"Jones navigates biblical passages, postmodern theory, womanism, and theological concepts in a way that is understandable to a non-religious studies readership. Readers interested in queer studies, Black LGBTQI faith communities, fans of the artists featured in the text, worship studies practitioners, and ministry groups who are currently looking for tools to use for social justice initiatives can all benefit from this groundbreaking text." -- Brigitta Johnson, Journal of the American Musicological Society "Flaming?: The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel PerformanceÂinstigates a new level of scholarly engagement in a complicated web of intersecting spaces with exemplary methodology, superb clarity, and a rare ethic that is more pastoral than most scholars can achieve." -- Emmett G. Price III, The Journal of Popular Music Studies "How does one take the abundant, multi-directional creativity of twenty-first-century African-American gospel music and sift it through the filter of gender without diminishing its lived experiential truths? Alisha Jones does this with rare scholarly grace, riding the turbulent wave of emic and etic perspectives on worship practice and spirituality, as well as gender. The result is a major new study of multiple subgenres of contemporary African-American gospel music, but even more crucially, a searingly honest study that opens substantial theological ground." -- Jennifer Rycenga, Yale Journal of Music & Religion "Flaming? is a rich work by a scholar who offers major theoretical insight into African American and Africana religious expression and practice. [Jones's] work confirms and confounds expectations of what the religion scholar produces, and which areas of religious studies may benefit from her sites, methods, and analysis.

" -- Vaughn A. Booker, Dartmouth College, American Religion "Bold, disruptive, and erudite, Alisha Lola Jones' Flaming?: The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance is a thoughtful and necessary intervention into the lives and representations of Black men. How we think and write about Black masculinity, the Black Church and Gospel Music will never be the same." -- Mark Anthony Neal, author Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinity "This remarkably rich, multisided ethnography of gospel music by ethnomusicologist Alisha Lola Jones is praise-worthy in every hill and valley of its analysis. Scholars interested in music from every discipline and denomination of study including ethnomusicology, sociology, American studies, queer studies, and religious and ethical studies, among others, will be aflame by the outstanding fusion of intersectionality, queer sexualities, and its inclusive gendered body and sonance from the Black men in the contemporary music ministry." -- Kyra D. Gaunt, Ph.D, Ethnomusicologist, University at Albany, SUNY "The book draws on six years of extensive ethnographic research, including interviews and participant observations of gospel performances.

Jones's main argument is that Black male gospel singers use their voices to articulate a unique theopolitics that challenges dominant understandings of race, gender, and sexuality. She argues this theopolitics is grounded in music's ability to free self-expression." -- Michelle Ann Patterson, Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham (UK), Reading Religion.