Rememory as Praxis:
Spirituality and Community in Beloved
Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel Beloved tells the haunting story of historical events shaped by slavery’s brutal legacy and its impact on the Black community. Through the novel, Morrison explores the themes of trauma, memory, and identity. Its complex structure reflects the many-layered physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual effects of the evils of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the continued practice of slavery. This research paper aims to examine the themes of spirituality and community in Morrison’s novel within the context of the Black community.
Set in Ohio after the Civil War, Sethe lives with her 18-year-old daughter, Denver, in the house located at 124 Bluestone Road on the outskirts of Cincinnati, known by locals as “124”. Sethe’s character is based on the true story of the enslaved Margaret Garner, who escaped from a Kentucky Plantation in 1856 and fled to Ohio with her four children. Upon being discovered by her master’s slavecatchers, Garner attempts to end her children’s lives to keep them from knowing the horrors of slavery that she had endured. She killed just one child and was imprisoned for murder (David).
As the chapters weave in and out of time, Sethe’s story unfolds. Throughout the novel, real-time events are interrupted by flashbacks, reluctant memories reflecting Sethe’s efforts to forget a traumatic past on Sweet Home, the Kentucky plantation on which she was enslaved. At the beginning of Beloved, 18 years have passed since Sethe killed her infant girl in the barn shed where slavecatchers found her and her children after escaping Sweet Home. She is visited by Paul D, another former slave from Sweet Home, who chases the ghost of the dead baby girl away, and together they begin to remember the time they spent in chains. Soon after Paul D chases away the ghost that’s been haunting 124, a beautiful woman who would have been around the same age as Sethe’s baby, appears mysteriously, and Sethe is left to confront the painful past.
“On White Theology . . . and Other Lies: Redemptive Communal Narratives in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” by John J. Allen asserts that the novel should be read as a theological work for its use of narrative storytelling to explore redemptive communal unity. Allen contends that the novel offers a postcolonial theological lens rooted in African tradition and challenges the practice of “othering,” a characteristic of colonial theological worldviews. The article also highlights three main ways that Beloved can be understood through the context of postcolonial and African theology: communal narrative re-telling for future re-imagination, dispelling coloniality, and affirmation of redemptive and liberative communal unity.
The novel employs retelling to transcend trauma, guilt, and sin, moving toward a hopeful future. It distinguishes itself from the trope of the lone protagonist by emphasizing the necessity of communal intervention for healing and recovery. After being haunted by guilt and the “rememory” of the past, Sethe finds reconciliation through community and shared storytelling. According to the article, this echoes theologian James Cone’s idea of using narrative as a medium and constituent of truth. Beloved also creates a Black community that fosters liberation, affirms life, and rejects theology that justifies oppression. It also addresses instances where community is disrupted, such as when Schoolteacher captures Sethe. Morrison critiques the accommodation of slavery and the perpetuation of harmful racist ideology through systems such as education. Schoolteacher, the plantation owner, categorizes Sethe’s “human” and “animal” characteristics, demonstrating how colonial “epistemic duality” (Allen) perpetuated oppression beyond physical violence. The novel exemplifies how the pervasiveness of coloniality continues to affect individuals even after emancipation. Allen also argues that, like other postcolonial theologians, Morrison advocates for hybridity, blending Christian tradition with African and African American heritage through the use of oral tradition, self-love, and communal interdependence. He points out that, “An often-neglected avenue of interpretation for Toni Morrison’s theological imaginary involves the dual shift toward postcolonial and contextual theology” (Allen). The climax of the novel, Baby Suggs’ church in the Clearing, reflects the community’s collective intervention as it uses rituals such as singing and dancing to reconcile the trauma of the past and liberate Sethe from her toxic and consuming bond with her resurrected daughter Beloved. This collective act brings healing and allows Sethe to reclaim her self-identity and accept Paul D’s love. According to the article, “Thus, the theological insight of Beloved is found in a syncretic cosmology that does not perpetuate colonial ontological categories but forges a communal narrative that is non-possessive and open to a future free from the shackles of the past” (Allen). Ultimately, Beloved expands a narrow Eurocentric interpretation of Christian tradition and wrestles with the presence of God coexisting with suffering and oppression.
In “I Love to Tell the Story: Biblical Revisions in Beloved”, Carolyn A. Mitchell explores African American Spirituality and Christianity in Beloved, arguing that Morrison reimagines three major stories of the Gospel: Sethe’s “tree” on her back as the carrying of the cross, Amy Denver’s help as Sethe gives birth as the parable of the good Samaritan, and Baby Suggs’ “calling” to preach as the call to preach the Gospel. According to the article, Morrison’s work connects religious doctrine and practice by situating Christ’s life within the context of slavery and offering a model for spiritual liberation concerning African American history. The article makes a clear distinction between religion and spirituality: religion is defined by doctrine, dogma, and ritual, while spirituality serves as the foundation of religion, representing the non-anthropomorphic God and everyday godliness in an individual’s life. In this sense, spirituality fosters authentic relationship that demands presence and accountability. Mitchell argues that Sethe’s act of killing her daughter, though religiously reprehensible, is presented as a profoundly spiritual act given the moral aberration that is slavery. Throughout her journey, Sethe comes to realize that physical and spiritual freedom are inextricably linked, and that slavery undermines both. The article cites terms from Cornel West to describe Sethe’s actions as “passionate physicality” and “combative spirituality,” which illustrate the struggle for body and soul to work together, revealing how the spirit functions beyond religious dogma and ritual.
Amy Denver is a white fugitive indentured servant who helps Sethe give birth while she is escaping on foot. Her behavior transcends societal norms created by the slavocracy and embodies Christian “lovingkindness”. This makes her a Christ-like figure as she strikes a blow against slavery and its rules. When Amy Denver discovers the “tree” of scars on Sethe’s back, Sethe also becomes a Christ-like figure as her scars signify the sins of slavery and embody both literal and figurative suffering. This re-interpretation challenges traditional Christian views by illustrating how Sethe’s literal embodiment of suffering affirms Christ’s presence in earthly pain. According to the article, Amy’s quest for freedom and Sethe’s escape from slavery refigures the characters as female Christs.
Baby Suggs, Sethe’s mother-in-law, though unordained, was considered a spiritual leader and minister before she died of heartbreak. She gathered the ex-slave community in the Clearing, taught them to love themselves, and helped them heal their emotional wounds. She activates the spirit of God and fills the void left by the “prostitution of the Word” during slavery (Mitchell). Her unordained ministry, another refiguration of Christ’s life, provides the community with spiritual liberation by allowing them to reclaim their connection with God through one another. However, her efforts are met with he limitations of religious dogma that have impacted the community’s ability to entirely rid themselves of the taint of slavery, which leads to a sense of injustice when they reject her.
The article concludes that Morrison’s refigurations prevent the essentialization of African American history and religion, allowing for a more fluid spiritual interpretation that challenges traditional biblical ideas. Morrison’s lack of closure in the narrative reflects the novel’s focus on unresolved suffering, such as Beloved’s haunting, which highlights how transcendence offers respite but does not cancel out the deep, residual trauma of slavery. Ultimately, Mitchell demonstrates how Sethe, Amy, and Baby Suggs vitalize the Christ story through their actions and embody the living Christ as a contribution to the community’s restoration.
Emily Griesinger explores the profound suffering endured by the enslaved and its impact on faith through the character of Baby Suggs in “Why Baby Suggs, Holy, Quit Preaching the Word: Redemption and Holiness in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” She frames this exploration with the question of theodicy, “Where is God amid the extremities and absurdities of abject human suffering?” (Griesinger). Baby Suggs is a central figure whose religious faith is rooted in Black holiness tradition; she preaches grace, redemption, and self-love. Her gatherings in the Clearing focus on winning the victory over the “sins” of slavery and the sanctity of mutilated flesh. Her ministry begins powerfully, but she loses faith and quits preaching after the community failed to warn Sethe of the approaching slave catchers and Sethe’s subsequent infanticide. Griesinger proposes that this prompts the question of whether Morrison is critiquing Christianity’s inadequacy in the face of such pervasive evil.
The article argues against interpretations that take the novel as a complete rejection of Christianity, pointing out that some critics believe that Morrison intended to establish a new “religion of Blackness” (Griesinger). Griesinger’s view more aligns with the interpretations that suggest Morrison’s recognition of the liberating potential of Christianity, particularly as reconfigured by the enslaved. The article notes this reconfigured Christianity as an “invisible institution” resulting from “creative syncretism” that blended Christian insight with African tradition. Baby Suggs’ sermons in the Clearing, though she did not explicitly mention God or Jesus, affirmed the holiness of human life and the need to love one’s own flesh. Thus, her sermons are presented as Christian, as they parallel the Christian Holiness Movement, which emphasizes that holiness for the formerly enslaved must begin with the belief that their existence is sacred (Griesinger).
Even after losing her faith, Baby Suggs’ Word continued to be an influence; Sethe’s daughter, Denver, undergoes spiritual growth, which prompts her to seek help for her mother, resulting in the community’s re-engagement and the final “exorcism” of Beloved. The community’s return and reassembly, symbolized by the sharing of food, signifies their healing and re-establishment. While the novel does critique the “white” version of Christianity that condoned slavery, it also emphasizes a high standard of holiness and love for the oppressed, and it highlights the need for repentance and forgiveness within the Black community. Griesinger’s article concludes that the ending of Beloved is one that is hopeful and redemptive; Baby Suggs’ crisis of faith does not negate the novel’s redemptive message. Her life and ministry anchor Morrison’s writing, as it blends Christianity with Black folklore and African tribal religion, while affirming Christianity as a source of hope.
“The Unchurched Preacher and the Circulated Sermon: Literary Preaching in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” analyzes Morrison’s use of the sermon form to address cultural, political, and aesthetic questions, with a particular focus on Baby Suggs’ “Love Your Heart” sermon. Matthew Smalley argues that Morrison has an ambivalent relationship with the sermon form; she’s attracted to its energy and sensuality, but resists its tendency to adhere to authority and culturally dominant Christian ideas that often neglect the needs of the Black community. Despite Baby Suggs’ renunciation of her message after Sethe’s infanticide and the community’s rejection, the power of her sermon multiplies throughout the novel. Morrison uses this circulation of the sermon to illustrate sermonic power, moving it away from the authority of a single figure to a communal force of healing.
The article recognizes Baby Suggs’ “great heart” as a symbol for her ministry’s ability to “pump life into the social body” (Smalley). Her “unchurched” preaching in the Clearing emphasizes the sanctity of flesh and urges her listeners to “Love it. Love it hard” (Morrison). Her sermon’s focus on the physical body counters the dehumanizing practices of slavery that commodified Black bodies. The article highlights instances of the sermon’s circulation: Baby Suggs’ arrival at 124, Sethe’s return to the Clearing, Denver’s decision to seek help, and the exorcism of Beloved.
According to the article, Baby Suggs taking over the home of the former preacher, Bishop Allen, symbolizes a transfer of spiritual authority. Smalley points out that Sethe’s “rememory” of the tender care that Baby Suggs bestowed on her, along with the sermon’s message of self-love, displays the sermon’s enduring impact. Baby Suggs’ words act as a catalyst that brings Denver to reach out to the community to help her mother and the haunting they have endured, which results in the final exorcism of Beloved. The women’s collective “hollering, singing, and chanting” (Smalley) is a manifestation of Baby Suggs’ sermon; their rememory of her feast and message of unconditional love moves them to overcome past resentment and unite against Beloved’s toxic presence.
Smalley contends that Morrison’s literary preaching in the novel tears down hierarchical authority and logocentrism, thereby affirming the Black body’s sanctity, the bond between mother and child, and self-love. Baby Suggs’ sermon circulation transforms the individual preacher’s message into a powerful force of communal healing and invites readers to participate in the work of cultural healing.
“The Debt of Memory: Reparations, Imagination, and History in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” explores the concept of economic, emotional, and historical reparations through the lens of the novel. Richard Perez argues that Beloved addresses the problem of the “cumulative colonial deficit” of slavery, which leads to the reframing of contemporary economic debt that demands reparations in many layered forms. At the beginning of the novel, Morrison warns readers that “This is not a story to pass on”, urging her readers to confront the debt of slavery to move toward a “beloved future” (Morrison). For Morrison, fiction serves as a starting point for reparations; it remagines a hidden past and initiates conversations about what was lost and is yet owed. Beloved positions debt as a resulting problem of “cultural loss and forgetting” (Perez); it attempts to recover historical memory and give the past a new understanding of the present and hope for the future. In her retelling, Morrison highlights the legal distinction that categorized the death of Margaret Garner’s child as property destruction rather than murder. According to Perez, the novel seeks to use storytelling to redress the “traumatic debt” of Garner’s stripped humanity, thereby giving her a “narrative afterlife” (Perez).
Morrison’s approach focuses on an exemplary event to get readers to understand the slave experience and the tension between the formerly enslaved and their traumatic past, which gives voice to those who were “lost in the oblivion of the archive” (Perez). Beloved opens with a dedication to the “Sixty Million and more,” referring to the more than sixty million African lives lost during the Middle Passage. Perez asserts that this dedication functions as a “reparative attempt to bridge the gap” (Perez) that resulted from their untold stories. Beloved’s haunting of 124 not only symbolizes the spectral presence of Sethe’s murdered daughter, but it also symbolizes the ongoing grief experienced by the Black community as a result of insurmountable loss and violence. This haunting forces memory to be confronted, the unbearable weight of it so intense that it distorts the physical makeup of the 124. Perez also cites the “tree” on Sethe’s back as another signifier of social and historical debt, as it serves as an imprint of racial violence and a traumatic memory.
Sethe’s “rememory” explains how physical places retain the impacts of events, making it accessible to those who weren’t present for the events. Perez refers to this as the “extratextual archive” of “sentient leftover” that creates an alternate reality where history waits for contact through one’s imagination. Imagination, then, allows for the potential of reparative action. Beloved’s water rebirth embodies the historical trauma that Perez addresses, and her arrival compels Sethe to confront her past to reclaim her humanity. Perez concludes that Beloved is a “traumatic narrative of the past” that forces remembering and calls for imagination to keep the memory of slavery alive through storytelling as a form of witness.
“An Ineffable Haunting: Language, Embodiment, and Ghosts in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” by Connor Lifson examines how the novel utilizes the limitations of language to convey the connections between the Reconstruction era and the present day. Lifson makes the argument that Morrison emphasizes the inadequacy of language to express such traumatic experience, which encourages readers to seek “ineffable, embodied knowledge” (Lifson) to understand the pervasive traumas of slavery. Using Morrison’s concept of “invisible ink” as a lens, the article proposes that the novel guides readers’ interpretation of the unspoken histories that haunt the world. Lifson introduces “ineffability” in Morrison’s work, arguing that it suggests an embodied mode of understanding rather than an intellectual one. Baby Suggs dancing in the Clearing exemplifies this embodied knowledge and how Morrison challenges the priority of written knowledge over lived experience through centering Black folklore and oral tradition. Lifson ultimately connects “rememory” and haunting as processes of engaging with a past that is both present and absent, and concludes with three interpretations of Morrison’s phrase, “It was not a story to pass on”: a retelling, an admonition against ignoring history, and an imperative for readers to keep Beloved’s story alive. This rememory is presented as a praxis necessary for healing from the pervasive and continuous racial injustice resulting from slavery.
Alex Zamalin’s “Beloved Citizens: Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Racial Inequality, and American Public Policy” focuses on the novel as a commentary on the ways social assistance impacts freedom and increases marginalization in the Black community. The article asserts that Beloved critiques social assistance offered on conditional terms. Morrison introduces unconditional social assistance through Baby Suggs’ care ethics, which serves as an effective model for addressing oppression and moving toward liberation. According to the article, this model offers insight for today’s debates on public assistance programs and racial inequity, and suggests that true aid should allow individuals to receive help without imposing conditions or accruing debt.
Finally, “The Duality of Toni Morrison’s Beloved: Postmodern Religious Symbols That Highlight the Inherited Legacy of the American South” by Charity L. Gibson explores the character Beloved as a complex spiritual symbol who embodies Christian and African cosmological elements. The article examines Beloved as a symbol of reincarnation, drawing on Yoruba beliefs, while also serving as a Christ figure. Her role in Sethe’s spiritual journey emphasizes Christian influences. Gibson argues that the story utilizes postmodern techniques to interpret Beloved as an endorsement of religious duality, which is a problem for Christianity and African religions because of their conflicting principles. As an alternative, the article suggests that Morrison’s dualistic religious references offer an accurate image of slave religion in the South, which combined Christian and African beliefs, and allow it to serve as a starting point for discourse about the South’s spiritual and cultural inheritance. Gibson concludes that Beloved deconstructs one-dimensional views of slavery and religion, and prompts readers to consider the existence of spiritual forces outside of a pluralistic worldview.
These articles emphasize the theme of community in Beloved by portraying the story as a source of trauma and a path to redemption. Morrison depicts a fragmented community that has broken down because of resentment and a lack of solidarity, which prompts Baby Suggs’ crisis of faith and isolates 124. The story displays the destructive consequences of a community that loses its sense of collective responsibility. The articles also illustrate how community provides healing and liberation. Baby Suggs’ ministry in the Clearing exemplifies the power of community building as she teaches the formerly enslaved to love themselves and restores their affection. Despite her loss of faith, her message endures and circulates through rememory, and ultimately moves the restored community to collective action against the haunting presence of Beloved. The novel affirms that the power of community and unity are crucial in confronting the past and moving toward a hopeful future.
The articles also consistently emphasize that Beloved is a profoundly spiritual and theological work that explores the interplay of Christian and African cosmological beliefs. The novel engages theological questions through a story centered on collective liberation and solidarity, challenging traditional Eurocentric worldviews and offering an approach to meaning that draws from African traditional cultures. Though the novel brings discomfort, it forces an examination of theological problems, highlighting how the suffering of the Black community has been historically overlooked. The authors of the articles distinguish the spirituality in Beloved from rigid religious practice, highlighting its manifestation through embodied experiences and communal healing instead of a strict adherence to doctrine and dogma. This spirituality of liberation fills the hole left by the violence of slavery and the weaponization of Christianity. The novel blurs the lines between the natural and the supernatural, presenting both as tenets of culture rather than fantastical elements.
While the articles largely agree on the spiritual and communal themes in Beloved, there are some points of disagreement concerning the theological implications of Morrison’s use of religious hybridization in interpreting Baby Suggs’ spiritual journey. Gibson introduces a contending point in her argument that a “postmodern understanding of religion to Beloved, in which all religions can coexist without the practitioner ever having to align with dogmas and doctrine unique to any one faith, would be a misunderstanding of certain fundamental tenants of both Christianity and African religions” (Gibson). She states that the attempt to combine two worldviews that contradict one another presents a theological problem, and that Beloved is compatible with a Christian worldview only through the symbolic representations of cultural manifestations. This perspective clashes with Allen’s, which saw Morrison offering a “hybridised approach to theological meaning” and “syncretic cosmology” without it being problematic (Allen).
Points of tension can also be found in the interpretation of Baby Suggs deciding to turn away from preaching. Griesinger interprets this as a personal crisis of faith as opposed to a complete rejection of Christianity, and asserts that the Word Baby Suggs delivers continue to impact the lives of the novel’s characters throughout its entirety. This contrasts with Smalley’s perspective, which frames Baby Suggs’ renunciation and subsequent death as an intentional move by Morrison to “dismantle the logocentrism of the Protestant sermon” (Smalley). Rather than disagreements, these varying interpretations of the role of Baby Suggs and Morrison’s intentions reflect the varying critical lenses used to explore the novel’s complex and layered spiritual landscape.
My interpretation of Beloved leans toward the perspective of the novel as a theological work that challenges Eurocentric Christian worldviews and interweaves the Christian faith with African cultural and religious practices. Morrison’s intentionality in this hybridity highlights the need to confront unbearably painful memory and trauma as a path to individual and communal healing. By rejecting colonial categories and labeling, Morrison removes possessive dogma and doctrine that oppress instead of liberate. Beloved highlights the way white theology was weaponized in the United States to construct race, institute slavery, and ultimately fail to foster theology that aids in the liberation of the oppressed. The novel poses the question of theodicy, which seeks to reconcile the existence of a good God with the presence of evil and suffering in the world, rather than following Eurocentric interpretations of Christianity that attempt to decide who suffers and to justify their suffering.
Beloved is a challenging and profoundly heartbreaking read for the Black community because it is unflinching in its confrontation of the unimaginable traumas of chattel slavery, not as a distant, ugly past, but as a living memory that haunts the present. Morrison’s graphic depiction of Sethe’s brutalization, infanticide, and the “Negro grief” (Morrison) resonate with the concept of collective memory and generational trauma. It reveals the inhumane foundation of a country built on the institution of slavery, exposing how it destroyed families and left behind physical and psychological scars. Though unsettling, this story forces the painful “rememory” of a dark and traumatic past as a means to liberation from the hold of that past. Through confronting the unspeakable, Morrison employs storytelling as a powerful tool for individual and collective healing. Beloved then becomes a reparative conduit as it attempts to recover the historical memory of those whose voice and memory were lost, and to reconstitute their personhood. Morrison’s use of “rememory” and communal storytelling and retelling enables characters like Sethe to transition from utter brokenness to wholeness within community. In community, isolation, guilt, and trauma become communal solidarity that transcends past suffering and violence. Beloved invites readers to join in the “rememory” and guides us in acknowledging, processing, and working toward a path to collective healing and a hopeful future for the Black community, changing the burden of a past that was forced upon us into a shared ground for collective liberation.
Works Cited
Allen, John J. “On White Theology … and Other Lies: Redemptive Communal Narrative in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” Literature and Theology, vol. 35, no. 3, Dec. 2021, pp. 285–308. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1093/litthe/frab014.
Anker, Elizabeth S. “The ‘Scent of Ink’: Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the Semiotics of Rights.” Critical Quarterly, vol. 56, no. 4, Dec. 2014, pp. 29–45. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1111/criq.12160.
David, Ron. Toni Morrison for Beginners. For Beginners, 2016.
Gibson, C. L. (2025). The Duality of Toni Morrison’s Beloved: Postmodern Religious Symbols That Highlight the Inherited Legacy of the American South. Religions, 16(2), 171. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020171
Griesinger, Emily. “Why Baby Suggs, Holy, Quit Preaching the Word: Redemption and Holiness in Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved.’” Christianity and Literature, vol. 50, no. 4, 2001, pp. 689–702. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44313025. Accessed 15 June 2025.
Lifson, Connor. “An Ineffable Haunting: Language, Embodiment, and Ghosts in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.”
Mitchell, Carolyn A. “‘I Love to Tell the Story’: Biblical Revisions in ‘Beloved.’” Religion & Literature, vol. 23, no. 3, 1991, pp. 27–42. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40059486. Accessed 15 June 2025.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Vintage International, 2004.
Perez, Richard. “The Debt of Memory: Reparations, Imagination, and History in Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved.’” Women’s Studies Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 1/2, 2014, pp. 190–98. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24364922. Accessed 16 June 2025.
Smalley, Matthew. “The Unchurched Preacher and the Circulated Sermon: Literary Preaching in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” MELUS, vol. 43, no. 2, 2018, pp. 29–52. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26566130. Accessed 15 June 2025.
Zamalin, Alex. “Beloved Citizens: Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’, Racial Inequality, and American Public Policy.” Women’s Studies Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 1/2, 2014, pp. 205–11. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24364924. Accessed 16 June 2025.