Black natural law / Vincent W. Lloyd.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lloyd, Vincent W., 1982- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Politics and government--Philosophy.

African Americans.

African Americans--Religion--History.

Political theology and race--United States.

Political theology and race.

African Americans--Religion.

History.

African Americans--Politics and government.

Philosophy.

United States.

Physical Description:

xv, 180 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2016]

Summary:

"Black Natural Law offers a new way of understanding the African American political tradition. Iconoclastically attacking left (including James Baldwin and Audre Lorde), right (including Clarence Thomas and Ben Carson), and center (Barack Obama), Vincent William Lloyd charges that many Black leaders today embrace secular, white modes of political engagement, abandoning the deep connections between religious, philosophical, and political ideas that once animated Black politics. By telling the stories of Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Lloyd shows how appeals to a higher law, or God's law, have long fueled Black political engagement. Such appeals do not seek to implement divine directives on earth; rather, they pose a challenge to the wisdom of the world, and they mobilize communities for collective action. Black natural law is deeply democratic: while charismatic leaders may provide the occasion for reflection and mobilization, all are capable of discerning the higher law using our human capacities for reason and emotion. At a time when continuing racial injustice poses a deep moral challenge, the most powerful intellectual resources in the struggle for justice have been abandoned. Black Natural Law recovers a rich tradition, and it examines just how this tradition was forgotten. A Black intellectual class emerged that was disconnected from social movement organizing and beholden to white interests. Appeals to higher law became politically impotent: overly rational or overly sentimental. Recovering the Black natural law tradition provides a powerful resource for confronting police violence, mass incarceration, and today's gross racial inequities. Black Natural Law will change the way we understand natural law, a topic central to the Western ethical and political tradition. While drawing particularly on African American resources, Black Natural Law speaks to all who seek politics animated by justice"-- Provided by publisher.

"Black Natural Law offers a new way of understanding the African American political tradition, and it argues that this tradition has collapsed into incoherence. The book revives Black politics by telling stories of its central figures in a way that exhibits the connections between their religious, philosophical, and political ideas"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note:

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: On Frederick Douglass

Chapter 2: On Anna Julia Cooper

Chapter 3: On W.E.B. Du Bois

Chapter 4: On Martin Luther King, Jr.

Chapter 5: Decline and Detritus

Conclusion: Against Pessimism

Afterword: Beyond Secularism and Multiculturalism.

Other Format:

Online version: Lloyd, Vincent W., 1982- author. Black natural law.

ISBN:

9780199362189

0199362181

OCLC:

938990084