Anthony B. Pinn - Sources of Theology

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, rap, 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, NWA, Dr. Dre, Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, KRS-One, and Chuck D, 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, provides an early study in Black theodicy, questioning the purpose of slaves’ suffering. He quotes Daniel Payne, a leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 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 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 struggles of the 20th century. Academic sources for Black humanism include Richard Wright and Nella Larsen. Pinn cites Wright’s rejection, in the 1940 novel Native Son, 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 and the more radical Black Power 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.