EMILIE M. TOWNES is an ordained Baptist clergywoman and the Carolyn Williams Beaird Professor of Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, USA. She is also Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African-American Religion and Theology at Yale University, has been elected 2008 President of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the 15,000-member organization. Townes is the first African-American woman to serve as President of the AAR, which is the world's largest association of scholars who teach or research topics related to religion.       

This groundbreaking book provides an analytical tool to understand how and why evil works in the world as it does. Deconstructing memory, history, and myth as received wisdom, the volume critically examines racism, sexism, poverty, and stereotypes.