Bell Hooks’ Spiritual Vision: Buddhism, Christianity, and Feminism. Written by Nadra Nittle. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2023. 143 pages.
Although I had heard the name bell hooks (she spelled her name in lower case), I had never read her work and did not know much about her life or work. At least, I didn’t know much about it until I received Nadra Nittle’s Advanced Readers book. bell hooks spiritual vision. I recently read an advanced reader’s spiritual biography of Tina Turner.Dancing in My Dreams: A Spiritual Biography of Tina Turner (Religious Biography Library))—This book focuses on Turner’s mixed spirituality, which includes a mix of Christianity, Buddhism, and other spiritualities, but this book focuses on Hook’s mixed spirituality, which mixes Christianity and Buddhism. intrigued me because both women are African American. Tina Turner was a rock star, but bell hooks was a feminist scholar and writer. There are similarities in their stories. Both women had experienced dysfunctional family lives as children, but found emotional support and sustenance from their maternal grandmother, who gave the two women support in life. It introduced me to alternative spirituality.
Nadra Nittles is the author of this foreword on bell hooks’ spiritual vision. She is a journalist based in Los Angeles. These days, she serves as a staff reporter. 19th news. She is also the author of Toni Morrison’s Spiritual Vision: Faith, Folklore, and Feminism in Her Life and LiteratureThis was the first book in a trilogy that explored the spiritual visions of three African Americans. This book is his second book in the series, and the third book in the series is scheduled to be published in his 2024 year. It focuses on the spiritual vision of James Baldwin.
This relatively short book introduces us to the spiritual vision of bell hooks, who passed away in December 2021. Nittle helps us better understand how Hooke’s spiritual journey intertwined with her life as an important feminist theorist and cultural critic and as a respected academic. . And she’s a writer. At a time when “way-ism” in schools and cultural institutions is a hot topic, and opposition from the political and religious right is in many ways a hot topic, Knittle’s book is an important, if indirect, topic of conversation. It functions as an important response.
Although Hook had a lot to overcome in her life, Nittle does not portray her as a victim. Nevertheless, the oppressive realities she faced as a black woman within and outside of the black community helped her craft her responses as a feminist. Her response was rooted in her message of love, which Fuchs believed was “a remedy to the world’s social problems through spiritual practices steeped in Buddhism and Christianity” (p. 2). This spirituality became the basis of her political, personal and professional life. Nittle points out that this spiritual basis is largely unrecognized. Therefore, she writes, “This book reframes Hooke’s work to better reflect her identity as a radical feminist and believer, motivated by love as a revolutionary force.” “There are” (p. 3).
For those who, like me, don’t know much about Hooke’s life and career, Nittle reveals that Hooke was born Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952. Watkins was one of her seven children and was from Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Nittle tells about Hooke’s life in her second chapter, titled “The Girl with Too Many Spirits,” but begins by introducing Hooke’s Buddhist and Christian ethics of love in the first chapter. This love ethic is revealed in her book. all about love. Although she emphasized this faith-based ethics of love in her works, her efforts as a cultural critic caused a backlash. This is particularly due to her writings that oppose depictions of the hypersexualized and enslaved black female body.That was her critique of Beyoncé. lemonade The album that received the most criticism. Although not everyone appreciated her perspective, she saw her work as one of liberation rooted in the integration of Christianity and Buddhism. Her engagement with Buddhism was greatly influenced by her work on Thich Nhat Khan.
After introducing the Buddhist and Christian spiritual visions that have their roots in her childhood, she moves on to the second chapter, her life story, titled “The Girl with Too Many Spirits.” This title describes how her family felt about her vivacity. As she grew up, she often violated her established social order. In her family’s view, violating that social order would mean the loss of her husband, children, and financial security. She was told that “men don’t like smart women, so there’s a problem with her intelligence.” She was also criticized for being too thin. Furthermore, her interest in classical literature was treated with suspicion. It turns out that all this is written in Hook’s autobiography. bone black. Her difficult childhood experiences led her to embrace her child liberation theology. Although her childhood was difficult, she also learned from her experiences in the black church. One person who particularly helped her was one of the women in the church, Miss Elma. She had a special interest in her. While her immediate family could be abusive, she learned from her maternal grandparents, including her grandfather Papa Gus, who contributed to her development as a nonviolent feminist and anti-capitalist. I felt a supportive influence.
The title of the third chapter is “Christianity for Exiles.” Here we meet many of her friends, including the church’s disabled deacon, Miss Irma, and Papa Gus, who introduced her to an empathetic and loving Christianity that was very different from Aunt Charlie’s narrow-minded Christianity. Meet the people who have influenced your life. Additionally, she learned a more mixed spirituality from her maternal grandmother, Saroo. Saroo not only gave her a hook into African spirituality, but also served as a role model for her throughout her adult life. She learned meditation practices that helped her develop her Buddhist practice. This discussion is followed in Chapter 4, where ‘feminist approaches to spirituality’ are explored. She discovered feminism during her college days in the 1970s. As she joined her feminist movement, she learned to love herself and experienced healing from her patriarchal attacks in the context of her family of origin and close relationships. One of her references was Julian of Norwich. His writings on the “revelation of divine love” provided her with a lens through which to visualize the divinity of women.
Chapter 5, entitled “Rejecting Capitalism and Fundamentalism: Rethinking Religion,” delves deeper into Hooke’s anti-capitalist ideology and rejection of the religious fundamentalism she encountered in her childhood. . She was concerned about the growth of alternative religious programs rooted in capitalism, where her promises of healing were tied to the exchange of money. More importantly, she criticized fundamentalist religions that oppress women, especially women of color. She achieved this by fusing her own experiences with Christianity and Buddhism, always emphasizing her ethics of love. Nittle writes that Hooke was “a product of the women’s liberation movement, which promoted feminist spirituality,” and that “Hooke wanted women to know there were options other than religious fundamentalism.” They did not have to worship in an organization that ignored or marginalized their innate gifts because of race, class, gender, or sexuality. Rather, Hooke wanted women to engage in spiritual practices that would make them feel loved and affirmed. ” (p. 85).
In Chapter 6, entitled “Love Is Everything,” Nittle focuses on Hooke’s book. All about love: a new vision. Nittle writes: “Using Buddhism, Protestantism, Catholicism, and new traditions and humanistic psychology, Hooke bases love in religion. Her radical politics also influences the character of her love. With this in mind, Fuchs says that the antidote to lovelessness includes emotional honesty and commitment, the emancipation of children, an end to gender essentialism, and a rejection of patriarchal and capitalist norms. ” (p. 87). In her book, she invites readers to translate her understanding of love from her feelings into action. I haven’t read the book, which has returned to bestseller lists during the coronavirus pandemic, but it seems to speak to a Biblical vision of love that goes beyond romance to devotion and trust. That message continues in Chapter 7, “A New Vision of Romance and Relationships.” Nittle reports that the message and belief system of Hook’s book, All About Love, received backlash from academics and book reviewers who deemed her views on love not sufficiently rational. . Nevertheless, she holds her own perspective firmly, which suggests that this is a book worth exploring.
I have not yet read Hooke’s book, but I believe I am much more knowledgeable about Hooke’s vision than I was before reading Nittle’s book. bell hooks spiritual vision. Although this book is relatively short and a quick read, it still introduces (or re-introduces) us to a figure with important words rooted in spirituality derived from both Buddhism and Christianity. . As is the case with Tina Turner’s biography, we discover how Buddhism and Christianity come together in the spiritual growth of one person. For Fuchs, this unified spirituality provided the basis for her vision of love, which spoke loudly to a world where love is often absent and where oppression and greed are omnipresent. I may not be as keen on integrating Christianity with another faith tradition as Hooke, but here we find that for Hooke, the integration of the two provided the foundation for her life and work. Learn. I hope this book will give you an opportunity to think about the work and message of bell hooks.
As a final note to this review, it is important to note that this book has not yet been released at the time this review was published.At the moment bell hooks spiritual vision is scheduled to be released on November 7thth. However, you can pre-order the book from your favorite bookstore, publisher, and of course, Amazon.
This review originally appeared on BobCornwall.com.
Robert D. Cornwall was ordained a minister in the Church of Christ (Disciples of Christ). He is currently retired from ministry at Central Woodward Church of Christ (Disciples of Christ) in Troy, Michigan, where he serves as Grand Minister. He holds his Ph.D. He holds a PhD in historical theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and is the author of his most recent book, Rethinking the Second Coming: Understanding End Times, Our Future, and Christian Hope, co-authored with Ronald J. Allen. He is the author of numerous books, including “Do.” His blog, “Reflections on the Journey of Faith,” can be found at www.bobcornwall.com.
