1st Edition
Dr. Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé A Legacy of Afrocentric, Decolonial, In-the-Life Theology and Bisexual Intersexional Philosophical Thought and Practice
This book is a posthumous tribute to bisexual philosopher, theologian, AIDS-activist and educator, Shaykh Dr. Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé (b. 1952; d. 2016) and contains scholarship, critical engagement, and creative responses that illustrate the significance of his life and work to queer theory, liberation theology, decoloniality, Islamic/Tasawwuf studies, sacred sexuality, religious responses to HIV/AIDS, and a counter-hegemonic understanding of our world. In addition to the work of his former colleagues, students, mentees, and those his work inspired, the collection contains Dr. Farajajé’s essays and speeches—many of which were not previously published. Because of the breadth and depth of its contents as a definitive text, this collection is a foundational guide to proceeding scholarship on Dr. Farajajé and his legacy.
Born in Berkeley, CA, one of the earliest male students to graduate from Vassar College, Dr. Theol. magna cum laude from University of Bern, holder of a chair in the sociology of religion at Howard University during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, and provost of Starr King School for the Ministry, the premier hub for the academic and vocational exploration of multi-religious identity and practice, Dr. Farajajé lived the values advanced in his work through his choice of professional affiliations and modes of activism-scholarship.
This book will be a key resource for scholars of queer theology and ethics, Islamic studies, cultural and social understandings of HIV/AIDS as well as religious studies and theology more generally. One of the chapters in this volume was originally published in the book titled, Male Lust: Pleasure, Power, and Transformation, edited by Kerwin Brook, Jill Nagle, Baruch Gould. Other chapters were originally published as a special issue of Journal of Bisexuality.
Introduction—The Bridge and the Water: An Introduction to the Gedenkschrift Honoring the Life and Work of Shaykh Dr. Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé
H. “Herukhuti” Sharif Williams
1. Breaking Silence: Toward an in-the-Life Theology
Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé
2. Seeds in My Soul: Memories of Ibrahim
M’kali-Hashiki
3. Creating Change (1995) Keynote Speech
Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé
4. Sex Toys on the Altar
Loraine Hutchins
5. Andalusia and Beyond
Kathleen Young and Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé
6. Atzmotai: My self, My bones
Yael Schonzeit
7. Fictions of Purity
Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé
8. Power to Become Children of God: Remembering in-the-Life with a Johannine (Dis)Position
Eric A. Thomas
9. Forum II – Affirming Diversity: Promise and Challenge
Alma Faith Crawford and Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé
10. A Tribute to Ibrahim Baba Farajajé: An Intersectional Perspective on Sexual Violence, Decolonization, and Standing Rock
Sol Yael Weiss
11. Starr King School Symposium 2012: Ibrahim Farajajé Opening Sermon (Excerpt)
Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé
12. Celebrating Dr. Ibrahim Farajaje: A pioneer of Islamic studies
Starr King School for the Ministry
13. Remembering Our Wholeness: Starr King School for the Ministry 2015 Symposium Opening Remarks
Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé
14. The Closest Thing to God in a Body
Taya Mâ Shere
15. Queer(y)ing Religious Education:Teaching the R(evolutionary) S(ub)Versions) or Relax! … It’s Just Religious Ed
Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé
16. Whatever Way Love’s Camel Takes: Remembering Baba Ibrahim Farajajé
Kenneth Hamilton
17. Holy Fuck
Elias Farajaje-Jones
18. Oceans of Mercy: African American Sufi Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area (2003) – A critical understanding/review of David Dezern and Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajaje’s Religious Documentary
Reviewed by Steven G. Fullwood
Biography
H. “Herukhuti” Sharif Williams, PhD, MEd is Founder and Chief Erotics Officer, Center for Culture, Sexuality, and Spirituality LLC. He is Core Faculty at Goddard College, Adjunct Associate Professor, City University of New York, and Visiting Associate Professor, Pratt Institute. Believing that he/she/they was important to the contextualization and advancement of his work, prior to his ancestral transition Dr. Farajajé asked Dr. Herukhuti to edit this collection.
