Please consider the following books as resources on your spiritual journey.
Where possible, a link is given to the book’s website, publisher or amazon.com purchase page. If you have a book or publication you’d like to suggest, please let us know via our Contact Us page.

How does it feel to be Christian and Gay or homophobic? Raw emotions and raw faith collide in this collection of writings from LGBT believers and friends from around the world. Foreword by two-time Grammy-nominee and multiple Dove Award winner Jennifer Knapp!

For more information, please visit: NuWine Press. The book is available onamazon.com

In Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity, more than 40 writers address the question of how we, as same-gender-loving black people, affirm ourselves as sexual and spiritual people. These sacred narratives are a canon for our survival—holy texts proclaiming the divinity of our lives, the righteousness of our love, and the sanctity of our being. Spirited is a must-read for those on a journey toward spiritual and self-acceptance.

For more information, please visit:RedBone Press

“Collective Brightness sheds a shining light on a journey that no longer takes place in the dark.  The glory of holding Kevin Simmonds’s anthology in one’s hands is that it burns
as the sacred text of our queer times: heavy with burden, luminous with hope.”
–Rigoberto González, National Book Critics Circle

For more information please visit:  collectiveBrightness.com

This book features interviews with twenty black scholars and religious leaders who speak out–from various theological perspectives–against institutional prejudice toward gay and lesbian people. The interviews are conducted in a conversational format in language that will be accessible and interesting to lay readers.

This book is available on amazon.com

Additional Books

Mondimore, Francis Marc. A Natural History of Homosexuality. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press, 1996

Bond, Laura. A House Divided.

Boykin, Keith Beyond the Down Low; Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2005

Brown, Peter. Bodies and Minds: Sexuality and Renunciation in Early Christianity in David M. Halperin (ed) Before Sexuality: The Construction of Erotic Experience in the Ancient Greek World. Princeton: University Press, 1990

Carr, David M. The Erotic Word: Sexuality, Spirituality and The Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender and the New Racism. New York: Routledge Press, 2004

Cone, James H. A Black Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll, NY: 14th Printing, Orbis Press, 2003

________ White Theology Revisited: Risks of Faith: Emergence of A Black Theology of Liberation 1968-1998Boston: Beacon Press, 1999

Cooper-Lewter, Nicholas C. Black Grief and Soul Therapy. Richmond, VA: Harriet Tubman Press, 1999

Davis, Herndon. Black Gay, and Christian; An Inspirational Guidebook to Daily Living Atlanta: Davis, Lett & Associates, 2004

Douglas, Kelly Brown Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999

Douglas, Kelly Brown What’s Faith Got To Do With It?: Black Bodies /Christian Souls
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2005

Dyson, Michael Eric Homotextualities: The Bible, Sexual Ethics and The Theology of Homoeroticism Open Mike; Reflections on Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture and Religion New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2003

When You Divide Body and Soul, Problems Multiply: The Black Church and Sexuality, The Michael Eric Dyson Reader  New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2004

Falk, Kurt, Same-Sex Life Among A few Negro Tribes of Angola; Boys Wives and Female Husbands Stephen O Murray and Will Roscoe eds. (New York: Palgrave Press,  1998)

Flandrin, Jean-Louis, Sex in Married Life in the Early Middle Ages: the Church’s teaching and behavioural Reality: Western Sexuality: Practice and Precept in Past and Present Times eds. Phillipe Aries and Andre Bejin, (New York: Basil Blackwell, Inc., 1985)

Floyd-Thomas, Juan M.,  Floyd-Thomas, Stacey, Westfield, Nancy Lynne, Duncan,  Carol B., Stephen G. Ray, Black Church Studies: An Introduction, Abingdon Press, November 1, 2007

Ginzburg, R. 100 Years of Lynching Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press

Gomes, Peter J. The Good Book; Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart Avon Books, New York: Avon Books, 1996

Greenberg, David F. The Construction of Homosexuality. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988

Hooks, Bell Salvation; Black People and Love. New York: HarperCollins 2001

We Real Cool, Black Men and Masculinity. New York: Routledge Books, 2004

Hopkins, Dwight N. Head and Heart; Black Theology, Past, Present and Future, New York: Palgrave, 2002

Hutchinson, Earl Ofari, My Gay Problem; Your Black Problem. The Greatest Taboo; Homosexuality in Black Communities  Delroy Constantine-Simms ed. New York: Alyson Books, 2000

Jakobsen, Janet R. and Ann Pellergini, Love the Sin: Sexual Regulations and the Limits of Relgious Tolerance. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004

Jones, Elias Farajaje. Breaking the Silence; Toward An In-The-Life Theology.  Black Theology a Documentary History Volume Two: 1980-1992. James H. Cone and Gayraud S. Wilmore eds.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993.

Leary, Joy DeGruy, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, Milwaukie, OR: Uptone Press, 2005

Lorde, Audre, Sister Outsider; Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. Berkley, CA: The Crossing Press, 1984

Katz, Jonathan Ned. The Invention of Heterosexuality. New York: Penguin Group, 1995

Millett, Kate. Theory of Sexual Politics. Source: Sexual Politics (1969) publ. Granada
Murray, Stephen O. and Roscoe, Will eds. Boys-Wives and Female Husbands, Studies in African Homosexualities . New York: Palgrave, 1998

N’Gai, Tuan Will I Go To Heaven? The Black Gay Spiritual Dilemma Washington, D.C.: Biazo Ministries, 2001

Nichols, Edwin J. The Philosophical Aspects of Cultural Differences, Washington, D.C. Nichols and Associates, Inc.

Nissinen, Martti.  Homoeroticism in the Biblical World. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1998

National Committee of Black Churchmen: Black Theology a documentary history volume 1 1966-1979 edited by James H. Cone and Gayraud S. Wilmore 2nd edition Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993

Poulson-Bryant, Scott. Hung; A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America New York: Doubleday, 2005

Pinn,  Anthony B., Understanding and Transforming the Black Church Cascade Books, January 1, 2010

Powell, Kevin. Who’s Gonna Take The Weight? Manhood, Race and Power in America. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003

Roberts, Dorothy. Killing the Black Body; Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. New York: First Vintage Books Edition, 1997

Sims, Marc. Willie Lynch, Why African-Americans Have So Many Issues! Chicago, IL: Marc Sims, 2002

Some’, Malidoma. The Gift of the Gatekeeper (Manuscript)

Some’, Sobonfu .The Spirit of Intimacy; Ancient African Teaching in the Ways of Relationships. New York: HarperCollins, 2002

Thurman, Howard.  Jesus and the Disinherited, Boston: Beacon Press, 1976

Winbush, Vincent L. Introduction; Reading Darkness, Reading Scriptures; African Americans and the Bible; Sacred Text and Social Textures: ed Vincent Wimbush

Wink, Walter. Homosexuality and Christian Faith; Questions of Conscience for the Churches. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1999

Wright, Jeremiah A. The Life of the Mind   Trumpet, January, 2006

Yoder, John Howard, Body Politics, Five Practices of the Christian Community Before the Healing of the World(Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press, 2001)

1. James Cone, God of the Oppressed
2. Kelly Brown Douglas, The Black Christ
3. Kelly Brown Douglas, The Black Church and Sexuality: A Womanist Perspective
4. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, If it Wasn’t for the Woman…
5. James Hood, Must God Remain Greek?: Afro Cultures And God Talk
6. Will Coleman, Tribal Talk: Black Theology, Hermeneutics, and African/American Ways Of “Telling The Story”
7. Horace L. Griffin, Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbian And Gays in Black Churches
8. Frederick L. Ware, Methodologies of Black Theology
9. James Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation
10. Jacquelyn Grant, White Women’s Christ and Black Women’s Jesus
11. Delores Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness
12. Katie Cannon, Katie’s Cannon
13. Anthony G. Reddie, Working Against The Grain
14. Anthony G. Reddie, SCM Core text: Black Theology
15. Dwight N. Hopkins, Down, Up and Over
16. Dwight N. Hopkins and Edward P. Antonio, Cambridge Companion to Black Theology
17. Monica A. Coleman, Making A Way Out of No Way
18. W. E. B. Du Bois, The Negro Church
19. Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited
20. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
21. Desmond Tutu, God Is Not A Christian
22. Cheryl Anderson, Ancient Laws & Contemporary Controversies
23. James Forbes, Whose Gospel?
24. Anthony Pinn and Dwight Hopkins, eds, Loving the Body: Black Religious Studies and the Erotic
25. Toni Morrison, Beloved
26. Alice Walker, The Color Purple
27. Derrick Bell, Ethical Ambition
28. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow
29. Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
30. Alton B. Pollard III and Carol B. Duncan, eds, The Black Church Studies Reader
31. James Cone, Black Theology & Black Power
32. James Cone, The Cross & The Lynching Tree
33. Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God
34. Marcia Y. Riggs, Plenty Good Room: Women Versus Male Power In The Church
35. Emilie M. Townes, A Troubling in My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil and Suffering
36. Mitzi Smith, I Found God In Me: A Woman Biblical Hermeneutic Reader
37. Kelly Brown Douglas, What’s Faith Got to Do With It: Black Bodies/Christian Souls
38. Gayraud S. Wilmore, Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation
39. Ida B. Wells, Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900
40. Raphael Warnock, The Divided Mind of the Black Church: Theology, Piety, and Public Witness