The gospel of John Marrant : conjuring Christianity in the Black Atlantic / Alphonso F. Saville, IV.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Saville, Alphonso F., IV (Alphonso Ferdinand), 1979- author.

Series:

e-Duke books scholarly collection

Religious cultures of African and African diaspora people

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Marrant, John, 1755-1791.

Marrant, John.

Bible--Black interpretations.

Bible.

African American clergy.

African Americans--Religion.

African Americans.

Christianity--African influences.

Christianity.

Religion and culture--United States.

Religion and culture.

Magic--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines.

Magic.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 197 pages).

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2024.

Summary:

"Reverend John Marrant (1755-91) was North America's first Black ordained minister and one of America's earliest Black authors and preachers. In The Gospel of John Marrant, Alphonso F. Saville IV examines how Protestantism and West African indigenous religious practices deeply informed his life and ministry. Saville follows Marrant from his time evangelizing the Cherokee in Georgia to meeting with Black Freemasons in Boston to engaging with diasporic communities along the Eastern Seaboard and in England. Using the Black folk magic tradition of conjure as a lens for understanding Marrant's religious imagination, Saville outlines the importance of Africana religious and cultural themes, symbols, and cosmologies in the biblical interpretation and ritual culture in early Black North American Christian communities. Marrant's life and work, Saville contends, reveal the diverse religious cultures that contributed to the formation of African American Christianity and its evolution into a prominent institution during the colonial and early history of the United States. In so doing, he demonstrates the need to recenter both religion and Africa in the study of African American cultural and intellectual history"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

"No continuing city" : colonial Black religion during Marrant's early life

"Prepare to meet thy God" : conjuring initiation in Marrant's Narrative

Exodus : conjuring retaliation in Marrant's Narrative

"My travels in Nova Scotia" : ritual healing and communal restoration in Marrant's Journal

"As men and as Masons" : spiritual genealogies and racial ethnogenesis in Marrant's Sermon.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Saville, Alphonso F., IV (Alphonso Ferdinand), 1979- Gospel of John Marrant.

ISBN:

9781478059424

1478059427

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.