|
|
|
Review Essays
THE CHANGING LOOK OF AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION
| After Redemption: Jim Crow and the Transformation of African American Religion in the Delta, 1875–1915. By John M. Giggie. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. xvii + 315 pp. Photos, notes, bibliography, and index. $21.95 (paper).
|
| Daddy Grace: A Celebrity Preacher and His House of Prayer. By Marie W. Dallam. New York: New York University Press, 2007. viii + 263 pp. Photos, notes, bibliography, and index. $35.00 (cloth).
|
|
Religion is a defining character of African American life and thought, giving shape to African American readings of sociopolitical, economic, and cultural developments. In After Redemption, John Giggie argues that churches—their aesthetics, imagery, practices, and thought—influence more than what is theologically explicit and speak to the shifting nature of African American life in more general terms. Focusing on the post-Reconstruction years of 1875 to 1915 in the Arkansas and Mississippi Deltas, Giggie asserts that attention to rural, "everyday life" in major denominations points out the changing nature of race relations and trends that should hold sway over how we understand life in the South in this era. After Redemption is composed of five chapters and easily divides into four major themes: (1) transportation technology as religious imagery, (2) synergy and friction between churches and fraternal organizations, (3) the theologically articulated embrace of consumer culture, and (4) the Holiness Movement as corrective to the Baptist and Methodist embrace of certain aspects of secularity. The argument that cuts across the various chapters recognizes the ways in which religious developments changed spiritual practices while becoming popularized and formally arranged in ways that also shaped the general texture of life. |
1
|
|
African American Christians captured this reality through imagery of movement, and particularly railroad terminology. Even small changes in access to trains turned movement into a symbol of advancement, one that could easily be connected theologically to the Exodus. One finds in sermons, songs, and testimonies references to trains as the mode of spiritual and material advancement. However, technology not only influenced religious language, it also contributed to the growth in sectarianism as members of churches could more easily secure pastors and missionaries could more readily move around to proselytize. |
2
|
|
Movement was a mixed blessing that entailed progress but also challenged stability associated with place. African Americans recognized the need for infrastructure to safeguard individual identity, family, and communal relationships. Fraternal organizations played this role by offering an aesthetic, special knowledge, and rituals affirming the individual, and life insurance to protect the well-being of families and communities. Between the early 1880s and the late 1890s, some church leaders began to believe that fraternal organizations might replace churches as the primary voluntary African American organization. However, both churches and fraternal organizations offered benefits to members, and this made selecting one over the other difficult. A compromise was necessary, and it involved a public partnership whereby fraternal organizations admitted their secondary status regarding religious concerns and churches affirmed that the teachings of fraternal organizations were in harmony with the gospel. |
. . . |
There are about 1343 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|
