Diverging from traditional memoirs that are steeped in the heroic genius trope, The Haunted Fantastic scrambles the boundaries of life stories written by scholars of religion. By braiding spiritual autobiography and an autotheory of religion, James Howard Hill, Jr. invites readers to witness the childhood traumas and life crises that inform his work as a Black man teaching and writing about religion in the academy and navigating ongoing personal healing in a dehumanizing world. With raw authenticity, The Haunted Fantastic reveals the depths of Hill's pursuit of healing, purpose, and self-actualization with academic and spiritual rigor.
Echoing the Black church tradition of testimonies, this book guides readers through an embodied understanding of the fantastic, a concept central to Hill's reclamation of religious language, orientation, and power. In doing so, the book provides a model for transgressing formal religion's inclination toward ways that too-often are ordered, bordered, and policeable. Hill's journey offers an approach that braves the continual hauntings of our presence in this world.
Ultimately, The Haunted Fantastic will speak to anyone who has lost hope in religious communities, theological education, or the academy at large as they grow weary of disciplined well-doing. The book invites readers who are ready to stop suppressing their own hauntings, which academic and religious institutions often insist obstruct people's success, so they can grow into ever-evolving healings with an abiding faith, critical hope, and sense of purpose.
