Black Joy / Howard Thurman's Civil Rights Theology, Stacey Floyd-Thomas on Vicious Humility and Black Joy, and David Walker's Christian Abolitionism

For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture

Sameer Yadav comments on Howard Thurman's Civil Rights Theology, Ryan McAnnally-Linz reflects on the spiritual and moral significance of David Walker's "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World," and Stacey Floyd-Thomas talks about racial oppression via vicious humility and the life-giving dignity of Black joy. #BlackHistoryMonth

Show Notes

• Three themes that impacted Thurman’s early religious life:
  • Divine common ground
  • Social injustice
  • Humanity of Jesus and black joy
• “ Human life is one, and all humans are members of one another, and this insight is spiritual and it is the hard core of religious experience. My roots are deep in the throbbing reality of Negro idiom. And from it, I draw a full measure of inspiration and vitality. "An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World" – pamphlet by David Walker
• Freedom as a natural right
• “What in our day do we claim as ours when in fact it belongs to God?” Ryan McAnnally-Linz
• “Where do I find myself clinging to racial privilege as though it were rightfully mine?”
• And where do I find myself looking for gratitude from black Americans for doing only what obedience to God requires?”
• Stacy Floyd Thomas on not finding what she needs at CVS - inequality of representation
• Humility as a sin
• Humility as something that Christian theology projects onto the Church as a ‘vice grip’
• Black joy represented by the song, "this joy that I have, this joy that I have, the world didn't give it. And the world can't take it away." – Stacy Floyd Thomas
• “I'm black, but beautiful, oh ye daughters of Jerusalem, do not resent me or gaze upon me because the sun has chosen to favor, favorably shine upon me." Song of Solomon 1:5-6 KJV
• “To know joy is to be certain in one's thinking, doing, and being.”
• Salvation without destruction
• “we can save souls without losing our minds or losing or lynching the lives of others in the process. Our work has to be not only salvific, but sane and life saving.”- – Stacy Floyd Thomas
• What joy really feels like
• “To know joy is to be certain in one's thinking, doing, and being.”
• “your joy does not exact oppression from another”

Production Notes

• This podcast featured Sameer Yadav with an appreciation of Howard Thurman, Ryan McAnnally-Linz with an appreciation of David Walker, and social ethicist Stacey Floyd-Thomas
• Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa
• Hosted by Evan Rosa
• Editorial and Production Assistance by Logan Ledman
• A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about
• Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

About Sameer Yadav

Sameer Yadav (Th.D. Duke Divinity School) is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. His research areas are in the philosophy and theology of religious experience, race and religion, and the theological interpretation of Scripture. He is the author of The Problem of Perception and the Experience of God: Toward a Theological Empiricism (Fortress Press, 2015), a number of articles published in various journals such as The Journal of Analytic Theology, Faith and Philosophy, and The Journal of Religion among others, as well as a number of chapters in edited volumes.

About Stacey Floyd Thomas

Stacey Floyd-Thomas is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair and Associate Professor of Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University, and is a nationally recognized scholar and leading voice in social ethics who provides leadership to several national and international organizations that educate, advocate, support and shape the strategic work of individuals, initiatives, and institutions in their organizing efforts of championing and cultivating equity, diversity, and inclusion via organizations such as Black Religious Scholars Group (BRSG), Society for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Religion (SRER), Strategic Effective Ethical Solutions (SEES), Society of Christian Ethics (SCE) and the American Academy of Religion (AAR). She holds a PhD in Ethics, a MBA in organizational behavior and two Masters in Comparative religion and Theological Studies with certification in women’s studies, cultural studies, and counseling. Not only has she published seven books and numerous articles, she is also as an expert in leadership development, an executive coach and ordained clergy equipped with business management. As a result, Floyd-Thomas has been a lead architect in helping corporations, colleges, universities, religious congregations, and community organizations with their audit, assessment, and action plans in accordance with evolving both the mission and strategic plans. Without question, she is one of the nation’s leading voices in ethical leadership in the United States and is globally recognized for her scholarly specializations in liberation theology and ethics, critical race theory, critical pedagogy, and postcolonial studies. Additionally, leaving podium and pulpit, she hosts her own podcast to popularize and make her profession and vocation intergenerationally and intracommunally accessible through The Womanist Salon Podcast.