Reclaiming the Body: A Womanist Theology of Belonging, Inclusion, and Grace
Wednesdays from 6:00 - 7:30 PM EST from February 5 until February 26, 2025 in partnership with Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA
Description
This four-week course invites participants to explore the sacredness of the Black body through a womanist theological lens. Beginning with the concept of Imago Dei and embodiment in Genesis, the course will unpack how the body is a site for divine revelation. We will address the impact of respectability politics policing Black women's bodies, Africana embodiment practices as pathways to body reclamation, and how to embrace notions of a "queered" identity through facets of belonging, grace, and empowerment. Join us for a journey into the Bible, ethics, and theology that celebrates fullness, resilience, and spiritual liberation.
Continuing Education Units (CEUs)
Continuing Education Units (CEU) are available for this course. There is a processing fee of $25.00, and an Award Letter will be issued once the course has been completed. Please add the CEU Processing Fee at checkout.
Instructor
Dr. Nicole Symmonds is assistant professor of Christian ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary. Her work sits at the intersection of Christian ethics and women, gender, and sexuality studies. She explores Black women’s embodiment, particularly the practices of liberative embodiment they craft as a method of resistance to domination and as a simulation of freedom. Dr. Symmonds’ research qualitatively engages issues around faith-based sex trafficking interventions and commercial sex work, Caribbean cultural practices such as Carnival masquerading and embodied celebration, and popular culture performances of race, sex, and sexuality.
She holds a Ph.D. from Emory University’s Graduate Division of Religion with a focus in Ethics & Society; a certificate from Emory’s Women’s, gender, and Sexuality Studies program, a Master of Divinity with an emphasis in theology and ethics from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Florida A&M University.