'Flesh that dances': Constructing a womanist liturgical theology of embodimen

This dissertation argues that embodied experiences of African American women are crucial consideration for a womanist liturgical theology of embodiment. Through the intersection of womanist theory, dance performance analysis and liturgical theology, this project engages worship in the Black Christian church by interpreting liturgical experiences of African American women through a womanist lens of wholeness. Constructing a liturgical theology that focuses on the bodies of African American women embraces physical bodies as a manifestation of wholeness, and provides insight for alternative worship practices that promote justice and wholeness in worshiping communities. Careful engagement of lived experiences of African American women in worship, through the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, may reclaim the objectified bodies of our ecclesial body through the love and acceptance of all bodies in the grace, beauty and power of the body of Christ.