Daphne C. Wiggins
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195167979
- eISBN:
- 9780199784981
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019516797X.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
African American Christianity can be used to engage the questions of social practice and theology. From a variety of sources, the Black Church has constructed practices that counter and subdue ...
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African American Christianity can be used to engage the questions of social practice and theology. From a variety of sources, the Black Church has constructed practices that counter and subdue oppressive forces felt by African Americans while simultaneously establishing a context for a more abundant life. This chapter presents a model for teaching those contexts. It presents the rationale and several of the strategies used in the course, “The Social Contexts of the Black Church”. The course requires students to ground their ministerial vision in a dialectical understanding of the Black Church. Moving between the contemporary interdisciplinary interpretation of the sociocultural contexts of African Americans and the history and established theological teachings of the Black Church, an approach is presented that equips theological students to construct a ministerial direction and praxis.Less
African American Christianity can be used to engage the questions of social practice and theology. From a variety of sources, the Black Church has constructed practices that counter and subdue oppressive forces felt by African Americans while simultaneously establishing a context for a more abundant life. This chapter presents a model for teaching those contexts. It presents the rationale and several of the strategies used in the course, “The Social Contexts of the Black Church”. The course requires students to ground their ministerial vision in a dialectical understanding of the Black Church. Moving between the contemporary interdisciplinary interpretation of the sociocultural contexts of African Americans and the history and established theological teachings of the Black Church, an approach is presented that equips theological students to construct a ministerial direction and praxis.
Curtis J. Evans
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195328189
- eISBN:
- 9780199870028
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195328189.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
W. E. B. Bu Bois and other black leaders played a crucial role in the creation of the “Negro Church.” By using the language and tools of the social sciences, black intellectuals and leaders hoped to ...
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W. E. B. Bu Bois and other black leaders played a crucial role in the creation of the “Negro Church.” By using the language and tools of the social sciences, black intellectuals and leaders hoped to incite and urge the black churches to use their resources to assist and uplift a people downtrodden by racism and economic oppression. Instrumentalists, those who wanted to use the church as a means or instrument for other ends (besides religion), came to dominate interpretations of black religion among African American leaders. Although Du Bois initially hoped to provide detailed local studies of black churches, his long‐term legacy (and that of other black leaders) was to foster longstanding debates about whether the “Black Church” supported or undermined a racist status quo.Less
W. E. B. Bu Bois and other black leaders played a crucial role in the creation of the “Negro Church.” By using the language and tools of the social sciences, black intellectuals and leaders hoped to incite and urge the black churches to use their resources to assist and uplift a people downtrodden by racism and economic oppression. Instrumentalists, those who wanted to use the church as a means or instrument for other ends (besides religion), came to dominate interpretations of black religion among African American leaders. Although Du Bois initially hoped to provide detailed local studies of black churches, his long‐term legacy (and that of other black leaders) was to foster longstanding debates about whether the “Black Church” supported or undermined a racist status quo.
Walter Earl Fluker
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462005
- eISBN:
- 9781626745094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462005.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter proposes a reconfigured Black Theology based on the contemporary context of the Black Church in the US in a contested post-racial, post-American world. In that context, Black churches ...
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This chapter proposes a reconfigured Black Theology based on the contemporary context of the Black Church in the US in a contested post-racial, post-American world. In that context, Black churches are besieged by the “cultural hauntings” of race, in all of its shifting shapes and reinventions. This reference to shape-shifting is a form of critical signification on Black Church traditions. Historically, the Black Church has taken its metaphors, its parody and transformation of Western stories and ideas too literally and has mistaken these rhetorical devices for preordained things, essences. Shape-shifting is a form of postmodern self-reflexive critique of all signs which claim to be Absolute, including race, blackness, and theological metaphors. The chapter recommends, therefore, that the Black Church remain open to revisability of language and remember its own tradition of shape-shifting, signifying, reinterpreting in preaching, liturgy, and playing on words.Less
This chapter proposes a reconfigured Black Theology based on the contemporary context of the Black Church in the US in a contested post-racial, post-American world. In that context, Black churches are besieged by the “cultural hauntings” of race, in all of its shifting shapes and reinventions. This reference to shape-shifting is a form of critical signification on Black Church traditions. Historically, the Black Church has taken its metaphors, its parody and transformation of Western stories and ideas too literally and has mistaken these rhetorical devices for preordained things, essences. Shape-shifting is a form of postmodern self-reflexive critique of all signs which claim to be Absolute, including race, blackness, and theological metaphors. The chapter recommends, therefore, that the Black Church remain open to revisability of language and remember its own tradition of shape-shifting, signifying, reinterpreting in preaching, liturgy, and playing on words.
Matthew J. Cressler
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479841325
- eISBN:
- 9781479815425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479841325.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter illustrates how Fr. George Clements creatively combined Black Power with the methods of early-twentieth-century missionaries with great success in his pastorate at Holy Angels parish. It ...
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This chapter illustrates how Fr. George Clements creatively combined Black Power with the methods of early-twentieth-century missionaries with great success in his pastorate at Holy Angels parish. It examines the relationships Clements forged with other Black Power organizations and explores the life of Holy Angels Catholic school. It expands the scope of the story from the previous chapter and discusses the establishment of national Black Catholic institutions and organizations. Ultimately, it argues that, faced with opposition from fellow Black Catholics who resisted the influence of Black Power, activists became missionaries of a sort as they worked to convert their coreligionists to a particular understanding of what it meant to be Black and Catholic. They brought to life a distinctively Black Catholicism in the process. It devotes attention to what activists meant by “authentic Blackness” and whether it was compatible with Catholic religious practice.Less
This chapter illustrates how Fr. George Clements creatively combined Black Power with the methods of early-twentieth-century missionaries with great success in his pastorate at Holy Angels parish. It examines the relationships Clements forged with other Black Power organizations and explores the life of Holy Angels Catholic school. It expands the scope of the story from the previous chapter and discusses the establishment of national Black Catholic institutions and organizations. Ultimately, it argues that, faced with opposition from fellow Black Catholics who resisted the influence of Black Power, activists became missionaries of a sort as they worked to convert their coreligionists to a particular understanding of what it meant to be Black and Catholic. They brought to life a distinctively Black Catholicism in the process. It devotes attention to what activists meant by “authentic Blackness” and whether it was compatible with Catholic religious practice.
Andrew Billingsley
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195161793
- eISBN:
- 9780199849512
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161793.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter demonstrates how the potential for collaboration was developed in Denver and Atlanta and how it is proving appropriate and effective for both internal and external strategies of social ...
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This chapter demonstrates how the potential for collaboration was developed in Denver and Atlanta and how it is proving appropriate and effective for both internal and external strategies of social reform. Membership size of churches in both cities varies widely; many—49% of churches in Denver and 52% in Atlanta — have between 100 and 500 members. There is a strong tendency in both cities for black churches to own their buildings rather than rent them. In addition, a majority of churches in both cities conduct at least one nonreligious community outreach program. Metro Denver Black Church Initiative was launched in Denver to improve conditions in low-income black neighborhoods through the local churches. Furthermore, the outreach to the community in Atlanta is described.Less
This chapter demonstrates how the potential for collaboration was developed in Denver and Atlanta and how it is proving appropriate and effective for both internal and external strategies of social reform. Membership size of churches in both cities varies widely; many—49% of churches in Denver and 52% in Atlanta — have between 100 and 500 members. There is a strong tendency in both cities for black churches to own their buildings rather than rent them. In addition, a majority of churches in both cities conduct at least one nonreligious community outreach program. Metro Denver Black Church Initiative was launched in Denver to improve conditions in low-income black neighborhoods through the local churches. Furthermore, the outreach to the community in Atlanta is described.
Deidre Helen Crumbley
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813039848
- eISBN:
- 9780813043791
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813039848.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
On one level, Saved and Sanctified tells a very particular story: this is the story of a church started above a horse stable in Great Migration Philadelphia, which, led by a charismatic woman born ...
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On one level, Saved and Sanctified tells a very particular story: this is the story of a church started above a horse stable in Great Migration Philadelphia, which, led by a charismatic woman born just sixteen years after the Emancipation Proclamation, not only survived the death of the founder, but also institutionalized power-sharing by female and male elders. On another level, this book tells a more universal story: this is the human story of institution-building, establishing community, and pursuing a life of faith while negotiating rapidly changing and often adversarial social realities. Crumbley first situates “The Church,” as members, “saints,” refer to it, within the socio-historical landscape of the Great Migration, when, over six decades, six million African Americans left the Jim Crow South. She does this not only by drawing on germane historical research, but also by documenting the oral histories of founding members, both North and South of the Mason Dixon Line. Crumbley also explores the ritual and symbolic content of The Church, as a Sanctified Church within Black Church traditions and as an expression of African Diaspora religion. She analyzes its institutionalization as an experiment in employing both gender and age as organizing principles. Crumbley brings a unique perspective to this historically embedded ethnography in that she looks at The Church through the telescopic lens of the trained anthropologist and through the microscopic lens of one raised within this faith community.Less
On one level, Saved and Sanctified tells a very particular story: this is the story of a church started above a horse stable in Great Migration Philadelphia, which, led by a charismatic woman born just sixteen years after the Emancipation Proclamation, not only survived the death of the founder, but also institutionalized power-sharing by female and male elders. On another level, this book tells a more universal story: this is the human story of institution-building, establishing community, and pursuing a life of faith while negotiating rapidly changing and often adversarial social realities. Crumbley first situates “The Church,” as members, “saints,” refer to it, within the socio-historical landscape of the Great Migration, when, over six decades, six million African Americans left the Jim Crow South. She does this not only by drawing on germane historical research, but also by documenting the oral histories of founding members, both North and South of the Mason Dixon Line. Crumbley also explores the ritual and symbolic content of The Church, as a Sanctified Church within Black Church traditions and as an expression of African Diaspora religion. She analyzes its institutionalization as an experiment in employing both gender and age as organizing principles. Crumbley brings a unique perspective to this historically embedded ethnography in that she looks at The Church through the telescopic lens of the trained anthropologist and through the microscopic lens of one raised within this faith community.
Herbert Robinson Marbury
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479835966
- eISBN:
- 9781479875030
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479835966.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter turns to the era of the Black Power Movement, probing its contours as the ideological heir to the Civil Rights Movement. It also examines the interpretive work of Albert Cleage. ...
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This chapter turns to the era of the Black Power Movement, probing its contours as the ideological heir to the Civil Rights Movement. It also examines the interpretive work of Albert Cleage. Delivered in October 1967, his sermon “What Can We Give Our Youth” interprets the exodus narrative both as an exercise in radical race politics and Cleage's own pillar of fire politics. While most figures of the Black Power Movement abandoned the Black Church for what they perceived to be its accommodationist orientation, Cleage constructed a theology and a politics that maximized the best insights of the Civil Rights and the Black Power Movements, while remaining grounded in the history and traditions of the Black Church.Less
This chapter turns to the era of the Black Power Movement, probing its contours as the ideological heir to the Civil Rights Movement. It also examines the interpretive work of Albert Cleage. Delivered in October 1967, his sermon “What Can We Give Our Youth” interprets the exodus narrative both as an exercise in radical race politics and Cleage's own pillar of fire politics. While most figures of the Black Power Movement abandoned the Black Church for what they perceived to be its accommodationist orientation, Cleage constructed a theology and a politics that maximized the best insights of the Civil Rights and the Black Power Movements, while remaining grounded in the history and traditions of the Black Church.
Korie L. Edwards
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195314243
- eISBN:
- 9780199871810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314243.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The second chapter examines the worship styles and practices of interracial churches and compares them to those of other kinds of churches. Focusing on a conflict over worship practices that emerged ...
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The second chapter examines the worship styles and practices of interracial churches and compares them to those of other kinds of churches. Focusing on a conflict over worship practices that emerged during the case study, this chapter further discusses African‐Americans' and whites' perspectives on worship and illustrates how the worship styles and practices preferred by whites can come to prevail in interracial churches.Less
The second chapter examines the worship styles and practices of interracial churches and compares them to those of other kinds of churches. Focusing on a conflict over worship practices that emerged during the case study, this chapter further discusses African‐Americans' and whites' perspectives on worship and illustrates how the worship styles and practices preferred by whites can come to prevail in interracial churches.
Matthew J. Cressler
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479841325
- eISBN:
- 9781479815425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479841325.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter introduces “the Living Stations of the Cross,” a Black Catholic reenactment of the passion and death of Jesus performed annually by parishioners of Chicago’s largest Black Catholic ...
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This chapter introduces “the Living Stations of the Cross,” a Black Catholic reenactment of the passion and death of Jesus performed annually by parishioners of Chicago’s largest Black Catholic church from 1937 to 1968. This devotional practice serves as a lens through which to better understand the ways in which Catholic ritual life and relationships distinguished Catholic converts from the Protestant churches proliferating around them in the midst of the Great Migrations. It argues that Black Catholics should be understood as sharing in the same impulse as other new religious movements or “religio-racial movements,” such as the Black Hebrews and Black Muslims, who adopted religious practices and bodily disciplines that marked them as different from the assorted Black evangelical practices that were quickly coming to be understood as normative for Black religious life (known by the shorthand “the Black Church”).Less
This chapter introduces “the Living Stations of the Cross,” a Black Catholic reenactment of the passion and death of Jesus performed annually by parishioners of Chicago’s largest Black Catholic church from 1937 to 1968. This devotional practice serves as a lens through which to better understand the ways in which Catholic ritual life and relationships distinguished Catholic converts from the Protestant churches proliferating around them in the midst of the Great Migrations. It argues that Black Catholics should be understood as sharing in the same impulse as other new religious movements or “religio-racial movements,” such as the Black Hebrews and Black Muslims, who adopted religious practices and bodily disciplines that marked them as different from the assorted Black evangelical practices that were quickly coming to be understood as normative for Black religious life (known by the shorthand “the Black Church”).
David D. Daniels III
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- April 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780199684045
- eISBN:
- 9780191838927
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199684045.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Religious dissent within the Black Church focuses on defending the Christian gospel against the alliance of Christianity and the race order of white supremacy marks the contribution of the Black ...
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Religious dissent within the Black Church focuses on defending the Christian gospel against the alliance of Christianity and the race order of white supremacy marks the contribution of the Black Church to the wider dissenting tradition. It engages in the religious delegitimation of the dominant racial order. While the White Church in the United States has historically replicated the dominant racial order of African American subordination, the religious dissent of the Black Church has resisted and subverted the dominant racial order in a way in which grace pre-empts race in the functional ecclesiology of the Black Church with Christian egalitarianism affirming the equality of the races, envisioning a church where grace structures ecclesial life rather than racism.Less
Religious dissent within the Black Church focuses on defending the Christian gospel against the alliance of Christianity and the race order of white supremacy marks the contribution of the Black Church to the wider dissenting tradition. It engages in the religious delegitimation of the dominant racial order. While the White Church in the United States has historically replicated the dominant racial order of African American subordination, the religious dissent of the Black Church has resisted and subverted the dominant racial order in a way in which grace pre-empts race in the functional ecclesiology of the Black Church with Christian egalitarianism affirming the equality of the races, envisioning a church where grace structures ecclesial life rather than racism.
Korie L. Edwards
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195314243
- eISBN:
- 9780199871810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314243.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter addresses why people attend an interracial church by exploring their past interracial and religious experiences as well as those qualities and practices they appreciate most about ...
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This chapter addresses why people attend an interracial church by exploring their past interracial and religious experiences as well as those qualities and practices they appreciate most about attending an interracial church. The chapter gives an understanding of how past experiences and religious preferences influence people's reasons for attending interracial churches.Less
This chapter addresses why people attend an interracial church by exploring their past interracial and religious experiences as well as those qualities and practices they appreciate most about attending an interracial church. The chapter gives an understanding of how past experiences and religious preferences influence people's reasons for attending interracial churches.
Amos Yong and Estrelda Y. Alexander (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814797303
- eISBN:
- 9780814789070
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814797303.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In 2006, the contemporary American Pentecostal movement celebrated its 100th birthday. Over that time, its African American sector has been markedly influential, not only vis-à-vis other branches of ...
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In 2006, the contemporary American Pentecostal movement celebrated its 100th birthday. Over that time, its African American sector has been markedly influential, not only vis-à-vis other branches of Pentecostalism but also throughout the Christian church. Black Christians have been integrally involved in every aspect of the Pentecostal movement since its inception and have made significant contributions to its founding as well as the evolution of Pentecostal/charismatic styles of worship, preaching, music, engagement of social issues, and theology. Yet despite its being one of the fastest growing segments of the Black Church, Afro-Pentecostalism has not received the kind of critical attention it deserves. This book examines different facets of the movement, including its early history, issues of gender, relations with other black denominations, intersections with popular culture, and missionary activities, as well as the movement's distinctive theology. The chapters reflect on the state of the movement, chart its trajectories, discuss pertinent issues, and anticipate future developments.Less
In 2006, the contemporary American Pentecostal movement celebrated its 100th birthday. Over that time, its African American sector has been markedly influential, not only vis-à-vis other branches of Pentecostalism but also throughout the Christian church. Black Christians have been integrally involved in every aspect of the Pentecostal movement since its inception and have made significant contributions to its founding as well as the evolution of Pentecostal/charismatic styles of worship, preaching, music, engagement of social issues, and theology. Yet despite its being one of the fastest growing segments of the Black Church, Afro-Pentecostalism has not received the kind of critical attention it deserves. This book examines different facets of the movement, including its early history, issues of gender, relations with other black denominations, intersections with popular culture, and missionary activities, as well as the movement's distinctive theology. The chapters reflect on the state of the movement, chart its trajectories, discuss pertinent issues, and anticipate future developments.
Robert Dannin
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195300246
- eISBN:
- 9780199850433
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300246.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
The continuing immigration of practicing Muslims into the United States and the increasing occurrences of conversion poses several challenges to the typical historical accounts of religious ...
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The continuing immigration of practicing Muslims into the United States and the increasing occurrences of conversion poses several challenges to the typical historical accounts of religious experience in the country. For the African Americans, looking into such concerns means addressing religious pluralism issues that were frequently associated with the spiritual monopoly of the Black Church and the legacy of slavery among specific minority groups. Fundamentally, aside from the concept of hijra and issues of religious history, Islam initiates an attempt to reconstrue history through illustrating how African Americans have been able to find themselves through umma that disregards socioeconomic status while also accounting for diversities evident across various cultures. These social and religious changes promote unpredictable effects, both positive and negative, on the Muslim umma and on the African diaspora.Less
The continuing immigration of practicing Muslims into the United States and the increasing occurrences of conversion poses several challenges to the typical historical accounts of religious experience in the country. For the African Americans, looking into such concerns means addressing religious pluralism issues that were frequently associated with the spiritual monopoly of the Black Church and the legacy of slavery among specific minority groups. Fundamentally, aside from the concept of hijra and issues of religious history, Islam initiates an attempt to reconstrue history through illustrating how African Americans have been able to find themselves through umma that disregards socioeconomic status while also accounting for diversities evident across various cultures. These social and religious changes promote unpredictable effects, both positive and negative, on the Muslim umma and on the African diaspora.
Alisha R. Winn
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042027
- eISBN:
- 9780252050763
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042027.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This essay explores the professional journey of scholar, activist, and pioneer Ira E. Harrison. Harrison was cofounder of the Association of Black Anthropologists and the organization’s first ...
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This essay explores the professional journey of scholar, activist, and pioneer Ira E. Harrison. Harrison was cofounder of the Association of Black Anthropologists and the organization’s first archivist. His educational path, activism in the 1960s, ethnographic research in the black church, and commitment to preserving and recognizing the contributions of black anthropologists, renders him a revolutionary pioneer in anthropology. He has conducted research on traditional medicine and integration on health policy and coedited African American Pioneers in Anthropology with Faye Harrison.Less
This essay explores the professional journey of scholar, activist, and pioneer Ira E. Harrison. Harrison was cofounder of the Association of Black Anthropologists and the organization’s first archivist. His educational path, activism in the 1960s, ethnographic research in the black church, and commitment to preserving and recognizing the contributions of black anthropologists, renders him a revolutionary pioneer in anthropology. He has conducted research on traditional medicine and integration on health policy and coedited African American Pioneers in Anthropology with Faye Harrison.
Robert Dannin
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195300246
- eISBN:
- 9780199850433
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300246.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
Although such an endeavor may make room for numerous errors, the author finds the need to create a historical account about what he refers to as the unchurched culture of African Americans during the ...
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Although such an endeavor may make room for numerous errors, the author finds the need to create a historical account about what he refers to as the unchurched culture of African Americans during the period between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in order to grasp the intellectual, social, and political elements involved in the upsurge of modern Islamic conversion. This chapter attempts to illustrate the evolution of Islamic conversion through analyzing the following: certain religious and folk practices; religious themes such as Sufism, gnosis, and hermeticism, and the relationships established between the white, black, and red Americans. An awareness of international diplomacy is also relevant to this study since this played a significant role in how race relations in America were often undermined. This account aims to contravene a taboo through presenting evidence that asserts how the Black Church did not play that big a role in the formation of the spiritual life of African Americans.Less
Although such an endeavor may make room for numerous errors, the author finds the need to create a historical account about what he refers to as the unchurched culture of African Americans during the period between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in order to grasp the intellectual, social, and political elements involved in the upsurge of modern Islamic conversion. This chapter attempts to illustrate the evolution of Islamic conversion through analyzing the following: certain religious and folk practices; religious themes such as Sufism, gnosis, and hermeticism, and the relationships established between the white, black, and red Americans. An awareness of international diplomacy is also relevant to this study since this played a significant role in how race relations in America were often undermined. This account aims to contravene a taboo through presenting evidence that asserts how the Black Church did not play that big a role in the formation of the spiritual life of African Americans.
Cheryl Janifer LaRoche
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038044
- eISBN:
- 9780252095894
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038044.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines the relationship between the Underground Railroad and Poke Patch's free Black community, arguing that routes connecting iron furnace regions surrounding the community reveal an ...
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This chapter examines the relationship between the Underground Railroad and Poke Patch's free Black community, arguing that routes connecting iron furnace regions surrounding the community reveal an overlooked escape strategy for those fleeing slavery. After providing an overview of Ohio's multiple highly developed routes along the Underground Railroad, the chapter discusses the role of Poke Patch as an Underground Railroad site in the state. It then considers the Black Baptist Church's involvement in the Underground Railroad, along with the AME Church's role in helping escapees fleeing slavery. It also describes several escape routes leading into and out of Poke Patch, including one that converged at Berlin Crossroads, and those running toward Ohio's iron furnaces in Lawrence and Gallia Counties. The chapter explains how routes connecting these iron furnaces served as major pathways to freedom, with free Blacks silently operating in the background.Less
This chapter examines the relationship between the Underground Railroad and Poke Patch's free Black community, arguing that routes connecting iron furnace regions surrounding the community reveal an overlooked escape strategy for those fleeing slavery. After providing an overview of Ohio's multiple highly developed routes along the Underground Railroad, the chapter discusses the role of Poke Patch as an Underground Railroad site in the state. It then considers the Black Baptist Church's involvement in the Underground Railroad, along with the AME Church's role in helping escapees fleeing slavery. It also describes several escape routes leading into and out of Poke Patch, including one that converged at Berlin Crossroads, and those running toward Ohio's iron furnaces in Lawrence and Gallia Counties. The chapter explains how routes connecting these iron furnaces served as major pathways to freedom, with free Blacks silently operating in the background.
David Chidester
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226117263
- eISBN:
- 9780226117577
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226117577.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Identifying W. E. B. Du Bois as a historian of African religion, this chapter examines his rethinking of fetish, God, and the continuity between African religion and African American religion. ...
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Identifying W. E. B. Du Bois as a historian of African religion, this chapter examines his rethinking of fetish, God, and the continuity between African religion and African American religion. Originally agreeing with imperial comparative religion that fetishism marked the beginning of religious evolution, Du Bois eventually critiqued the notion of the fetish as a European invention and an ideological supplement to the slave trade. Initially relying on European reports that the Yoruba believed in God, Du Bois came to emphasize the Yoruba God Shango, who was not like Rudolph Otto's “wholly other” but a deity of political sovereignty. By contrast to an early confidence in the transatlantic continuity of African religion into the Black Church in America, Du Bois eventually stressed the disruptions of slavery and colonialism that separated African religion in Africa from the diaspora.Less
Identifying W. E. B. Du Bois as a historian of African religion, this chapter examines his rethinking of fetish, God, and the continuity between African religion and African American religion. Originally agreeing with imperial comparative religion that fetishism marked the beginning of religious evolution, Du Bois eventually critiqued the notion of the fetish as a European invention and an ideological supplement to the slave trade. Initially relying on European reports that the Yoruba believed in God, Du Bois came to emphasize the Yoruba God Shango, who was not like Rudolph Otto's “wholly other” but a deity of political sovereignty. By contrast to an early confidence in the transatlantic continuity of African religion into the Black Church in America, Du Bois eventually stressed the disruptions of slavery and colonialism that separated African religion in Africa from the diaspora.
Frederick L. Ware
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814797303
- eISBN:
- 9780814789070
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814797303.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explores the conflict between Pentecostal premillennialism—the pervasive conception of eschatology in Pentecostal churches—and black racial consciousness and suggests that the former is ...
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This chapter explores the conflict between Pentecostal premillennialism—the pervasive conception of eschatology in Pentecostal churches—and black racial consciousness and suggests that the former is not sufficiently compatible with black liberation theology. It first provides an overview of eschatology in black religion before discussing the shift from postmillennialism to premillennialism that accompanied the emergence of Pentecostalism from the Holiness movement. It then examines the compatibility/incompatibility of Pentecostal premillennialism with eschatology in black religion and argues that Afro-Pentecostalism falls short of restoring primitive Christianity and of renewing the Black Church by not articulating a sound eschatology. In order to reconcile Pentecostal premillennialism and black liberation theology, the chapter calls for a shift in Afro-Pentecostal theological discourse toward a conception of eschatology rooted in black folk sources and black millennialism.Less
This chapter explores the conflict between Pentecostal premillennialism—the pervasive conception of eschatology in Pentecostal churches—and black racial consciousness and suggests that the former is not sufficiently compatible with black liberation theology. It first provides an overview of eschatology in black religion before discussing the shift from postmillennialism to premillennialism that accompanied the emergence of Pentecostalism from the Holiness movement. It then examines the compatibility/incompatibility of Pentecostal premillennialism with eschatology in black religion and argues that Afro-Pentecostalism falls short of restoring primitive Christianity and of renewing the Black Church by not articulating a sound eschatology. In order to reconcile Pentecostal premillennialism and black liberation theology, the chapter calls for a shift in Afro-Pentecostal theological discourse toward a conception of eschatology rooted in black folk sources and black millennialism.
Stephanie Y. Mitchem
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199931903
- eISBN:
- 9780199345779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931903.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Discussions of pluralism in African-American religious life flatline in mainstream scholarship. Religious diversity and religious pluralism are given short shrift as statistically insignificant in ...
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Discussions of pluralism in African-American religious life flatline in mainstream scholarship. Religious diversity and religious pluralism are given short shrift as statistically insignificant in black communities and thereby rendered invisible. In fact, religion within black communities historically as well as contemporaneously has never been as monolithic as scholars and the media ordinarily portray it; for instance, even when slaves practiced Christianity, they understood it quite differently than did their masters, even those in the same denomination. The idea of a monolithic “black church” is a historical construction of the 1970s-1980s, which appealed to both blacks and whites, though for different reasons. This picture homogenizes history and overrides the researches of black scholars who, earlier in the twentieth century, recognized that African-Americans practiced a variety of traditions. More careful analyses of African-American religious pluralism will need to consider cultural factors, racial content, economic disparities, and the presence of non-Christian traditions.Less
Discussions of pluralism in African-American religious life flatline in mainstream scholarship. Religious diversity and religious pluralism are given short shrift as statistically insignificant in black communities and thereby rendered invisible. In fact, religion within black communities historically as well as contemporaneously has never been as monolithic as scholars and the media ordinarily portray it; for instance, even when slaves practiced Christianity, they understood it quite differently than did their masters, even those in the same denomination. The idea of a monolithic “black church” is a historical construction of the 1970s-1980s, which appealed to both blacks and whites, though for different reasons. This picture homogenizes history and overrides the researches of black scholars who, earlier in the twentieth century, recognized that African-Americans practiced a variety of traditions. More careful analyses of African-American religious pluralism will need to consider cultural factors, racial content, economic disparities, and the presence of non-Christian traditions.
Tim Clydesdale and Kathleen Garces-Foley
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- July 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190931353
- eISBN:
- 9780190931384
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190931353.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Chapter 5 explores the religious, spiritual, and secular lives of Evangelical twentysomethings, who account for 30% of all twentysomethings. Using congregational ethnographies of two Evangelical ...
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Chapter 5 explores the religious, spiritual, and secular lives of Evangelical twentysomethings, who account for 30% of all twentysomethings. Using congregational ethnographies of two Evangelical churches, this chapter describes why and how religiously active Evangelicals, which includes most Evangelicals, select a church to join. Relying on in-depth interviews, this chapter identifies what draws Evangelicals to church and what kinds of churches appeal to them. This chapter also describes the distinctive strategies deployed by Black and multiracial churches to attract young adults. Using the National Study of American Twentysomething findings, the chapter examines what distinguishes Active, Nominal, and Estranged Evangelical twentysomethings. In conclusion, this chapter closes with analysis of the similarities and differences among Evangelical, Mainline Protestant, and Catholic twentysomethings.Less
Chapter 5 explores the religious, spiritual, and secular lives of Evangelical twentysomethings, who account for 30% of all twentysomethings. Using congregational ethnographies of two Evangelical churches, this chapter describes why and how religiously active Evangelicals, which includes most Evangelicals, select a church to join. Relying on in-depth interviews, this chapter identifies what draws Evangelicals to church and what kinds of churches appeal to them. This chapter also describes the distinctive strategies deployed by Black and multiracial churches to attract young adults. Using the National Study of American Twentysomething findings, the chapter examines what distinguishes Active, Nominal, and Estranged Evangelical twentysomethings. In conclusion, this chapter closes with analysis of the similarities and differences among Evangelical, Mainline Protestant, and Catholic twentysomethings.
