Contemplative Agitator: Tracing the Contours of Pauli Murray’s Black Contemplative Homiletic

This article explores the preaching of Pauli Murray (1910–1985), an American poet, activist, attorney, professor, and Episcopal priest. Though aptly described as a renaissance person, Murray’s fundamental vocation was that of bridge builder and preaching was instrumental to this work. Preaching became a means of reframing the tensions and exigencies of the empirical world, allowing them to be examined through a numinous lens. After describing the appeal of contemplative preaching and charting key aspects of Murray’s preacherly formation, I discuss three important hallmarks of Murray’s homiletic. These include: (1) maintaining a posture of wonder and irresolution when exploring human identity, (2) weaving intercessions for the listeners into sermons, and (3) invoking the wisdom of saints and Ancestors.