Moses, Jesus, and the trickster in the evangelical South / Paul Harvey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harvey, Paul, 1961-

Series:

Mercer University Lamar memorial lectures ; no. 52.

Mercer University Lamar memorial lectures ; no. 52

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Evangelicalism--Southern States--History.

Evangelicalism.

Christianity and culture--Southern States--History.

Christianity and culture.

Race relations--Religious aspects--Protestant churches--History.

Race relations.

Tricksters--Southern States.

Tricksters.

Southern States--Church history.

Southern States.

Southern States--Race relations--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (198 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Athens : University of Georgia Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Paul Harvey uses four characters that are important symbols of religious expression in the American South to survey major themes of religion, race, and southern history.The figure of Moses helps us better understand how whites saw themselves as a chosen people in situations of suffering and war and how Africans and African Americans reworked certain stories in the Bible to suit their own purposes. By applying the figure of Jesus to the central concerns of life, Harvey argues, southern evangelicals were instrumental in turning him into an American figure. The ghostly presence of the Trickster, hovering at the edges of the sacred world, sheds light on the Euro-American and African American folk religions that existed alongside Christianity. Finally, Harvey explores twentieth-century renderings of the biblical story of Absalom in William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom and in works from Toni Morrison and Edward P. Jones.Harvey uses not only biblical and religious sources but also draws on literature, mythology, and art. He ponders the troubling meaning of "religious freedom" for slaves and later for blacks in the segregated South. Through his cast of four central characters, Harvey reveals diverse facets of the southern religious experience, including conceptions of ambiguity, darkness, evil, and death.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Acknowledgments

A Note on Illustrations and Endnotes

INTRODUCTION. What Is the Soul of Man?

CHAPTER ONE. Moses, Jesus, Absalom, and the Trickster: Narratives of the Evangelical South

CHAPTER TWO. "'Because I Was a Master'": Religion, Race, and Southern Ideas of Freedom

CHAPTER THREE. Suffering Saint: Jesus in the South

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786613586940

9781280491719

128049171X

9780820343747

0820343749

OCLC:

781636648

Publisher Number:

heb40075 hdl