Anthony B. Pinn is an American professor and writer whose work focuses on liberation theology

Liberation theology

Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...

, Black religion, and Black humanism

Humanism

Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....

. Pinn is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities

Humanities

The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

 and Professor of Religious Studies

Religious studies

Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...

 at Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

. He earned his Ph.D. in the Study of Religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

 at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1994. His dissertation was entitled “I Wonder as I Wonder: An Examination of the Problem of Evil in African-American Religious Thought.” The topic of theological responses to evil

Evil

Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...

 and suffering in Black religion has continued to dominate Pinn’s later work.

Black humanism in relation to other religious traditions

Throughout his work, Pinn refers to his approach to humanism as a “religion.” In so doing, Pinn cites humanist Gordon Kaufman’s definition of religion as “that which helps humans find orientation ‘for life in the world, together with motivation for living and acting in accordance with this orientation.’” In other words, for Pinn, religion need not be theistic.

In Why Lord?, Pinn’s humanism “involves an increase in humanity’s importance which makes impossible the location of a space for God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

.” He continues, “Religious answers to life’s meaninglessness promote an embracing of suffering which reinforces life’s meaninglessness rather than ending it.” In other work, however, Pinn moderates this claim. In a 1997 essay, Pinn describes humanism as another contribution to the plurality of religious traditions. In Varieties of African American Religious Experience (1999), he acknowledges that “the needs of various human communities are complex and varied enough to allow for a plurality of religious traditions.” In a 2002 interview, Pinn states that the Black Church, although in crisis, “has tremendous potential” for addressing the social justice

Social justice

Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

 issues that affect African Americans. Although Pinn’s work reaches into non-Christian sources of theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

, much of his academic focus remains centered on the history and theology of the African-American Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 Church.

Importantly, Pinn differentiates Black humanism from other non-theistic worldviews such as atheism

Atheism

Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

. Citing the work of Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...

 and Richard Wright

Richard Wright (author)

Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of sometimes controversial novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially those involving the plight of African-Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries...

, Pinn notes that Black humanism has no interest in disproving the existence of God. Rather, it is “not overly concerned with God as a negative myth, but rather God as a liberating myth that is nonetheless unsubstantiated.” Thus, oppressed African Americans need not waste their time disproving God’s existence, but are simply better off seeking their liberation with the human tools of “desire for transformation, human creativity, physical strength, and untapped collective potential.”
This “full human potential” is capable of analyzing and working to rectify problems of oppression in the African-American community.

Pinn’s approach to theodicy, redemptive suffering, and Black humanism

In Why Lord? Suffering and Evil in Black Theology (1995), Anthony Pinn establishes himself as a liberation theologian and Black humanist. In Why Lord?, Pinn seeks to critique various responses found within Black religion to the question of theodicy, or God’s role in the suffering of humanity. His critique is based on the ultimate goal of Black liberation. Pinn cites John Hick’s options for “the resolution of the problem of evil,” which are the following: “(1) a rethinking of the nature/purpose of evil; or, (2) the postulating of a ‘limited’ God; or, (3) a questioning/denial of God’s existence.”

The solutions that Black theology has formally articulated, Pinn argues, have essentially been limited to the first two options. All theodicean arguments following the first approach are not useful in the struggle for the liberation of oppressed people because, to varying degrees, they all rely on the concept of redemptive suffering. Pinn considers these arguments “unacceptable because they counteract efforts at liberation by finding something of value in Black suffering.” He places the work of James H. Cone, an early promulgator of Black liberation theology

Black liberation theology

Black liberation theology, sometimes shortened to black theology, is a relatively new theological perspective found in some Christian churches in the United States. It maintains that African Americans must be liberated from multiple forms of bondage — political, social, economic, and religious...

, in the first category. Although Cone refuses to accept Black suffering as God’s will, he nonetheless embraces suffering which Blacks incur as a result of resistance to oppression

Oppression

Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...

. Pinn rejects this distinction between positive and negative suffering, which he calls purely academic. Instead, a Black theology of liberation must characterize suffering “as unquestionably and unredeemably evil.” Pinn follows the thinking of existentialist writer Albert Camus

Albert Camus

Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...

, who rejects theodicean arguments for God limiting God’s own intervention, arguing that “if God is omnipotent and permits human suffering, then God is a murderer.” Theodicean arguments based on the postulating of a limited God, as presented by William R. Jones and Delores Williams, are not valid at all, as Pinn questions the efficacy and worth of worship and action in the service of a limited, ultimately ineffective deity.

Rather, Pinn proposes that Black theologians examine the third theodicean solution: the questioning or denial of God’s existence. In this approach, Pinn draws on William R. Jones’ important work Is God a White Racist? (1998), which questions God’s goodness. He ultimately takes this point farther than Jones, arguing that if God exists and is self-limiting in God’s support for Black liberation, as Jones concludes, God is indeed a racist.
Pinn describes his approach as fundamentally pragmatic: where faith in God entails a justification of human suffering, he “would rather lose God than human value.” James H. Cone writes that "Black theology must relate itself to the human situation unique to oppressed persons generally and blacks particularly. If black theology fails to do this adequately, then the black community will and should destroy it."

To this end, Pinn advocates a position of “strong humanism,” a non-theistic religion that concerns itself, above all, with human life, while rejecting the existence of God.

Sources of theology

Pinn draws on a variety of historical traditions in the formation of his religion of Black humanism. Examples from Black folk stories and jokes, spirituals, blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, rap

Rap

Rap may refer to:*Rapping, performance in which rhyming lyrics are used, with or without musical accompaniment ; while an MC performs spoken verses in time to a beat/ melody**Hip hop subculture**Hip hop music...

, and political discourse form the basis of Pinn’s work. In his analysis of these diverse sources, Pinn employs what he terms “nitty-gritty hermeneutics,” an approach to theological thought that is constructed from the hard realities of human experience, unconfined by a need to fit into preconceived Christian doctrines. In other words, nitty-gritty hermeneutics privilege solutions to the problem of oppression over the maintenance of religious tradition. He suggests that this approach is already widespread within hip-hop music, citing lyrics and quotes from Salt-n-Pepa

Salt-N-Pepa

Salt-N-Pepa is an American hip hop trio from Queens and Brooklyn, New York, that was formed in 1985. The group, consisting of Cheryl "Salt" Renee James, Sandra "Pepa" Denton, and Deidra "DJ Spinderella" Roper, was one of the first all-female rap crews....

, NWA

NWA

-Nwa:*Nwa, Kale, a village in Burma*Nwa, Cameroon, a commune in the Nord-Ouest region of Cameroon-Groups or organizations:* Northwest Airlines, a defunct U.S...

, Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre

Andre Romelle Young , primarily known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American record producer, rapper, record executive, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records...

, Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, KRS-One

KRS-One

Lawrence Krisna Parker , better known by his stage names KRS-One , and Teacha, is an American rapper...

, and Chuck D

Chuck D

Carlton Douglas Ridenhour , better known by his stage name, Chuck D, is an American rapper, author, and producer. He helped create politically and socially conscious rap music in the mid-1980s as the leader of the rap group Public Enemy.- Early life :Ridenhour was born in Queens, New York...

, all of which seek to describe the harsh realities of life. Essentially, Pinn attempts to transform the language of rap music, which expresses nitty-gritty theology on a popular level, into professional theology, acceptable to academia.

In his analysis of often overtly Christian sources, Pinn finds meaningful support for the historical legitimacy of Black humanism. The tradition of spirituals, communally composed by African slaves in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, provides an early study in Black theodicy, questioning the purpose of slaves’ suffering. He quotes Daniel Payne

Daniel Payne

Daniel Alexander Payne was an American bishop, educator, college administrator and author. He became a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and was a major shaper of it in the 19th century. He was one of the founders of Wilberforce University in Ohio...

, a leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church

African Methodist Episcopal Church

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It was founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the...

, who in 1839 wrote about the extent to which slaves, aware of the hypocrisy of their Christian masters, “distrust both the goodness and justice of God.” In a telling example, Pinn quotes a runaway slave, who said he was not a Christian because “white men treat us so bad in Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 that we can’t be Christians.” Pinn also finds critiques of God’s efficacy in Riggin Earl’s “Brer Rabbit” stories, slave folklore that portrays God as weak or comical, and blues and rap music that seek worldly solutions and reject theistic religion. Pinn also refers to humanism among African Americans within the American Communist and Civil Rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 struggles of the 20th century. Academic sources for Black humanism include Richard Wright

Richard Wright (author)

Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of sometimes controversial novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially those involving the plight of African-Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries...

 and Nella Larsen

Nella Larsen

Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen (born Nellie Walker (April 13, 1891 – March 30, 1964), was an American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance. She published two novels and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, what she wrote earned...

. Pinn cites Wright’s rejection, in the 1940 novel Native Son

Native Son

Native Son is a novel by American author Richard Wright. The novel tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, an African American living in utter poverty. Bigger lived in Chicago's South Side ghetto in the 1930s...

, of religion’s solutions to “life’s complexity and absurdity,” which “promote an embracing of suffering which reinforces life’s meaninglessness rather than ending it.” He affirms Larsen’s conclusion, asserted in her 1928 novel Quicksand, that God’s failure to deliver humans from suffering means that oppressed people must overcome “through human strength, but without guarantee of success.”

In “Anybody There? Reflections on African American Humanism,” Pinn acknowledges the importance of the work of theologians such as James H. Cone in the 1960s and 70s. He states that Cone’s early writings, which presented theological arguments for Black power and liberation, ultimately became part of the separation between the Christian-based Civil Rights movement

Civil rights movement

The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...

 and the more radical Black Power

Black Power

Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...

 movement.

In Varieties of African-American Religious Experience, Pinn considers a wide range of non-Christian theological sources, including “Voodoo, Orisha devotion, Santeria, the Nation of Islam, and Black Humanism,” and advocates a broader understanding of African-American “sources, norms, and doctrines” beyond the Protestant church.

Selected books written, co-written, and edited by Anthony Pinn

1. Varieties of African American Religious Experience (1998)
2. Why Lord? Suffering and Evil in Black Theology (1999)
3. Social Protest Thought in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1862-1939 (2000)
4. By These Hands: A Documentary History of African American Humanism (2001)
5. The Ties that Bind: African American and Hispanic American/Latino/a Theology in Dialogue (2001)
6. Fortress Introduction to Black Church History (2001)
7. The Black Church in the Post-Civil Rights Era (2002)
8. Terror and Triumph: The Nature of Black Religion (2003)
9. Noise and Spirit: The Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities of Rap Music (2003)
10. Loving the Body: Black Religious Studies and the Erotic (2004)
11. The African American Religious Experience in America (2005)
12. Pauli Murray: Selected Sermons and Writings (2006)
13. African American Religious Life and the Story of Nimrod (2007)