A Misrepresented People

Manhood in Black Religious Thought

Darrius D'wayne Hills

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9781479823291
• eBook ISBN:
  9781479823321
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations
• Index: Social Sciences

Offers a Black male response to the challenge of womanist thought

Although much Black religious scholarship has engaged with feminist theory and womanist thought, a gap remains where little work has been done in religious studies to investigate the Black male experience. A Misrepresented People explores how African American men grapple with identity and masculinity in relation to Black religious thought. This book counters the dominant portrayal of Black men in American society as suspicious, morally defective, and irredeemable, and showcases the strength and relevance of Black religious thought in developing alternative notions of Black manhood.

Drawing on womanist discourses, African American religious thought, literature, and Black male studies, as well as an examination of the writings and sermons of Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King Jr., Darrius D'wayne Hills offers a vision of Black male identity that is grounded in interpersonal relationships and connection. Positioning identity formation as a religious concern, Hills expands the application of religious scholarship toward the complex social and material realities faced by Black men. In doing so, this volume offers a much-needed new model for understanding Black male gender identity, illustrating how religious thought fosters more holistic and livable futures for African American men.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Charting Relationality in Black Religious Thought
• 2 Black Manhood in the Writings of Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Toni Morrison
• 3 James Baldwin, the Black Church, and Queering the Masculinist Oeuvre
• 4 The Relational Turn in Black Male Theologies
• 5 On Black Male (Re)Covery
• Epilogue: Black Masculinity Otherwise
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author