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A review by bookofcinz
Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who've Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Isn't Enough by Candice Marie Benbow
3.0
Red Lip Theology is the lens through which I understand myself as a millennial Black Woman of faith. It creates a space for both my upbringing in the Black Baptist Church of the South…. It introduced me to a God much more kind, gracious, and loving than the one I’d been given in my youth and young adulthood
I have been following Candice Benbow on twitter for a long while and when I see that she was writing a book I knew I had to read it. As a Black Women who grew up in the Baptist church who is a millennial and went to theology school I was salivating! I knew there were things she would say that I would want to read.
I’ll be honest, this was more of a memoir than I expected. I thought it was be more about theology, Black Women, Feminism, how she viewed God, and how she grappled with her faith. I wanted more of a theology and deep dive into her faith, the Bible and what it means to be a Black Millennial Woman of faith. Some of the essays I read, I took like a step back and thought, “this sounds like blasphemy” but maybe I need to sit with that and explore why I think it such and what work I need to do and how much of the Bible I need to explore.
Don’t get me wrong, the essays were well written and highly engaging, but I felt she would make statement and not explore them. It was more, “I believe this…” but didn’t show us how she came to this reasoning- giving us a biblical look into why.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the essays, I still do not know exactly what Red Theology means or should be, maybe I just really wanted more theology.
So much of Western Christianity is rooted in the subjugation of women, and I had been reared in a faith tradition which largely existed to give Black men the status power white people refused them in larger society.
I have been following Candice Benbow on twitter for a long while and when I see that she was writing a book I knew I had to read it. As a Black Women who grew up in the Baptist church who is a millennial and went to theology school I was salivating! I knew there were things she would say that I would want to read.
I’ll be honest, this was more of a memoir than I expected. I thought it was be more about theology, Black Women, Feminism, how she viewed God, and how she grappled with her faith. I wanted more of a theology and deep dive into her faith, the Bible and what it means to be a Black Millennial Woman of faith. Some of the essays I read, I took like a step back and thought, “this sounds like blasphemy” but maybe I need to sit with that and explore why I think it such and what work I need to do and how much of the Bible I need to explore.
Don’t get me wrong, the essays were well written and highly engaging, but I felt she would make statement and not explore them. It was more, “I believe this…” but didn’t show us how she came to this reasoning- giving us a biblical look into why.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the essays, I still do not know exactly what Red Theology means or should be, maybe I just really wanted more theology.
So much of Western Christianity is rooted in the subjugation of women, and I had been reared in a faith tradition which largely existed to give Black men the status power white people refused them in larger society.