Phillis Wheatley As Prophetic Poet

In You Must Be Born Again: Phillis Wheatley as Prophetic Poet, the author argues that Phillis Wheatley is the mother of liberation theology. The author uses Wheatley’s poetry and life experiences to create a portrait of Wheatley beyond that of a poet. Wheatley is described as both poet and visionary who wrestles with God during the creative process. The lyrical expressions of Wheatley’s poetry unlock the spiritual impressions on her heart. The author sets up the racial dynamics of Wheatley’s time and her engagement with those politics. As a preacher, Wheatley combats the immoral undercurrent that erodes the community’s social, economic, and spiritual foundation as well as its political systems. The author positions Wheatley as one uniquely qualified to address the hypocrisy within her world and, by implication, present-day society by calling for immersion into a radical understanding of love and justice, resulting in a renewed hope for equality and a pathway toward equity.

In The Black God Trope and Rhetorical Resistance: A Tradition of Race and Religion, Armondo R. Collins theorizes Black Nationalist rhetorical strategies as an avenue to better understanding African American communication practices. The author demonstrates how Black rhetors use writing about God to create a language that reflects African Americans’ shifting subjectivity within the American experience. This book highlights how the Black God trope and Black Nationalist religious rhetoric function as an embodied rhetoric. Collins also addresses how the Black God trope functions as a gendered critique of white western patriarchy, to demonstrate how an ideological position like womanism is voiced by authors using the Black God trope as a means of public address. Scholars of rhetoric, African American literature, and religious studies will find this book of particular interest.

How were eighteenth-century dissenting women writers able to ensure their unique biblical interpretation was preserved for posterity? And how did their careful yet shrewd tactics spur early nineteenth-century women writers into vigorous theological debate? Why did the biblical engagement of such women prompt their commitment to causes such as the antislavery movement? Veiled Intent traces the pattern of tactical moves and counter-moves deployed by Anna Barbauld, Phillis Wheatley, Helen Maria Williams, Joanna Baillie, and Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck. These female poets and philosophers veiled provocative hermeneutical claims and calls for social action within aesthetic forms of discourse viewed as more acceptably feminine forms of expression. In between the lines of their published hymns, sonnets, devotional texts for children, and works of aesthetic theory, the perceptive reader finds striking theological insights shared from a particularly female perspective. These women were not only courageously interjecting their individual viewpoints into a predominantly male domain of formal study--biblical hermeneutics--but also intentionally supporting each other in doing so. Their publications reveal they were drawn to biblical imagery of embodiment and birth, to stories of the apparently weak vanquishing the tyrannical on behalf of the oppressed, and to the metaphor of Christ as strengthening rock.

Originally published in 1937, this book was formed from a series of lectures by renowned John Clifford Grierson on Milton and Wordsworth.

This 1952 book is an inquiry into the relations in origin between literature and inspiration, based on a study of the practices of seers in modern communities where oral literature sill survives, and of the records of primitive poetry in the West and North. Mrs Chadwick discusses the universal reverence accorded to poets, musicians, seers, or prophets, the training they underwent, the methods of ecstasy, and the remarkable similarities of their messages in remote and different parts of the world.

Charles Haven Logan Sr. is a native of Spartanburg, S.C. He is the son of the late Ernest (Dickie) and Margaret K. Logan. While growing up, he was faced with many challenges. At the age of seven years old, he witnessed the shooting death of his father. This caused a spiritual scar and deep hurt which left him searching for something to heal and relieve him of the pain. He found this in a life of substance abuse and other crimes which landed him in prison numerous times. This is where he received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. God showed him his purpose and placed a calling on his life to teach, preach, intercede and win souls for the Lord. God also placed an anointing on his life to write poems. He currently resides in Aiken County, S.C. with his wife Wanda. They have six children, fifteen grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He is the founder and over-seer of Flaming Fire Ministries Inc. He is also a full-time volunteer minister and instructor in the S. C. Dept. of Corrections.

Several of my poems have been inspired by God and Jesus, and I have compiled a selection of my favorites that I have written over the years. I am here to give a message for all that have eyes and ears that you may see and hear this warning. I hope this book finds you well and healthy. I hope it brings upon you blessings of love, health, and wisdom from God, our Creator. Amen!