized the same way as the earlier Ties That Bind. Each chapter consists of two essays and two responses. One scholar offers an essay and the other offers a response. After that, the one offering the response offers an essay and the other a response. The editors aim is to create a space for dialogue, while at the same time, open up an avenue for critique and bridge building. The format is a good one because not only do the scholars engage in rigorous scholarship, but within the responses, the reader not only gets a review of the previous essay, but each scholar is mindful to place herself of himself within the conversation creating the communication so desired by the editors.

To begin this examination into popular culture, chapter one of the book consist of two essays theorizing religion in and of popular culture by Pinn and Valletin. Both argue that the critical examination of cultural production in African American and Latino/a traditions is a valid form of theological and religious research. While Pinn suggest a methodological approach of “religious cartography” and Valletin suggest that scholars look at different ways to conceptualize culture that will expand its perceived borders, they both issue calls to African American and Latino/a scholars to address popular culture as a way of and toward understanding religious phenomena among people within both communities.

In chapter two, Mayra Rivera and Traci West discuss how the body is (re) presented and constructed in public. West focuses on some of the difficulties that theologians and religious scholars have at constructing an authentic and valid theology of the body, while West examines how Latino bodies are portrayed in movies and how marriage promotional language is targeted to black and Latina single mothers. In chapter three, James Evans and Teresa Delgado examine the religious in literature. Evans examines the concept of paradise in Toni Morrison’s novel Paradise and Delgado constructs a Puerto Rican emancipatory theology drawing from Puerto Rican literature.

In chapter four, Alex Nava and Cheryl Kirk-Duggan probes the theological sensibilities found in elements of music–namely in hip hop. Nava discusses the “browning” of his theology, drawing from textual examples in hip hop, while Kirk-Duggan examines the theological ethics of Lauryn Hill and Tupac Shakur. In chapter five, Johnathan Walton and Joseph De Leon analyze the religious underpinnings in television. Walton discusses the religious rhetoric of African American television evangelists and De Leon focuses his attention to the theological found in Telenovelas.

In chapter six, Suzanne Hoeferkamp Segovia and Shelia Winborne offer an analysis of the religious within visual arts. Segovia looks at the theological significance of Latina artists within the Guadalupe tradition, while Winborne examines how European definitions and construction of visual images of Jesus have become authentic and how African Americans in the past responded to these hegemonic constructions. Finally, in chapter seven, Lynne Westfield and Angel Mendez Montoya examine food and religion. Westfield, drawing on a womanist theological approach, examines how table fellowship can lead to prophetic practice while Montoya argues for a deeper understanding of the Eucharist and constructing a theology as nourishment to all people.

Just like their earlier work, this volume will also lead to further discussion between the two traditions and lead to more academic presentations, essays, panel discussions and books. There is still much work to be done in the area of religion and popular culture and this book is a harbinger of things to come.

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