Street Scriptures

"Nava introduces an intervention into the excesses and shortcomings of two of the major theological movements of the 20th century: Latin American liberation theology and Hans Urs von Balthasar's theology of beauty, the via pulchritudinis. He notes how liberation theology underdetermined beauty as a suspicious distraction from social justice, while the theology of beauty, in liturgy and beyond, overdetermined beauty through a fixed cultural lens. . . . This erudition and range make the book's most compelling case for itself." * America Magazine *
"Nava explores the connections between religion and hip-hop, revealing the overlooked theological roots of the genre and its potential to change the world." * US Catholic Magazine, "What We're Reading" *
"Using examples from current hip-hop artists, as well as popular artists from the past, Nava passionately describes the blending of religion, politics, culture, and aesthetics in hip-hop music." * Reading Religion *
"A stylistically playful yet materially serious examination of public theologies done from and for the margins. Any courses focusing on the intersection of 'faith/theology' and 'culture' would benefit from Nava's work." * Religious Studies Review *
"With this majestic study, Nava reclaims 'the streets' as a living, breathing text, through which black and brown youth transmute everyday terror into spiritual beauty and hurl truth on the doorsteps of power. By placing academic theology and urban hip-hop culture side by side, Nava's work has the potential to usher both into a more liberating future." -- Onaje X. O. Woodbine, author of 'Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball'
"Nava's writing pulses with passion-electric, vivid, joyful, and oh so readable. By immersing the reader in the music, Nava offers the most compelling lens available on exactly how hip-hop created a moral aesthetic that moves people to change the world. Street Scriptures is social criticism of the highest order." -- Jonathon Kahn, author of 'Divine Discontent: The Religious Imagination of W. E. B. Du Bois'
"In this compelling work, Nava reads the radically subversive 'street scriptures' of hip-hop as a distinctive form of urban liberation theology. This elegantly argued book by a scholar and activist is an important contribution to the study of urban religion and of 'religion' itself in one of its most powerful and challenging contemporary instantiations." -- Robert Orsi, author of 'History and Presence'