Thinking in public : faith, secular humanism, and development in Jacques Roumain / C�elucien L. Joseph ; Foreword by Schallum Pierre.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Joseph, Celucien L., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Roumain, Jacques, 1907-1944--Criticism and interpretation.

Roumain, Jacques.

Roumain, Jacques, 1907-1944.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xiv, 477 pages ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Eugene, Oregon : Pickwick Publications, [2017]

Summary:

Thinking in Public provides a probing and provocative meditation on the intellectual life and legacy of Jacques Roumain. As a work of intellectual history, the book investigates the intersections of religious ideas, secular humanism, and development within the framework of Roumain's public intellectualism and cultural criticism embodied in his prolific writings. The book provides a reconceptualization of Roumain's intellectual itineraries against the backdrop of two public spheres: a national public sphere (Haiti) and a transnational public sphere (the global world). Second, it remaps and reframes Roumain's intellectual circuits and his critical engagements within a wide range of intellectual traditions, cultural and political movements, and philosophical and religious systems. Third, the book argues that Roumain's perspective on religion, social development, and his critiques of religion in general and of institutionalized Christianity in particular were substantially influenced by a Marxist philosophy of history and secular humanist approach to faith and human progress. Finally, the book advances the idea that Roumain's concept of development is linked to the theories of democratic socialism, relational anthropology, distributive justice, and communitarianism. Ultimately, this work demonstrates that Roumain believed that only through effective human solidarity and collaboration can serious social transformation and real human emancipation take place. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Haiti's Hope and Dilemma: Development Crisis and the Role of Religion

1 Global Thinking and Thinking Globally: Jacques Roumain within a Transnational Public Sphere and Context 25

2 The World of Jacques Roumain and the Predicament of Haitian Political and Civil Society 86

3 Le Mal du Pays: Roots of Haiti's Economic Woes, Underdevelopment, and Dysfunctional Civil Society (Part I) 129

4 Le Mal du Pays: The Crisis of Haitian Intellectuals, "Sick Religion," and the Ecological Crisis (Part II) 157

5 Vodou Does No Wrong! Roumain among European Anthropologists and before a Western Audience 190

Part II Frontiers of Development: Fraternal Unity, the Role of Faith, and the Future of Haiti and the Human Race

6 In Praise of Reason and Science: Rethinking Roumain's Religious Sensibility and Marxist Rhetoric 233

7 The Rhetoric of Suffering, Hope, and Redemption: A Rhetorical and Politico-Theological Analysis of Manuel as Peasant-Messiah and Redeemer in Masters of the Dew 267

8 "Living Together in This World": Roumain's Vision of Radical Change, Social Development, and Economic justice (Part I) 297

9 "Living Together in This World": Toward an Ethics of Relationality and a Politics of Mutual Reciprocity (Part II) 335

Conclusion: Hope for the Future: Haiti and the Global World 368

Part III Historical Documents, Correspondences, and Photographs.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781498203814

9781498203838

1498203833

1498203817

OCLC:

971042401

Publisher Number:

99972581193