ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a postmodern womanist reading of Tananarive Due’s science fiction novel The Living Blood to suggest principles for practicing a polydox soteriology.1 Grounded in the strengths of womanist theologies and process metaphysics, postmodern womanist theology attends to the cosmology of Christianity and African traditional religions. Postmodern womanist theology searches for contextually-specific modes of creative transformation, and believes that black women’s science fiction can serve as a source for theological reflection. A postmodern womanist reading of The Living Blood names divinity in the manifestations of the Yoruba òrìs¸à Oya and in the depiction of “living blood.” Polydoxy is characterized by multiplicity, relationality, value, and mystery. A postmodern womanist reading of The Living Blood therefore suggests a polydox soteriology that is a route to health and wholeness. This salvific way reveals itself as polydox through the intersections of multiple religious traditions, multiple divine forces, multiple incarnations, and multiple Saviors. Multiplicity abounds. As boundaries bend and cross in the narrative world of The Living Blood, this reading also suggests that practicing a polydox soteriology is transnational, transcontinental, postcolonial, feminist, womanish, and dangerous, while also necessary for our health.
