Katie's Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community

In 13 essays and an appendix, Cannon charts the process of her canon formation, based on an inclusive ethic. She says that in each essay she is ``conducting a three-pronged systemic analysis of race, sex and class from the perspective of African American women in the academy of religion.'' Her development begins with an historical detailing of what forged the black feminist consciousness. Cannon reveals how black women have found themselves to be moral agents in an African American tradition that combines both the ``real-lived'' texture of African American life and the oral-aural cultural tradition vital to African Americans. Cannon, the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary and the first to be ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the United Presbyterian Church USA, a womanist philosopher and a theologian, deals mainly with canonical issues and ``canon formation'' as she calls for an inclusive rather than an exclusive frame of reference for governing life choices. Katie's Canon is both provocative and enlightening. (Nov.)