Down by the riverside : readings in African American religion / edited by Larry G. Murphy.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Murphy, Larry G. (Larry George), 1946-

Series:

Religion, race, and ethnicity

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Religion.

African Americans.

Physical Description:

x, 495 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2000]

Summary:

Down by the Riverside provides an expansive introduction to the development of African American religion and theology. Spanning the time of slavery up to the present, the volume moves beyond Protestant Christianity to address a broad diversity of African American religion from Conjure, Orisa, and Black Judaism to Islam, African American Catholicism, and humanism.

This accessible historical overview begins with African religious heritages and traces the transition to various forms of Christianity, as well as the maintenance of African and Islamic traditions in antebellum America. Preeminent contributors include Charles Long, Gayraud Wilmore, Albert Raboteau, Manning Marable, M. Shawn Copeland, Vincent Harding, Mary Sawyer, Toinette Eugene, Anthony Pinn, and C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya. They consider the varieties of religious expression emerging from migration from the rural South to urban areas, African American women's participation in Christian missions, Black religious nationalism, and the development of Black Theology from its nineteenth-century precursors to its formulation by James Cone and later articulations by black feminist and womanist theologians. They also draw on case studies to provide a profile of the Black Christian church today.

Contents:

Part I Thematic, Contextual Prisms for Understanding African American Religion

1 Perspectives for a Study of African American Religion / Charles H. Long 9

2 African Americans, Exodus, and the American Israel / Albert J. Raboteau 20

3 What Is African American Christianity? / Gayraud S. Wilmore 26

4 The Religious Dimension: "The Black Sacred Cosmos" / C. Eric Lincoln, Lawrence H. Mamiya 32

Part II From the Motherland to Another Land: The Emergence of African American Religion in the Antebellum United States

5 Black Religion: The African Model / Maulana Karenga 41

6 "The Rule of Gospel Order": Religious Life in the Slave Community / Albert J. Raboteau 49

7 Sources of Black Denominationalism / Mary R. Sawyer 59

8 Pre-Twentieth Century Islam / Richard Brent Turner 69

9 Memoir of Abraham / Jon F. Sensbach 81

10 The Idea of Missions / Monroe Fordham 85

11 Black Women in Religious Institutions: A Historical Summary from Slavery to the 1960s / Delores C. Carpenter 97

Part III "Slavery's Chains Done Broke At Las'": African American Religion in the Aftermath of Slavery

12 The Gospel and the Primer / Leon F. Litwack 109

13 The Black Faith of W. E. B. Du Bois: Sociocultural and Political Dimensions of Black Religion / Manning Marable 122

14 "All Things to All People": The Functions of the Black Church in the Last Quarter of the Nineteenth Century / Larry G. Murphy 133

15 The Redemption of Africa and Black Religion / St. Clair Drake 141

Part IV A Shift of Locus and Focus: African American Religion and the Transition into the Twentieth Century

16 "Everyone Is Welcome": North the the Promised Land / Martha Fowlkes 155

17 The Grip of the Negro Church / St. Clair Drake 160

18 The Development of Gospel Song / Lawrence W. Levine 175

19 The Black Roots of Pentecostalism / Iain MacRobert 189

Part V Expanding the Options: Diversification in African American Religious Expression

20 The Second Emergence of Islam / Gordon Melton 203

21 The Voodoo Cult among Negro Migrants in Detroit / Erdmann Doane Beynon 208

22 Father Major Jealous Divine / Gary L. Ward 221

23 Black Judaism in the United States / Merrill Singer 225

24 The Historical Development of Black Spiritual Churches / Hans Baer, Merrill Singer 232

25 Orisha Worship in the United States / Anthony B. Pinn 243

26 African American Yorubas in Harlem and the Transition to Oyotunji Village / Tracey Hucks 256

27 The Other Kind of Doctor: Conjure and Magic in Black American Folk Medicine / Bruce Jackson 260

28 African Americans and Humanism / Anthony B. Pinn 273

Part VI "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?": African American Religion and Social Advocacy

29 In Search of the Promised Land / Albert J. Raboteau 289

30 The Black Church and Black Politics: Models of Ministerial Activism / Mary R. Sawyer 293

31 Black Religion and Social Change: Women in Leadership Roles / Mary R. Sawyer 303

32 Black Religious Nationalism and the Politics of Transcendence / R. Drew Smith 317

33 The Dialectical Model of the Black Church / C. Eric Lincoln, Lawrence H. Mamiya 329

Part VII Profiles of the Contemporary African American Church

34 Rural, Urban Clergy and Churches / C. Eric Lincoln, Lawrence H. Mamiya 339

35 The Black Denominations and the Ordination of Women / C. Eric Lincoln, Lawrence H. Mamiya 367

36 The Churches and Broader Developments in Black Religion: Two Congregational Case Studies / David D. Daniels 381

Part VIII Claiming a Theological Voice: Black and Womanist Theologies in the Twentieth Century

37 Black Theology as Liberation Theology / James H. Cone 389

38 Statement by the National Committee of Black Churchmen, June 13, 1969 / National Committee of Black Churchmen 414

39 Statement by the National Committe of Black Churchmen, Third Annual Convocation, November 11-14, 1969 / National Committee of Black Churchmen 417

40 African American Catholics and Black Theology: An Interpretation / M. Shawn Copeland 423

41 "Lifting as We Climb": Womanist Theorizing about Religion and the Family / Toinette M. Eugene 434

Part IX Looking Back to the Future

42 Survival, Elevation, and Liberation in Black Religion / Gayraud S. Wilmore 447

43 Fighting for Freedom with Church Fans: To Know What Religion Means / Vincent Harding 469

1 Timeline of the African American Religious Experience 482

2 Filmography of the African American Religious Experience 488.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0814755801

081475581X

OCLC:

44727724