Innovative and lavishly illustrated, Painting the Gospel offers an indispensable contribution to conversations about African American art, theology, politics, and identity in Chicago. Kymberly N. Pinder escorts readers on an eye-opening odyssey to the murals, stained glass, and sculptures dotting the city's African American churches and neighborhoods. Moving from Chicago's oldest black Christ figure to contemporary religious street art, Pinder explores ideas like blackness in public, art for black communities, and the relationship of Afrocentric art to Black Liberation Theology. She also focuses attention on art excluded from scholarship due to racial or religious particularity. Throughout, she reflects on the myriad ways private black identities assert public and political goals through imagery.

Painting the Gospel includes maps and tour itineraries that allow readers to make conceptual, historical, and geographical connections among the works.
| Cover Title Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction. Visualizing Christ Our Redeemer, Man Our Brother Chapter 1. Painting the Gospel Blues: Race, Empathy, and Religion at Pilgrim Baptist Church Chapter 2 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden: First Church of Deliverance and Its M Chapter 3 Black Liberation Theology, Black Power, and the Black Arts Movement at Trinity United Chu Chapter 4. Father Tolton's Soldiers: Black Imagery in Three Catholic Churches Chapter 5. Urban Street Faith: Murals, T-shirts, and Devout Graffiti Conclusion. Where the Black Christ Suffers and the Politics of Black Tragic Space in Chicago Appendix I. Tours and Maps 1. Church Murals, Mosaics, and Glass 2. Church Murals, Mosaics, and Glass (Further South) 3. William E. Scott's Bronzeville Murals 4. History of Loss and Black Tragic Spaces 5. History of Loss Sites (Further North) 6. Joseph Evans Jr., church painter Appendix II. Daily Scripture Emails from Saint Sabina Appendix III. Explanations for Scenes in Mural at Holy Angels Catholic Church Notes Index | "This work offers a contribution to conversations about African American art, theology, politics, and identity in Chicago, Illinois."—Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies

"A beautifully written, in depth examination of the creation and nature of black religious art in Chicago."—Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
"Pinder's book is incredibly rich in its interdisciplinarity, and it is broadly relevant to larger discussions of African American art, literature, music, and activism (to name a few realms) outside of Chicago."—College Art Association
|Kymberly N. Pinder is Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico and editor of Race-ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History.