Anthony B. Pinn


Anthony B. Pinn is an American professor working at the intersections of African-American religion, constructive theology, and humanist thought. Pinn is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University. He is founder and executive director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning in Houston, Texas, and the Director of Research for the Institute for Humanist Studies in Washington, D.C.
He graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in 1986, and earned his Ph.D. in the Study of Religion at Harvard University in 1994. His dissertation was entitled "I Wonder as I Wander: An Examination of the Problem of Evil in African-American Religious Thought."

Black humanism in relation to other religious traditions

Pinn refers to his approach to humanism as a "religion." In so doing, Pinn cites humanist Gordon Kaufman's definition of religion as "that which helps humans find orientation 'for life in the world, together with motivation for living and acting in accordance with this orientation.'" In other words, for Pinn, religion need not be theistic.
In Why Lord?, Pinn's humanism "involves an increase in humanity's importance which makes impossible the location of a space for God." He continues, "Religious answers to life's meaninglessness promote an embracing of suffering which reinforces life's meaninglessness rather than ending it."
In a 1997 essay, Pinn describes humanism as another contribution to the plurality of religious traditions. In Varieties of African American Religious Experience, he acknowledges that "the needs of various human communities are complex and varied enough to allow for a plurality of religious traditions." In a 2002 interview, Pinn states that the Black Church, although in crisis, "has tremendous potential" for addressing the social justice issues that affect African Americans. Although Pinn's work reaches into non-Christian sources of theology, much of his academic focus remains centered on the history and theology of the African-American Christian Church.
Pinn differentiates Black humanism from other non-theistic worldviews such as atheism. Citing the work of Jean-Paul Sartre and Richard Wright, Pinn notes that Black humanism has no interest in disproving the existence of God. Rather, it is "not overly concerned with God as a negative myth, but rather God as a liberating myth that is nonetheless unsubstantiated." Thus, oppressed African Americans need not waste their time disproving God's existence, but are simply better off seeking their liberation with the human tools of "desire for transformation, human creativity, physical strength, and untapped collective potential."

Pinn's approach to theodicy, redemptive suffering, and Black humanism

In Why Lord? Suffering and Evil in Black Theology, Anthony Pinn establishes himself as a black theologian and Black humanist. In Why Lord?, Pinn seeks to critique various responses found within Black religion to the question of theodicy, or God's role in the suffering of humanity. His critique is based on the ultimate goal of Black liberation. Pinn cites John Hick's options for "the resolution of the problem of evil," which are the following: " a rethinking of the nature/purpose of evil; or, the postulating of a 'limited' God; or, a questioning/denial of God's existence."
The solutions that Black theology has formally articulated, Pinn argues, have essentially been limited to the first two options. All theodicean arguments following the first approach are not useful in the struggle for the liberation of oppressed people because, to varying degrees, they all rely on the concept of redemptive suffering.
Pinn considers these arguments "unacceptable because they counteract efforts at liberation by finding something of value in Black suffering." He places the work of James H. Cone, an early promulgator of Black theology, in the first category. Although Cone refuses to accept Black suffering as God's will, he nonetheless embraces suffering which Blacks incur as a result of resistance to oppression. Pinn rejects this distinction between positive and negative suffering, which he calls purely academic. Instead, a Black theology of liberation must characterize suffering "as unquestionably and unredeemably evil."
Pinn follows the thinking of existentialist writer Albert Camus, who rejects theodicean arguments for God limiting God's own intervention, arguing that "if God is omnipotent and permits human suffering, then God is a murderer." Theodicean arguments based on the postulating of a limited God, as presented by William R. Jones and Delores Williams, are not valid at all, as Pinn questions the efficacy and worth of worship and action in the service of a limited, ultimately ineffective deity.
Rather, Pinn proposes that Black theologians examine the third theodicean solution: the questioning or denial of God's existence. In this approach, Pinn draws on William R. Jones' important work Is God a White Racist?, which questions God's goodness. He ultimately takes this point farther than Jones, arguing that if God exists and is self-limiting in God's support for Black liberation, as Jones concludes, God is indeed a racist.
Pinn describes his approach as fundamentally pragmatic: where faith in God entails a justification of human suffering, he "would rather lose God than human value." James H. Cone writes that "Black theology must relate itself to the human situation unique to oppressed persons generally and blacks particularly. If black theology fails to do this adequately, then the black community will and should destroy it."
To this end, Pinn advocates a position of "strong humanism," a non-theistic religion that concerns itself, above all, with human life, while rejecting the existence of God.
In 2017, Pinn published a book, When Colorblindness Isn't the Answer: Humanism and the Challenge of Race, on why humanists should embrace racial justice.

Awards and Honors

1999 - Council on Secular Humanism's African American Humanist Award
2006 - Harvard's Chaplaincy Humanist of the year award

Publications

Book Series:
  1. Caroline Levander and Anthony B. Pinn, Imagining the Americas, Oxford University Press.
  2. Anthony B. Pinn and Katie G. Cannon, Innovations in African American Religious Thought, Fortress Press.
  3. Stacey Floyd-Thomas and Anthony B. Pinn, Religion and Social Transformation, New York University Press.
  4. Anthony B. Pinn, Studies in Humanist Thought and Practice, Acumen Press.
  5. Anthony B. Pinn, When Colorblindness Isn't the Answer: Humanism and the Challenge of Race, Pitchstone Publishing, 2017
Encyclopedias:
  1. Anthony B. Pinn, General Editor. The Encyclopedia of African American Religious Culture, 2 Volumes,.
Monographs:
  1. Why Lord? Suffering and Evil in Black Theology, Continuum Press
  2. Varieties of African American Religious Experience, Fortress Press
  3. Co-authored with Anne H. Pinn, The Fortress Introduction to Black Church History, Fortress Press.
  4. The Black Church in the Post-Civil Rights Era, Orbis Books.
  5. Terror and Triumph: The Nature of Black Religion, Fortress Press.
  6. African American Humanist Principles: Living and Thinking Like the Children of Nimrod, Palgrave Macmillan.
  7. The African American Religious Experience in America, Greenwood Press,. Paperback by University Press of Florida.
  8. Becoming 'America's Problem Child': An Outline of Pauli Murray's Religious Life and Theology, Princeton Theological Monograph Series .
  9. Understanding and Transforming the Black Church, Cascade Books.
  10. Embodiment and the New Shape of Black Theological Thought, New York University Press,.
  11. What is African American Religion?, Fortress Press.
  12. The End of God-Talk: An African American Humanist Theology, Oxford University Press.
  13. Introducing African American Religion, Routledge.
  14. Writing Gods Obituary: How a Good Methodist Became a Better Atheist Prometheus Books.
Edited Volumes:
  1. Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Making the Gospel Plain: The Writings of Bishop Reverdy C. Ransom, Trinity Press International,.
  2. Stephen Angell and Anthony B. Pinn, editors. Protest Thought in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1862-1939, Vol. 1, University of Tennessee Press,.
  3. Anthony B. Pinn and Benjamin Valentin, editors. The Ties That Bind: African-American and Hispanic-American/Latino Theologies in Dialogue, The Continuum Publishing Group,.
  4. Anthony B. Pinn, editor. By These Hands: A Documentary History of African American Humanism, New York University Press,.
  5. Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Moral Evil and Redemptive Suffering: A History of Theodicy in African American Religious Thought. The University Press of Florida,.
  6. Rebecca Moore, Anthony B. Pinn, and Mary R. Sawyer, editors. Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America, Indiana University Press.
  7. Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Noise and Spirit: Rap Music's Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities, New York University Press.
  8. Anthony B. Pinn and Dwight N. Hopkins, editors. Loving the Body: Black Religious Studies and the Erotic, Palgrave Macmillan.
  9. Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Pauli Murray: Selected Sermons and Writings, Orbis Books.
  10. Anthony B. Pinn and Allen D. Callahan, editors. African American Religious Life and the Story of Nimrod, Palgrave Macmillan.
  11. Anthony B. Pinn, editor. Black Religion and Aesthetics: Religious Thought and Life in Africa and the African Diaspora, Palgrave Macmillan.
  12. Anthony B. Pinn and Benjamin Valentin, editors, Creating Ourselves: African Americans and Latino/as, Popular Culture, and Religious Expression, Duke University Press.
  13. Anthony B. Pinn and Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, editors. Liberation Theologies in the United States: An Introduction, New York University Press.
  14. Anthony B. Pinn, Caroline Levander, Michael Emerson, editors, Teaching and Studying the Americas, Palgrave Macmillan.
  15. Anthony B. Pinn, editor, What Is Humanism, and Why Does It Matter?, Acumen,.
Journal Special Issues:
  1. Anthony B. Pinn, guest editor. "African American Religion Symposium." Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Volume 7, Number 1.
  2. Anthony B. Pinn and Monica Miller, co-guest editors, special issue on Religion and Hip Hop Culture, Culture and Religion, Volume 10, Issue 1.
  3. Anthony B. Pinn, guest editor. "The Colors of Humanism," a special issue of Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, Volume 20, Number 1.