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Encountering the sacred Black feminine

“God’s social location is nowhere close to girls or Black individuals. I had to start on the lookout for a picture of the Divine that can communicate to that.”

Cassidy Corridor interviews Christena Cleveland

Christena Cleveland is a social psychologist, public theologian, founder and director of the center for Justice + Renewal, and creator of God Is a Black Lady. Cassidy Hall spoke to Cleveland for her podcast Contemplating Now, where an extended model of this conversation may be discovered.

In God Is a Black Woman, you remind the reader that Christian mystics throughout the centuries have savored the feminine in Christ and affirmed the divine mom working throughout the person of Jesus Christ. Is it doable for us to get again to those roots in a world doused with White supremacy and patriarchy?

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It’s a problem. The world was simpler for medieval mystics. The trappings of capitalism-which I think is a superb companion to White supremacy and patriarchy-were not as accessible to everybody. When you were a low-degree monk or nun, entry to energy was not even a possibility. Folks regarded for energy in other ways, resembling reference to the Divine-power with reasonably than energy over.

Now, particularly in the United States, there are so many carrots that capitalism, White supremacy, patriarchy, and the whitemalegod are placing on the market to lure us into their folds, and the church is incredibly complicit in them. It’s worth noting that a lot of these early mystics ended up getting excommunicated or killed due to their radical approach to the Divine. For us at the moment, it’s in all probability extra along the lines of social exclusion and, frankly, not having the language to do it. So there’s a degree of subversion, of anarchy in opposition to the system, that’s vital.

Do you see those mystics-and even modern-day mystics-as activists as effectively?

As a result of a lot of the way in which that mysticism is understood in the United States is White, I hesitate to connect mysticism with activism with out an enormous asterisk. The overwhelming majority of people that call themselves mystics, I would say, are really simply making an attempt to assist White people connect with some sense of peace. They’re not working for any of the things that might create a while and house for other people to connect with mysticism. They’re not working in opposition to the programs of capitalism that keep individuals working 80 hours per week simply to put food on their table.

I went on a pilgrimage to Ávila to check Teresa of Ávila. I remember at the tip of the retreat telling the trainer, “OK, so Teresa went into this castle and got closer to the Divine, but she was still proslavery and antisemitic.” There must be one thing extra than simply these inner pathways to the Divine in an effort to call it activism. Actually, Teresa was reforming some issues throughout the church, however solely the things that were rele­vant to her and her body. It wasn’t intersectional.

You walked 400 miles across Europe, to the historic shrines of Black Madonnas, the place you discovered a particular connection with certainly one of them, Our Lady of the great Demise.

Raised in a Christian house and in academia, I used to be actually hooked up to linearity, consensus, tradition, and among the extra patriarchal ways of knowing. Those are usually not invalid ways of realizing, however I used to be trapped in that certainty. I got here to comprehend that a few of my questions on my expertise as a Black lady in the world could not be answered with those ways of knowing.

So I was really grateful to connect with this explicit Black Madonna, who helps us die to a few of the trappings of White patriarchy that hold us back. The Black Madonna and the divine feminine normally invite us previous certainty and into uncertainty. She’s known as Our Lady of the great Dying as a result of she stands on the dividing line between life and dying and guarantees us that if we die to a few of these identities and these attachments, she's going to assist us discover our true self. It was highly effective to essentially encounter somebody who seems to be like they might have been my ancestor. Lots of them have black pores and skin mixed with extra Eurocentric options. She’s distinctive, as a result of solely a small share of the 450 Black Madonnas on this planet look explicitly Black or have what we'd name African options.

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What was your impetus to go search the Black Madonnas?

When Trayvon Martin was killed, there was a transparent divide between the Black and White individuals in my life. The White individuals weren't listening to this nationwide dialog that Black folks had been having. I began to connect the dots with this White Jesus that I had been exposed to, both in Black church spaces and White ones. Not only is that historically inaccurate, but it says something about God’s social location, who God cares about, who God stands with and relates to.

But it wasn’t till 2016, within the run-as much as Trump’s election, that I began to take a look at Jesus’ solely male gender. I wasn’t shocked when Christianity, broadly talking, did not denounce Trump’s racist and xenophobic comments. I’ve been dealing with the church and Christian institutions my whole life. My response was, Oh yeah, I know they’re racist.

But people within the church take White femininity so significantly. God’s social location is nowhere close to ladies or Black individuals and different people of coloration. That sent me on my hunt, and I found the Black Madonna, who’s a Black, female, sacred, ancient image of God. When they didn’t, I realized that the problem isn't just White Jesus, it’s male Jesus. I had to start out on the lookout for a picture of the Divine that may converse to that. When Trump began talking about assaulting White women, I thought, Surely Christians are going to defend them.

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There are about 450 official Black Madonnas world wide. To be an official Black Madonna simply means that you've got some kind of connection to the earth in your lineage or your story, you've miracles related to you, and you’re in some sense Black. Spain, Germany, and Italy have quite a bit too. Loads of this has to do with the Moor influence in Southern Europe. So a few of the Black Madonnas are Black because the Moors brought them. France has extra Black Madonnas than every other nation. The part of France where I did my pilgrimage was occupied by the Moors for 800 years.

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A few of them, although, are Black as a result of they’re made from black supplies. Every once in a whilst you see one of those Black Madonnas being “restored”-returned to her authentic coloration, which means White. And then there are just a few of them which were blackened over time. Our Lady of the great Demise is actually made of black lava rock as a result of that whole area is a sequence of volcanic mountains. There’s a variety of controversy around this as a result of they’ve been identified for a thousand years as Black.

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Drawing us to the divine Black feminine does one thing different than drawing us to the Blackness of Christ. Were you influenced by others’ work on the Black Christ?

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I remember watching a James Cone speech the place he stated, “Everything I do is for the liberation of Black folks.” I stopped and thought, Nothing I do is for the liberation of Black people. I’m out right here doing “reconciliation work,” however it’s for the enlightenment of White folks. I don’t think I could be the place I am without liberation theology, together with Korean feminist liberation theology, Latinx liberation theology, and the Palestinian theologians. With out them, I don’t assume I would have even recognized that I get to have my own perspective on scripture.

That said, I do suppose there’s an extra layer that I’m adding by bringing in the femininity of God. However sadly, those conversations have been owned by the academy. Womanist theology is really simply Black girls living their lives. Mujerista theology is absolutely simply Latinx ladies dwelling their lives. What’s really highly effective about divine feminine theology is that it is inherently grounded in the woods and in conversations. A lot of liberation theology occurs exterior the academy.

Divine feminine theology is equalizing because anybody who has a body can have a theology. However it’s additionally scary because the patriarchy can’t control it. If I've a body, and you have a physique, and all people has a body, then all of us have access to truth, and patriarchy can’t simply say, “This is the truth.” That gives voice to much more folks.

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In your book, you write about the facility of contemplative walking, combined with mindfulness and tutorial research. Does the research ever get in the best way of the embodied approach?

It’s at all times been a battle for me to allow my physique wisdom to come to the forefront. Then, afterward, I examine origin stories and miracles that have been related to them. That was really useful. On my pilgrimage, I really didn’t do any analysis on the Black Madonnas earlier than I went to visit them. I allowed the way in which they regarded and what was going on round them to speak into my expertise of them.

The problem of telling my story forced me to be in my physique because I’m actually not a narrative prose individual. I dealt with that by going for walks within the morning. My contemplative walking muscle got stronger and stronger and grew to become a accomplice to my tutorial acumen. I felt underprepared and below-resourced for creative writing. I’d rise up at five, stroll until 10 or 11, and simply spend time in my body. Then, in the afternoon, I’d get to writing.

I feel robbed, actually, by my academic training as a result of I realized early on in my contemplative journey that that is the place my soul desires to be-in my body, not just in my head. I’m sad that it took me 30 years to seek out it. It seems like residence in a means that academia by no means has.

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Your ebook consists of images of many of these Black Madonnas, which allows us to go there with you. How would you suggest individuals who can’t see these Black Madonnas in individual get in touch with this kind of mystical unknown in everyday life?

Well, to quote Kelly Brown Douglas, “Christ is a Black lady anytime Black girls are working for the liberation of their communities.” I believe that can be true for any race. For Black women who wish to encounter the sacred Black femi­nine, I say, look round to the Black girls in your lives.

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However I believe what my book is absolutely about is finding ourselves within the Divine. If White folks really felt sacred, the world can be a different place. For me that meant encountering the sacred Black feminine, and I would like everybody to encounter the sacred Black feminine as a result of I think it can heal our spiritual imagination. However I additionally want everyone to find the sacred no matter they're. Because that can even heal our spiritual imagination. As a result of White Christ hasn’t accomplished that for White individuals.

Learn Denise Rector's evaluate of God Is a Black Girl.

Cassidy Hall

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Cassidy Hall is a writer and filmmaker whose movies embrace the documentaries In Pursuit of Silence and Day of a Stranger. She is ordained pending call in the United Church of Christ and is communications director for each the Heartland and Indiana-Kentucky Conferences within the UCC. She hosts Contemplating Now, a podcast on the Century's web site.

Christena Cleveland

Christena Cleveland is a social psychologist, public theologian, and founder and director of the center for Justice + Renewal. She is the writer of God Is a Black Lady.

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