Abstract
In this essay, Baker-Fletcher articulates a definition of mothering as living and acting in God who is Love. She begins by honoring her ancestral mothers and wise sisters who embody the intellect and spirit of generations of black mothers and mothers in general. She then examines black women’s writing as a source for discussing mothering as an embodied spiritual practice, with a focus on the work of Anna Julia Cooper, Delores Williams, J. California Cooper, and Toni Morrison. These writers illumine the different types of moral decisions black mothers have made in a world of violence and forced servitude, as well as the tragic aspects of motherhood. In so doing, they evoke self- and socio-economic examination from readers about who and how we love.
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Notes
- 1.
I John 4:17, The Holy Bible, New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990 [1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society], 1880).
- 2.
Cf., Augustine, “On the Trinity.”
- 3.
Anna Julia Cooper, A Voice from the South (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988), 17.
- 4.
Ibid., 5.
- 5.
Ibid., 16–17.
- 6.
Ibid., 10.
- 7.
Undated autobiographical document by Anna Julia Cooper, Anna Julia Cooper Papers, courtesy of Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, reproduced in Louise Daniel Hutchinson, Anna J. Cooper: A Voice From the South (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1981), 4.
- 8.
Ibid., 18.
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
See Delores Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995), 15–59, 108–139.
- 11.
Ibid., 108.
- 12.
Gen. 16: 1–15, Gen. 21: 8–21.
- 13.
J. California Cooper, Family: A Novel (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 3–4.
- 14.
See Donald K. McKim, Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), 152, which defines “kairos” as “the Greek term for ‘time’ denoting a special, significantly critical point in human history when God’s will and purposes are carried out, particularly in the coming of Jesus Christ” as seen in New Testament texts like Mark 1:15 and 1Peter 1:10ff. Paul Tillich used the concept of kairos throughout his body of writings to speak of the in-breaking of God’s divine time into chronological time to produce new meaning in religious symbols, including language, whether in art and architecture or in the courage to be. See for example, Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (New York, NY: Harper and Row 1957), 41–54; idem, The Courage to Be (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1952), 53–67; idem, Systematic Theology, Vol. I (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1959), 238–247, 61–62, 122–123, 286–289. See also Paul Tillich, On Art and Architecture, ed. Jane Dillenberger and John Dillenberger (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1987), in which the book as a whole offers clarity on Tillich’s understanding of God’s kairos breaking into chronological time, that is history, to inspire periods of renaissance, creativity, and new ways of being.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Toni Morrison, Sula (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967), 67–69.
- 17.
Ibid., 68.
- 18.
Ibid., 69.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
Steven Weisenburger, Modern Medea: A Family Story of Slavery and Child-Murder from the Old South (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998), 15–108.
- 21.
Ibid., 62–176.
- 22.
Walter Clemons, “A Gravestone of Memories,” Newsweek, September 28, 1987, 74–75.
References
Clemons, Walter. “A Gravestone of Memories.” Newsweek, September 28, 1987.
Cooper, Anna Julia. A Voice From the South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Cooper, J. California. Family: A Novel. New York: Doubleday, 1991.
Hutchinson, Louise Daniel. Anna J. Cooper: A Voice From the South. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1981.
McKim, Donald K. Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.
Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973.
Tillich, Paul. Dynamics of Faith. New York: Harper & Row, 1957.
———. On Art and Architecture. Edited by Jane Dillenberger and John Dillenberger. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1987.
———. Systematic Theology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1959.
———. The Courage to Be. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1952.
Weisenburger, Steven. Modern Medea: A Family Story of Slavery and Child-Murder from the Old South. New York: Hill and Wang, 1998.
Williams, Delores S. Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk. New York: Orbis Books, 1995.
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Baker-Fletcher, K. (2017). Inspired Mothering. In: Bischoff, C., O’Donnell Gandolfo, E., Hardison-Moody, A. (eds) Parenting as Spiritual Practice and Source for Theology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59653-2_3
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