Bring Sex and Spirituality Out of the Closet!
A Black Woman’s Guide to Sex and Spirituality
The Reverend Dr. Susan Newman
A Featured Alternate of the Black Expression Book Club
Praise for OH GOD!
"With a down-to-earth sense of humor…OH GOD!
can teach you to use the fire of burning desire to forge
something everlasting."
-- Honey
"A woman cannot be free if her body and her spirit
are at war. With this powerful book, Sister Reverend Dr.
Susan Newman unlocks the chains of confusion and hands sisters
the keys to their own personal liberation and spiritual
healing."
-- Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole,
-- President Emerita, Spelman College
"Susan Newman makes us believe that the body is the
temple of both spiritual and sexual fulfillment. What a
revelation! Finally, theology and sexology can meet in the
minds of the saved and sanctified, along with the rest of
the world. This illuminating volume will help us to reclaim
God’s precious gift of life, spirit, and human sexuality
in the same breath, and we can exhale. Thank God for OH
GOD!"
-- Dr. Gwendolyn Goldsby Grant,
Columnist, Essence magazine,
Author of The Best Kind of Living
It takes a woman minister to tell women of faith how to
balance their spiritual beliefs with their sexual needs,
and the Reverend Dr. Susan Newman does just that in her
new book, OH GOD! A Black Woman’s Guide to Sex
and Spirituality (One World /Ballantine Books Hardcover;
April 2, 2002; $23.95).
A groundbreaking book…a landmark achievement, that
will be welcomed by black women who want to live in wholeness
of spirit and body," by Amazon.com, OH GOD!
is the first definitive guide to helping African American
women of all faiths find a balance between sexuality and
spirituality. The book not only examines the issues confronting
women today, but also examines how interpretations of religious
texts have influenced religious instruction in matters of
women, sex and spirituality.
"Millions of Black women of faith are struggling to
reconcile sexuality and spirituality; trying to live ‘holy
and sanctified’ lives as taught by their churches,
while merging these religious beliefs with their natural
sexual desires," Dr. Newman says. "Many denominations
of various religions decree that any form of sexual activity
outside of marriage is a sin. Thus, many women are left
with no outlet to relieve their passions."
Beginning with the radical premise that women of faith "can
love God and love sex, too!" Dr. Newman takes an honest,
humorous look at why so many women struggle to reconcile
their spiritual and sexual selves and what they can do to
bridge the gap.
"Somebody has to own up to the fact that African-Americans
need to start talking about sex from the sphere of the church,"
Dr. Newman says. "I’m not talking about sex as
we have traditionally understood it in the past. I’m
not talking about how we wish sex would be in the future.
I’m talking about what is the true and honest presence
of sex in the lives of women today, right now."
With chapters covering such topics as The Sexual Truth Shall
Set You Free, What They Didn’t Teach You in Sunday
School and Jesus as the Liberating Feminist of the Bible,
Dr. Newman explains the origins of biblical teachings about
sex and proposes a new sexual ethic for the spiritual woman.
"Susan Newman is frank and biblical,’ says Bishop
Vashti Murphy McKenzie, Presiding Prelate, 18th Episcopal
District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Botswana,
Mozambique and Swaziland. "She is honest and spiritual.
She has a firm grasp of what women are privately thinking
and is bold enough to bring the discussion to a public forum."
With OH GOD! Dr. Newman shows that women of faith
do not have to live divided lives. She offers frank discussions
about sex both in and out of marriage; about being honest
about your spiritual and erotic needs; about making personal
choices; and about acknowledging the holiness of your body.
OH GOD! opens new paths to healing and reconciliation for
women of faith looking to live in wholeness of spirit and
body.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Newman has been a minister for the past twenty-six years
and renowned lecturer whose presentations have been called
"down-to-earth, powerful and life-changing." The
Atlanta Journal Constitution called her "a reality
check for the church." She is the author of With
Heart and Hand: The Black Church Working to Save Black Children.
OH GOD!
A Black Woman’s Guide to Sex and Spirituality
By The Reverend Dr. Susan Newman
A One World/Ballantine Books Hardcover
April 2, 2002 / $23.95 / 0-345-45077-9
www.ballantinebooks.com/one
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