Esotericism in African American Religious Experience: "There is a Mystery"..., brings together groundbreaking essays that inaugurate Africana Esoteric Studies (AES): a new trans-disciplinary enterprise that investigates esoteric lore and practices in Africa and the African Diaspora.

Stephen C. Finley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and the African and African American Studies Program at Louisiana State University. An Executive Committee member of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, he is completing his book, In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam.

Margarita Simon Guillory is an assistant professor of religion at the University of Rochester. Her research interests include American Spiritualism, identity construction in African American religion, and social scientific approaches to religion. In addition to contributing essays to several edited volumes, she has published articles in Culture and Religion and Pastoral Psychology.
Hugh R. Page Jr. is Associate Professor of Theology and Africana Studies as well as Vice President, Associate Provost, and Dean of the First Year of Studies at the University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN). He is general editor of The Africana Bible: Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora (Fortress, 2009) and author of Israel's Poetry of Resistance: Africana Perspectives on Early Hebrew Verse (Fortress, 2013).
Contributor include: Julius H. Bailey, Justine M. Bakker, Yvonne Chireau, Mary Ann Clark, Paul Easterling, Mambo Vye Zo Komande LaMenfo, Lana Finley, Biko Mandela Gray The Reverend Dr. Barbara A. Holmes, Joyce Marie Jackson, Alisha Lola Jones, Jeffrey J. Kripal, Darnise C. Martin, Aundrea L. Matthews, Elizabeth Perez, Chad Pevateaux, Anthony B. Pinn, Marques Redd, Stephen Wehmeyer, Jon Woodson.