 Examples from Black folk stories and jokes, spirituals, blues, rap, and political discourse form the basis of Pinn's work.In his analysis of these diverse sources, Pinn employs what he terms "nitty-gritty hermeneutics," an approach to theological thought that is constructed from the hard realities of human experience, unconfined by a need to fit into preconceived Christian doctrines.In other words, nitty-gritty hermeneutics privilege solutions to the problem of oppression over the maintenance of religious tradition.