African-American Spirituals and Social Transformation Through Relational Transcendence

In her book The Touch of Transcendence: A Postcolonial Theology of God, Mayra Rivera critiques traditional notions of transcendence that position it as separate from the material world, often perpetuating patriarchal and imperialistic ideas of the Divine. Rivera proposes a "relational transcendence," rooted in creation and human experiences, emphasizing the significance of encountering the Divine through the "otherness" in interpersonal relationships. This paper explores this concept through African-American spirituals, revealing how their historical and musical elements embody enfleshed suffering and spirituality, necessitating a new understanding of spirituality and its power to transcend as intimately intertwined with human experience, especially suffering, material reality, and creation. By integrating insights from feminist, decolonial, and liberation theories, the study underscores the necessity of social transformation through relational transcendence, made possible through the music of African-American spirituals.