Abstract
This paper explores the Mother-Whore of Babylon as described in Revelation 17–18. Through a womanist maternal lens, the project proceeds along the following axes: First, the author will provide an overview of womanist thinking as a means for addressing the tripartite intersectionality of race, class/“work” and gender in literature. A move to womanist maternal thought outlines a framework situating the unique social location of mothers, particularly African American mothers, as readers. The paper examines the Whore of Babylon as a mother who works in order to provide for her “children,” i.e. Roman imperial seed. In the end, this Mother-Whore is a victim of matricide. This research concludes with paralleling the plight of this mother to that of current-day African American mothers who experience a type of social, political, and economic matricide.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
“Golddigger” by Kanye West and Jamie Foxx, Late Registration, Roc-A-Fella Records, 2005.
- 2.
Fernando F. Segovia, “Toward a Hermeneutics of the Diaspora: A Hermeneutics of Otherness and Engagement,” in Reading from This Place: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in the United States, ed. Fernando F. Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1995), 59.
- 3.
Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, “Biblical/Black Mother Working/Wrecking,” in Mother Jones, Mother Goose, Mommie Dearest: Biblical Mothers and Their Children (Semeia Studies 61), eds. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan and Tina Pippin (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009): 157–167. See also Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, When Momma Speaks: The Bible and Motherhood from a Womanist Perspective (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016).
- 4.
Alice Walker, “Audre’s Voice,” in Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer’s Activism (New York: Random House, 1997), 15.
- 5.
Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1983), xi–xii.
- 6.
Rachel St. Clair, “Womanist Biblical Interpretation,” in True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary, ed. Brian K. Blount et al. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007), 56.
- 7.
Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, “Womanist Maternal Thought,” in When Momma Speaks: The Bible and Motherhood from a Womanist Perspective (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016), 17–27. Also see Bonnie Miller-McLemore’s Also A Mother: Work and Family as Theological Dilemma (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994) in which she constructs a feminist maternal theology that seeks to make the flourishing of mothers and children within a feminist framework a possibility. Since feminism primarily focuses on gender construction and not issues of race and class, I found womanist thinking a better location for this work at the present time.
- 8.
Crowder, “Biblical/Black Mother Working/Wrecking.” Teresa L. Fry Brown, God Don’t Like Ugly: African American Women Handing on Spiritual Values (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000). Brown talks at length of the importance of African American grandmothers, mothers, and other mothers in handing on spiritual values or moral wisdom across generations of African American families, churches, and communities through their use of biblical mandates, precepts, and examples. Barbara J. Essex, “Some Kind of Woman: The Making of a Strong Black Woman,” in Embracing the Spirit: Womanist Perspectives on Hope, Salvation, and Transformation, ed. Emilie Maureen Townes (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997), 203–211. Essex discusses the role of her grandmother and mother in her childhood and adult life. Renita J. Weems, “My Mother, My Self,” in Showing Mary: How Women Can Share Prayers, Wisdom, and the Blessings of God (West Bloomfield, MI: Walk Worthy Press, 2002), 117–125. Weems highlights her relationship with her mother and its impact on her own relationship with her daughter.
- 9.
Clarice Martin, “Polishing the Unclouded Mirror: A Womanist Reading of Revelation 18:13,” in From Every People and Nation: The Book of Revelation in Intercultural Perspective, ed. David M. Rhoads (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2005), 82–109.
- 10.
Allen Dwight Callahan, “The Language of Apocalypse,” The Harvard Theological Review 88, no. 4 (1995): 456.
- 11.
Brian K. Blount, Revelation: A Commentary (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 316.
- 12.
Shanell Smith, The Woman Babylon and the Marks of Empire: Reading Revelation with a Postcolonial Womanist Hermeneutics of Ambiveilence (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014), 15.
- 13.
Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, Simon of Cyrene: A Case of Roman Conscription (New York: Peter Lang, 2002), 77.
- 14.
“The Roman Empire in the First Century: Family Life” (PBS), accessed October 24, 2014, http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/family.html.
- 15.
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), 17.
- 16.
Lonnae O’Neal Parker, I’m Every Woman: Remixed Stories of Marriage, Motherhood and Work (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 33.
- 17.
Diamond Sharp, “Black Mothers Under Siege,” The Root, August 5, 2014, http://www.theroot.com/black-mothers-under-siege-1790868446. This article discusses the arrests and challenges black mothers experienced as they were trying to work. The mothers are not prostitutes, but they faced legal dilemmas and public vitriol because of the choices they made while trying to be faithful to their jobs and balance childcare and family security.
- 18.
Terrell Jermaine Starr, “Tamir Rice’s Mother Wants a ‘Better America,’ but She Can’t Find It in Politics,” Splinter, July 17, 2016, http://fusion.net/story/326272/tamir-ricemother-cleveland-republican-convention/; Lucia McBath and Ron Davis, “Our Young Black Son, Jordan Davis, Was Murdered: How We’re Turning Tragedy into Action,” The Daily Beast, November 23, 2015, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/23/our-young-black-son-jordan-davis-was-murdered-how-we-re-turning-tragedy-into-action.html; AP (The Associated Press), “Michael Brown’s Mom’s Book Recalls His Death, Life,” CBS News, May 10, 2016, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-browns-moms-book-recalls-death-life/; Ricardo Hazell, “Geneva Reed-Veal, Mother of Sandra Bland, Is Fighting On,” Black Enterprise: Wealth for Life, November 23, 2016, http://www.blackenterprise.com/news/geneva-reed-veal-mother-sandra-bland/.
- 19.
Maria W. Stewart, “An Address Delivered at the African Masonic Hall,” in Maria W. Stewart, America’s First Black Woman Political Writer: Essays and Speeches (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987), 64.
References
AP (The Associated Press). “Michael Brown’s Mom’s Book Recalls His Death, Life.” CBS News, May 10, 2016. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-browns-moms-book-recalls-death-life/.
Blount, Brian K. Revelation: A Commentary. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.
Brown, Teresa L. Fry. God Don’t Like Ugly: African American Women Handing on Spiritual Values. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000.
Callahan, Allen Dwight. “The Language of Apocalypse.” The Harvard Theological Review 88, no. 4 (1995): 453–470.
Crowder, Stephanie Buckhanon. “Biblical/Black Mother Working/Wrecking.” In Mother Jones, Mother Goose, Mommie Dearest: Biblical Mothers and Their Children (Semeia Studies 61), edited by Cheryl Kirk-Duggan and Tina Pippin, 157–167. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009.
———. When Momma Speaks: The Bible and Motherhood from a Womanist Perspective. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016.
———. Simon of Cyrene: A Case of Roman Conscription. New York: Peter Lang, 2002.
Essex, Barbara J. “Some Kind of Woman: The Making of a Strong Black Woman.” In Embracing the Spirit: Womanist Perspectives on Hope, Salvation, and Transformation, edited by Emilie Maureen Townes, 203–211. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997.
Hazell, Ricardo. “Geneva Reed-Veal, Mother of Sandra Bland, Is Fighting On.” Black Enterprise: Wealth for Life, November 23, 2016. http://www.blackenterprise.com/news/geneva-reed-veal-mother-sandra-bland/.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
Martin, Clarice. “Polishing the Unclouded Mirror: A Womanist Reading of Revelation 18:13.” In From Every People and Nation: The Book of Revelation in Intercultural Perspective, edited by David M. Rhoads, 82–109. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2005.
McBath, Lucia and Ron Davis. “Our Young Black Son, Jordan Davis, Was Murdered: How We’re Turning Tragedy into Action.” The Daily Beast, November 23, 2015. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/23/our-young-black-son-jordan-davis-was-murdered-how-we-re-turning-tragedy-into-action.html.
Miller-McLemore, Bonnie J. Also a Mother: Work and Family as Theological Dilemma. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994.
Parker, Lonnae O’Neal. I’m Every Woman: Remixed Stories of Marriage, Motherhood, and Work. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
Segovia, Fernando F. “Toward a Hermeneutics of the Diaspora: A Hermeneutics of Otherness and Engagement.” In Reading from This Place: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in the United States, edited by Fernando F. Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert, 57–74. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1995.
Sharp, Diamond. “Black Mothers Under Siege.” The Root, August 5, 2014. http://www.theroot.com/black-mothers-under-siege-1790868446.
Smith, Shanell T. The Woman Babylon and the Marks of Empire: Reading Revelation with a Postcolonial Womanist Hermeneutics of Ambiveilence. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014.
Starr, Terrell Jermaine. “Tamir Rice’s Mother Wants a ‘Better America,’ but She Can’t Find It in Politics.” Splinter, July 17, 2016. http://fusion.net/story/326272/tamir-ricemother-cleveland-republican-convention/.
St. Clair, Rachel. “Womanist Biblical Interpretation.” In True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary, edited by Brian K. Blount, Cain Hope Felder, Clarice Jannette Martin, and Emerson B. Powery, 54–62. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007.
Stewart, Maria W. “An Address Delivered at the African Masonic Hall.” In Maria W. Stewart, America’s First Black Woman Political Writer: Essays and Speeches. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987.
“The Roman Empire in the First Century.” PBS. Accessed October 24, 2014. http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/family.html.
Walker, Alice. “Audre’s Voice.” In Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer’s Activism, 79–82. New York: Random House, 1997.
———. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1983.
Weems, Renita J. “My Mother, My Self.” In Showing Mary: How Women Can Share Prayers, Wisdom, and the Blessings of God, 117–125. West Bloomfield, MI: Walk Worthy Press, 2002.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Crowder, S.B. (2017). A Mother-Whore Is Still a Mother: Revelation 17–18 and African American Motherhood. 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_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59653-2_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-59652-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-59653-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)