Abstract
<p> <italic>Words Made Flesh: Sylvia Wynter</italic> and Religion is the first book-length engagement with religion in the work of Sylvia Wynter. A profoundly transdisciplinary scholar, Wynter pulls from an impressive array of theory, literature, science, anthropology, philosophy, and religious studies. Her writings also span an array of different mediums, including essays, plays, a novel, a 900-page unpublished manuscript entitled “Black Metamorphosis: New Natives in a New World,” and frequent contributions to Jamaican newspapers. Whatever the medium, Wynter frequently engages religion as a relevant category of analysis, from reflections on Christianity, Islam, and Rastafarianism to the category and role of religion as a universal aspect of human social production. However, despite so much recent interest in Wynter—in recent years, her writings have received enthusiastic attention by scholars in black studies, Caribbean theory, critical race theory, literature, and philosophy—little scholarly writing exists that directly engages the topic of religion in her writing. This book fills the gap by focusing exclusively on religion, religions, and religiosity in Wynter’s oeuvre. Bringing together scholars that provide a wide variety of theoretical perspectives on religion, political theology, social theory, and science studies, this book offers an in-depth engagement with one of the most innovative and important thinkers of the last forty years. It also shows how Wynter’s thinking has significant implications for the study of religion and for conversations around religion’s relationship to colonialism, race, humanism, science, and political theology. </p>