As a 30-something Black Christian Woman, I am glad to have found this book! I was able to reflect on my healing with such thoughtful and profound words! I was able to see how shame shows up in my body, where the feelings of shame come from, and how to combat those feelings. I am on a journey of exploring my sensual self and this book has been a great tool. I recommend this to all women who are reclaiming their bodies and learning to love themselves fully from a cultural and spiritual perspective. Thank you for this Lavonne Briggs.❤

Because so many of the topics mentioned are taboo in discussion with other Christians, reading this book felt like having a safe space to explore questions I've had but knew better than to ask. Some things still seem foreign to me, but they were introduced and gave me the notion to explore them further for myself. Chapter 7, for example, spoke to me in ways I didn't even know I needed! Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read Sensual Faith by Lavonne Briggs.

The content in this book could guide Black women to come home to their bodies. The author explores how women can express their sexuality in a pleasurable way and notes that "sensuality is the ultimate practice of mindfulness." “Self-love is the absolute first step to loving others.” She also addresses topics like work, stress, healing our inner child, learning to recognize and trust our intuition, and how generational trauma affects women today at home, work and in society.
Although I am not the target audience, I did appreciate most of the content.
The author's overuse of words like "beloved, chile, sis" annoyed me. This tactic made it seem like she was trying to form an artificial emotional connection with the reader and felt gimmicky.
Some of the content will be challenging for some readers. For example, she discusses her experience with sexual abuse and masturbation. However, she does offer a warning at the beginning of one of the chapters, and she advises readers at the beginning of the book to personalize the journey, take what they want from her story and go at their own pace for healing.
Some of the chapter content jumps around and is not cohesive, which confused me. But each chapter includes a Reflect, Celebrate and Affirm section, which is helpful to embody the contents.
Ultimately, "Now is the time for you to unlearn any religious, social, and cultural conditioning that makes you think your body is unholy and release any insecurities you might have about your body-temple."

I really wanted to like this. And perhaps I’m just not the right audience because the more I read, the more frustrated I became and it’s not because I thought it was blasphemous or too liberal but simply that I think that if cis, straight, abled bodied people are going to write and theorize about sexuality and sensuality, they need to consider other lived experiences beyond their own. Sexuality and a liberated approach to being in one’s body is not just about sex and having sex. I expected some acknowledgement of ace identities or experiences but nope. I’m not sure what I expected but this wasn’t it. Again, I just don’t think I was the right audience.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

The book I didn't know I needed to read.
The cover immediately caught my eye, but I found a beautiful read inside.
Pastor Lyvonne bridges self-love and faith, showing us we can be human. We can love God and love our bodies.
I highly recommend this book for those looking to find or build self-love.

The author was a guest on a podcast where I work, so I checked out the book.
I was looking for texts and teachings that counter the oppression often found in the Bible and espoused in the Christian church around women and their bodies. Unfortunately this text was a little too out there for me, to the point where it didn't seem to have much of a basis beyond "God made our bodies so we should enjoy them and have sex." That's what the world says! For someone saying she's a minister and went to divinity school, I was expecting some new revelation of the Word...this just felt blasphemous.
I do appreciate the author's confidence but was offput by the colloquial way in which she spoke so often about her sex life. I'm sorry but Christian women do no brag about "getting it in."
Overall, there is obviously nothing wrong with her opinions but readers should come with a very open mind, lol.

Thank you Lyvonne for writing this book. Being raised in the Pentecostal church it surely taught us how to demonize the body of a woman. This book has help me to challenge my faith and know that this body God created is good. Let’s do a Bible study using this book.

I enjoy a book that challenges my faith. This book does that. The author, Lyvonne Briggs is a pastor who believes in body and sex positivity. She writes this book from the perspective of a Black woman in Christian spaces where the body, especially the female body is demonized. To convey her thoughts on how this demonization can be combated, Pastor Briggs offers personal testimony, scripture references and extensive quotes from faith leaders.

I will admit many of the scriptural references Pastor Briggs uses made me uncomfortable in the way in which she uses them. For me that is a good thing because it causes me to interrogate the scriptures further. For others, this book may feel like blasphemy. This book is for women who are open to challenging their faith and want to be more accepting of their body. Those who hold extremely conservative Christian beliefs will not enjoy it.

I was sent a digital copy of this book by the publisher, Convergent Books via Netgalley.

I had the opportunity to review an advanced copy of Lyvonne Briggs’ book, Sensual Faith: The Art of Coming Home to Your Body, which is set to be released this week. I think it is an important work, necessary for me and anyone else who is in the process of unlearning some long held beliefs taught by well-meaning churches.
Rev. Briggs, a self-described “Sex Positive Pastor”, sets out to provide space for readers to:
1) Uncover our spirituality; 20 Recover our sensuality; and 3) Discover our sexuality. With her her down-to-earth, transparent, and powerful storytelling, she succeeded. Early on, she defines womanism and intersectionality, terms that are often used but not always understood. She quotes renowned womanist scholars, including my beloved Rev. Dr. Katie G. Cannon. Each chapter ends with a reflection, celebration, and affirmation. Don’t skip over the footnotes!
In the chapter, “But the Bible Says…Acknowledging What Church and Society Got Wrong”, she notes how Song of Songs 1:5 is written in various translations. Then, she points out that changing one word drastically changes how that verse is received, especially by Black women. As a survivor of sexual assault, my heart hurt as she described being sexually abused by her father in “#MeToo, Sis: Healing Sexual Trauma and Fostering Resiliency”. The statistics given serve as a reminder that this is too frequent an occurrence and the silence that surrounds rape, incest and other sexual traumas must be broken. Grateful for new language learned by way of the term she coined, surthrivor.
Briggs’ take on grief was also soothing. This quote was especially meaningful, “The Bible says, ‘Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.’ don’t take that to mean that if we lament all night long, when the clock chimes at midnight or when the sun rises at 6:00 A.M., we will be instantaneously whole. Joy does not always come with the morning. No, joy comes with the mourning. If you invite grief across the threshold and into your home, joy will come alongside it.”
Reading Sensual Faith was just what I needed in the winter of 2023. Lyvonne Briggs’ journey is one that many Generation X and Millennial Black Christian women will be able to relate to. Her thoughts regarding the church and society’s views on regulating our bodies will having you shaking your head in shock or agreement.
In the end, Sensual Faith does give you a path to come home to your body. To come home to yourself. To see your body as fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s image and likeness. To see that you are God’s good creation. To see yourself as God sees you.
P.S. After reading the book, I wanted to hear more from Lyvonne Briggs. Found her Spotify Original podcast, Sanctified, which she hosts with Deborah Joy Winans. The first episiode, “Purity Culture is a Scam” is something you should go listen to as soon as you can!

I highlighted many things as I read this book. It came at it from a completely different culture than my own, but I could relate to so many things she talked about. The struggles with the battle between our faith and sex is not a new one. This book, written by a pastor was unique in its biblical approach to what the bible say about our bodies, our sex life, and scripture tying it together, diminishing cultural contracts we have from what we have been taught it says. I am still mulling over much of it. I felt privileged to be able to learn from this author, sit inside the inner circle, so to speak, on a journey of healing.

So, I really didn’t have any idea what I signed on for with this book. The tag “The Art of Coming Home to Your Body” spoke to me on many levels, so I clicked “request.” Overall, the book isn’t bad, and I really enjoyed seeing a quote from a friend. I did enjoy the different facets of Black Womanhood that was highlighted and the personable approach.

However, I didn’t realize the author was a preacher, and it definitely felt preachy at times which didn’t sit well with my tastes. I also wanted more focus on the Black Woman’s Body. She did a bunch of building up to the “Coming Home to Your Body” which made me feel a bit cheated when we only got about two chapters on the body.

I do think this will work beautifully for people in and out of the church. I loved the inclusion of reflection pieces as well as biblical text and context of the biblical quotes. It’s a really good book; it just didn’t meet all of my needs.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Writing from a theologically rooted and biblically informed position, the author does an incredible job of laying bare the truth of God’s heart—particularly as it relates to the bodies of women. She honors the reader as she does this, making clear the way forward of faithfulness and self-value interconnected.

A provocative look at the human body, sexuality and spirituality. This book challenges the reader to look at sexuality and spirituality in a more broader notion as it’s goal is to promote the imperative nature of truly understanding your body and it’s needs.
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Thank you #convergentbooks and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

As a Black Woman who grew up in The Church, I felt so seen and understood by this authors writing and would definitely recommend this to any other Black Woman who may be interested in reconnecting with their body/sexuality or just healing from religious trauma in general. Lyvonne Briggs is a body and sex positive Pastor as well as a spiritual life coach and wants to teach folks, especially BW how to “come home” to our bodies. This book is written from a Womanist Theological standpoint which aims to center Black Women’s experiences.

TW: There are mentions of Sexual Abuse but the author put appropriate warnings ahead of them so if you’re not comfortable reading them you can skip ahead.

Sensual Faith by Lyvonne Briggs was such a unique book for me. One I am going to have to purchase an annotate! Briggs writes that pleasure is our birthright. Holy scripture, for sure.

This book concerns leading churched and formerly churched black women into a holistic relationship with their bodies. This involved uncovering your spirituality, recovering your sensuality discovering your sexuality. This book claims to help black women retrieve their ancestral wisdom, recover sacred birthrights, and revive spiritual practices. This book was disappointing because it claimed to explore the relation between spirituality and sexuality but it did not do so. Rather, it was a disconnected series of various topics concerning black women in general

Lyvonne Briggs' "Sensual Faith" is a gift to anyone wanting to reimagine and rekindle their relationship to their body and God-given sensuality.