How Sarah Got Her Groove Back, or Notes Toward a Black Feminist Theology of Pleasure

This article takes up the pivotal question that Sarah asks upon learning that she and Abraham are to have a child of their own: “After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure?” (Genesis 18:12) This question indicates that Sarah prioritized pleasure, desired it, and asked questions of herself and of God in order to make space to receive it. For Black women who are looking for biblical precedent to prioritize pleasure, Sarah’s question provides a textual and theological invitation to explore what a theology of pleasure might look like for women who have thought all hope was lost. For too long, conservative theology has been used to deny Black women sexual agency, but in Sarah’s story, erotic possibility re-emerges through an insistent question that demands an answer.