Mother of womanist ethics, Katie Cannon, states that the Black women’s literary tradition is a source in the study of ethics relative to the Black community. By engaging Black women’s literary tradition in the way of Zora Neale Hurston, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison, and more, we learn how Black women create and narrate the value patterns and ethical procedures of Black community life in/on their own terms. When we place this in conversation with moral theology, the branch of Christian moral reflection that focuses on normative ethical prescriptions, we are invited to think about the normative response the Black literary tradition offered. Given this, this class will explore the literature and essays of Toni Morrison to reveal the moral wisdom that forms the moral theology of Morrison’s work.
- Instructor: Nicole Symmonds