Anthony B. Pinn

In 2017 Pinn published a book, When Colorblindness Isn't the Answer: Humanism and the Challenge of Race, on why humanists should embrace racial justice.

Rather, Pinn proposes that Black theologians examine the third theodicean solution: the questioning or denial of God's existence. In this approach, Pinn draws on William R. Jones’ important work Is God a White Racist? (1998), which questions God's goodness. He ultimately takes this point farther than Jones, arguing that if God exists and is self-limiting in God's support for Black liberation, as Jones concludes, God is indeed a racist.

In Why Lord?, Pinn's humanism "involves an increase in humanity's importance which makes impossible the location of a space for God." He continues, "Religious answers to life's meaninglessness promote an embracing of suffering which reinforces life's meaninglessness rather than ending it." In other work, however, Pinn moderates this claim. In a 1997 essay, Pinn describes humanism as another contribution to the plurality of religious traditions. In Varieties of African American Religious Experience (1999), he acknowledges that "the needs of various human communities are complex and varied enough to allow for a plurality of religious traditions." In a 2002 interview, Pinn states that the Black Church, although in crisis, "has tremendous potential" for addressing the social justice issues that affect African Americans. Although Pinn's work reaches into non-Christian sources of theology, much of his academic focus remains centered on the history and theology of the African-American Christian Church.

In Why Lord? Suffering and Evil in Black Theology (1995), Anthony Pinn establishes himself as a black theologian and Black humanist. In Why Lord?, Pinn seeks to critique various responses found within Black religion to the question of theodicy, or God's role in the suffering of humanity. His critique is based on the ultimate goal of Black liberation. Pinn cites John Hick's options for "the resolution of the problem of evil," which are the following: "(1) a rethinking of the nature/purpose of evil; or, (2) the postulating of a 'limited' God; or, (3) a questioning/denial of God's existence."

He graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in 1986, and earned his Ph.D. in the Study of Religion at Harvard University in 1994. His dissertation was entitled "I Wonder as I Wander: An Examination of the Problem of Evil in African-American Religious Thought." The topic of theological responses to evil and suffering in Black religion provided the foundation of Pinn's early work. Today, Pinn's research interests span theory and method in the study of religion, black religious aesthetics, religion and popular culture, and African-American humanism.

In "Anybody There? Reflections on African American Humanism," Pinn acknowledges the importance of the work of theologians such as James H. Cone in the 1960s and 70s. He states that Cone's early writings, which presented theological arguments for Black power and liberation, ultimately became part of the separation between the Christian-based Civil Rights Movement and the more radical Black Power movement.

In his analysis of often overtly Christian sources, Pinn finds meaningful support for the historical legitimacy of Black humanism. The tradition of spirituals, communally composed by African slaves in the United States, provides an early study in Black theodicy, questioning the purpose of slaves’ suffering. He quotes Daniel Payne, a leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, who in 1839 wrote about the extent to which slaves, aware of the hypocrisy of their Christian masters, "distrust both the goodness and justice of God." In a telling example, Pinn quotes a runaway slave, who said he was not a Christian because "white men treat us so bad in Mississippi that we can’t be Christians." Pinn also finds critiques of God's efficacy in Riggin Earl's "Brer Rabbit" stories, slave folklore that portrays God as weak or comical, and blues and rap music that seek worldly solutions and reject theistic religion. Pinn also refers to humanism among African Americans within the American Communist and Civil Rights struggles of the 20th century. Academic sources for Black humanism include Richard Wright and Nella Larsen. Pinn cites Wright's rejection, in the 1940 novel Native Son, of religion's solutions to "life's complexity and absurdity," which "promote an embracing of suffering which reinforces life's meaninglessness rather than ending it." He affirms Larsen's conclusion, asserted in her 1928 novel Quicksand, that God's failure to deliver humans from suffering means that oppressed people must overcome "through human strength, but without guarantee of success."