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This chapter describes the emergence of an African-American religious naturalism that has affinities with theoretical developments offering new materialist views of the human. It proposes a humanistic discourse that resists both problematic forms of anthropocentricism implicit in modern humanism and questionable racial differentials reinforced by Enlightenment ideals. The chapter introduces scientific theories advanced by the tenets of religious naturalism that help to envision humanity as a specific life form, or as nature made aware of itself. With the concept of sacred humanity, it explores humans as sacred centers of value and distinct movements of nature itself where deep relationality and interconnectedness become key metaphors for understanding what constitutes our processes of becoming human. This naturalistic view of humanity is set within the context of African-American culture and history to underscore the conceptual richness of the liberationist motif within black religiosity and to celebrate its enduring legacy.

Chapter two continues establishing the theoretical framework for the conception of sacred humanity. It introduce scientific theories advanced by the tenets of religious naturalism that help to envision humanity as a specific life form, or as nature made aware of itself. The chapter also explores humans as sacred centers of value and distinct movements of nature itself where deep relationality and interconnectedness become key metaphors for understanding what constitutes our processes of becoming human. This view of humanity is set within the context of African American culture and history to underscore the conceptual richness of the liberationist motif within black religiosity and to celebrate its enduring legacy. With the concept of sacred humanity, this chapter bring to light newer, deeper understandings of key basic convictions in African American religious expression.

The conclusion ties together some of the major motifs expressed throughout all of the chapters. A summary of key aspects of this model of African American religious naturalism highlights important implications and offers a sense of its potential value in African American life and within the nation at large. The African American religious naturalism introduced here symbolically represents what the human individual or group might creatively accomplish with an expanded concept of our humanity; it may also serve as a guide to behavior. With its emphasis on the necessity of conceiving humans as centers of values, this naturalistic model of African American religiosity inspires cultural critics, poets, and political leaders to conceive of new worlds, and to hope beyond what seems immediate and available by investing in our sacred humanity.

This introductory chapter presents the major problem addressed in the book, states the thesis, and provides the context for the book, as well as its structure. Evoking W. E. B. Du Bois’s early twentieth-century sentiment that African Americans seek a new religious ideal emerging from past convictions, this chapter contemplates several questions: What might constitute a new African American religious ideal in the twenty-first century? How might one see it emerging from past convictions? Is it possible to grasp a fuller sense of the rich, layered texture of African American religiosity with this new principle? In addressing these questions, this chapter introduces a naturalistic framework for grasping the evolving nature of African American religiosity today. It also introduces the concept of sacred humanity that will be developed in later chapters, supported by available knowledge from science studies, critical theories in philosophy of religion, and the tenets of religious naturalism.