Judith Casselberry is Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Bowdoin College. A vocalist and guitarist, Casselberry was a member of the award-winning reggae duo Casselberry-DuPreé and currently performs internationally with Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely.
The conclusion revisits chapter 1 to map emotional, intimate, and aesthetic labor onto, what may appear to be mundane, women’s work after the death of a cherished church member. It then goes on to recap the chapters, showing that since the inception of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in 1919, women have been pivotal in defining the ways the church knows itself. The collocation of Spirit power and male headship has shaped the ways women carry out their divine mandates; it has determined the church’s understanding of women’s work and has governed the ways women operate to assure a politics of righteousness. Ultimately, women perform religious labor to produce holy Black womanhood. Navigating the webs of spiritual, social, and organizational relationships calls for women to acquire and hone a wide range of skills across material and immaterial realms, to carry out the demanding labor of faith.
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