A
stirring meditation of being Black and learning to love in a
loveless, anti-Black world
“Only once in a lifetime do we
come across a writer like Danté Stewart, so young and yet so
masterful with the pen. This work is a thing to make dungeons shake
and hearts thunder.”—Robert Jones, Jr., New York Times
bestselling author of The Prophets
In Shoutin’
in the Fire, Danté
Stewart gives breathtaking language to his reckoning with the legacy
of white supremacy—both the kind that hangs over our country and
the kind that is internalized on a molecular level. Stewart uses his
personal experiences as a vehicle to reclaim and reimagine spiritual
virtues like rage, resilience, and remembrance—and explores how
these virtues might function as a work of love against an unjust,
unloving world.
In 2016, Stewart was a rising
leader at the predominantly white evangelical church he and his
family were attending in Augusta, Georgia. Like many young church
leaders, Stewart was thrilled at the prospect of growing his voice
and influence within the community, and he was excited to break
barriers as the church’s first Black preacher. But when Donald
Trump began his campaign, so began the unearthing. Stewart started
overhearing talk in the pews—comments ranging from microaggressions
to outright hostility toward Black Americans. As this violence began
to reveal itself en masse, Stewart quickly found himself isolated
amid a people unraveled; this community of faith became the place
where he and his family now found themselves most alone. This set
Stewart on a journey—first out of the white church and then into a
liberating pursuit of faith—by looking to the wisdom of the saints
that have come before, including James H. Cone, James Baldwin, and
Toni Morrison, and by heeding the paradoxical humility of Jesus
himself.
This sharply observed journey is
an intimate meditation on coming of age in a time of terror. Stewart
reveals the profound faith he discovered even after experiencing the
violence of the American church: a faith that loves Blackness; speaks
truth to pain and trauma; and pursues a truer, realer kind of love
than the kind we’re taught, a love that sets us free.