Excellent. Essential reading for theologians.

A slog to read through in parts, but this book is nothing short of revolutionary to my worldview. The commentary on the Hagar story combined with the historical survey of African-American female experience opened a lot of doors for me to pursue further.

Delores Williams is one of the mothers of Womanist Theology, and this is a fantastic book to learn about it. Her wilderness imagery is beautiful and she offers strong critiques of how Feminist Theology and Black Theology have left Black women out.

A fascinating look into how mainline Christianity, and even The Black Church as an institution has both saved and failed black women historically. Williams uses womanism, a precursor to what we now call intersectionality, as well as the history of black women as surrogates for white power, to make a new idea for how spirituality and Christianity can be repurposed for the needs of black women.

I am absolutely not the book's target audience, but, or maybe therefore, I learned a great deal, and wonder why Williams is not ranked with the other thinkers on civil rights. A great recommendation via the Free Black Women's Library challenge.

Love so much of this. Very intriguing. Dragged a bit at times, but overall fascinating.

I appreciate what Williams is trying to do here: articulate a theology that takes seriously the experience of black women using the story of Hagar as a starting point and combining theological reflection with literary criticism, historical analysis, and biblical studies. Overall, the theology she develops is challenging is and important, a critique of whiteness, black and South American liberation theologies, and feminist theology. Some of her critiques, however, I feel depart too far from what makes Christianity distinct. Her idea of redemption occurring not on the cross but rather through the overcoming of the temptation in the wilderness is concerning, and I'm unconvinced by her skepticism of "hero" narratives and the non-redemptive nature of suffering. I find her hermeneutic to be incredibly compelling, albeit flawed. Those critiques aside, Williams is doing something fascinating here, something that even after twenty years feels fresh and new and important.