Black Bodies and the Desire for Enfleshing Freedom

M Shawn Copeland: "The primary subjects of my theologizing are the dead—the many thousand gone. Through attending critically to the bodies of Black women, I have expressed, in particular, the universal claim of the inviolability and sacredness of Black humanity, and reaffirmed Black dignity and worth. These broken Black bodies lie beside the body of the crucified Jewish Jesus on the altar of my heart. This suffering—his and theirs—demands from me, as a theologian, a praxis and a theory: a text for living and for dying, a text that honors their enfleshing freedom."
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M. Shawn Copeland is professor emerita of systematic theology at Boston College and Theologian-in-Residence at Saint Katharine Drexel Parish, Roxbury, Massachusetts. Her work spans the fields of systematic theology, political theology, public theology, Christology, theological anthropology, and African American Catholicism.

Professor Copeland has taught theology at St. Norbert College, Yale University Divinity School, Marquette University, and as a summer-adjunct at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies, Xavier University. In addition, she has held visiting positions at Harvard Divinity School, Boston College, and Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.

She is recognized as one of the most important influences in North America in drawing attention to issues surrounding African American Catholics.