Book Review: Radical #Spiritual #Motherhood

R3 Editor

The study of African American religion is enjoying a renewed resurgence as of late. Many in the area of religious studies have embarked upon the African American religious phenomenon producing works in theology, ethics, preaching, and the Black Church. However, what have also contributed to the offerings within this ever-expanding field are scholars of other disciplines writing on the subject of African American religion and spirituality. Scholars in various different fields of study—anthropology cultural studies, communications, sociology, history and the like, draw from the well of African American religion and produce some outstanding research. What makes this move to the mount of religion so exciting is that many times scholars unearth lost or forgotten documents that help us understand the times, the places but most of all, the people who produced them. By examining these texts, we get a newfound appreciation of the people, places and surroundings—and at the same time get to build on the previously lost material.

One of these scholars is English and Women Studies professor Rosetta R. Haynes. In her book, Radical Spiritual Motherhood:Autobiography and Empowerment in Nineteenth-Century African American Women, Haynes examines five itinerant African American women preachers in the nineteenth century. Surveying primarily the autobiographies of Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, Julia Foote, Amanda Smith and Rebecca Jackson, Haynes helps the reader understand the ways in which each woman “responded to and textually represented the call to self-improvisation” (1).

Drawing also upon feminist literary theory and liberation theology, Haynes develops a conceptual framework she calls “radical spiritual motherhood” that she argues offers new ways to read and understand their writings. For Haynes, radical spiritual motherhood demonstrates how each woman draws upon contemporary constructions of womanhood and motherhood to construct new identities as public speakers while deconstructing non-liberating construction that would hamper and hinder their perceive calls and divine assignments. This rhetoric of strategic essentialism—where the speaker grounds herself in the arguments and perceptions of her audience to make new ones, gave them not only the reason, but also the right to pursue the tasks of preaching.

Haynes constructs the term, radical spiritual motherhood, from each woman’s experience with sanctification—that she describes as a second blessing following conversion. It was this “second blessing,” that helped these spiritual mothers engage in what many today would call liberation theology. Moreover, drawing from the work of Jacquelyn Grant, Haynes also argues that the spiritual mothers engaged in a Womanist theology—the multifaceted theological enterprise that privileges Black women experiences as authentic sites for theological inquiry. In practicing this type of holistic theology, these women could (re) construct not only their identities, but also prevailing ideologies and theologies that would render them to traditional societal norms.

In chapter one, Haynes, contextualizes the spiritual mothers by offering brief biographical sketches of their “lives and experiences” (10). She focuses on the socioeconomic and political conditions that the women faced—as well as the ecclesiastical practices of churches during this period. Haynes argues that despite hindrances that would frustrate even the most spiritual of believers, these radical spiritual mothers not only persevered, but also contributed mightily to the larger social movements in the nineteenth century.

In the second chapter, Haynes fleshes out her concept of radical spiritual motherhood—calling it an “empowering subjectivity” that helps to “reconceptualize power from a protofeminist perspective in the midst of a rigidly patriarchal culture” (48). Moreover, radical spiritual motherhood expands the conception of maternity beyond the biological family to all humans in need of maternal care—both spiritual and material.

By examining the lives of Amanda Berry Smith, Jarena Lee and Julia Foote in chapter three, Haynes explores the “empowering and transformative nature of sanctification (89). Arguing that it is through the sanctification process that these women “reinvent themselves as women of God,” Haynes demonstrates in the chapter how sanctification also helps these women navigate the treacherous waters of racism, sexism, and economic insecurity.

Focusing on the narratives of Zilpha Elaw and Rebecca Jackson, Haynes in chapter four describe the process in which these radical spiritual mothers found “supportive and fulfilling communities of faith” (117). These communities were typically small, supportive groups of women, camp meetings, or mixed gendered prayer meetings that recognized the radical spiritual mother’s authority to lead and facilitate the meetings.

The last two chapters of the book shift the focus slightly from the radical spiritual mothers and place it on other women who, first, indirectly influence the lives of the mothers; and second—on one that encapsulates the tradition of the radical spiritual mothers. In chapter five, by examining the narratives of Harriet Jacobs, Mary Prince, and Sojourner Truth, Haynes is able to illustrate how the “physical and sexual abuse suffered by enslaved black women played a significant role in motivating the radical spiritual mothers to seek control of their bodies and sexuality” (145). In chapter six, Haynes examines the live of Pauli Murray as an example of a modern day radical spiritual mother.

Overall, the book is a good read. Haynes brings the radical spiritual mothers to life throughout, giving voice to them through the many textual examples she shares with the reader. While the book compliments other important studies of African American women’s spiritual biographies such as Moody’s Sentimental Confessions, Douglass-Chin’s Preacher Women Sings the Blues and Haywood’s Prophesying Daughters, the book also creates its own space, as an example of how a contextualized textual reading of these narratives opens other possibilities for future scholars to build upon this work.

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