Read complete books and articles on: African Religions

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15 of the Best Books and Articles on: African Religions

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society » Read Now
by Jacob K. Olupona. 199 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
2.

African Traditional Religion » Read Now
by Geoffrey Parrinder. 154 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...written texts does not mean that African religions have not a long history. The...written history or text therefore African religions are "primitive". This is to...IF one...
3.

New Trends and Developments in African Religions » Read Now
by Peter B. Clarke. 316 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

African religions, as well as those religions that derive much of their cosmology, beliefs, and rituals from African religions, are becoming more international in scope and appeal. Yet they continue to be viewed either as indiscriminately adaptable or as static traditions. Neither view suggests much...
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African religions, as well as those religions that derive much of their cosmology, beliefs, and rituals from African religions, are becoming more international in scope and appeal. Yet they continue to be viewed either as indiscriminately adaptable or as static traditions. Neither view suggests much spiritual or psychological value outside their original milieu when compared with the so-called world religions. The chapters in this volume focus on African and African-derived religions, and challenge many of these positions. They examine how these religions display themselves in the contemporary world, particularly in the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe, and look at their continued dynamism and their relationship with other religious traditions, especially through the process of syncretism.
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4.

The Church in Africa: 1450-1950 » Read Now
by Adrian Hastings. 706 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

Covering five centuries--from the rise of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the 15th century and the early Portuguese missionaries right through to the Church and its key role in Africa today--this major new volume is the first complete history of the Christian Church in Africa. Written by a leading...
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Covering five centuries--from the rise of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the 15th century and the early Portuguese missionaries right through to the Church and its key role in Africa today--this major new volume is the first complete history of the Christian Church in Africa. Written by a leading authority on Church history who has spent many years in Africa, it looks at all aspects of Christianity in Africa, including its relationship to traditional values and customs, politics, and the comparable rise of Islam in Africa during the period. It is the latest volume in the highly successful Oxford History of the Christian Church series.
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5.

Religion and Resistance Politics in South Africa » Read Now
by Lyn S. Graybill. 157 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

This study focuses on Christianity and black nationalism in South Africa and looks at four individuals--Albert Lutuli, Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, and Desmond Tutu--to see how each leader's Christian beliefs influenced the political strategy he pursued. Just as theology (Calvinism) was significant...
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This study focuses on Christianity and black nationalism in South Africa and looks at four individuals--Albert Lutuli, Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, and Desmond Tutu--to see how each leader's Christian beliefs influenced the political strategy he pursued. Just as theology (Calvinism) was significant in the formulation of Afrikaner nationalism, so too has theology, variously interpreted, been instrumental in the articulation of African nationalism. The African National Congress (ANC), the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), and the United Democratic Front (UDF) all relied on a Christian perspective and vocabulary to articulate the goals of black nationalism. By tracing this religious thread through each of these various resistance movements, the author has made a fascinating contribution to the literature of comparative politics, African studies, and the sociology of religion.
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6.

Religion and Politics in East Africa: The Period since Independence » Read Now
by Holger Bernt Hansen, Michael Twaddle. 280 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
7.

Explorations in African Systems of Thought ("Revitalization and the Genesis of Cults in Pragmatic Religion" p. 183) » Read Now
by Ivan Karp, Charles S. Bird. 310 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library
8.

Islam or Christianity? The Choices of the Wawa and the Kwanja of Cameroon, in Africa » Read Now
by Quentin Gausset. 22 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...Christianity to traditional African religions.(12) Lewis (1966: 45-65) and...that Islam and traditional African religions share concepts about purity...eds), The Historical...
9.

The Heritage of Islam: Women, Religion, and Politics in West Africa » Read Now
by Lucy Creevey, Barbara Callaway. 217 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library
10.

Women of Fire and Spirit: History, Faith, and Gender in Roho Religion in Western Kenya » Read Now
by Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton. 260 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

This is the first extensive study of the African Christian Roho religion, or Holy Spirit movement, in Western Kenya. Hoehler-Fatton uses extensive oral histories and life narratives to provide a counterweight to existing historical literature, and also brings to the fore the role of women in the evolution and expansion of the Church.
11.

Honoring the Ancestors: An African Cultural Interpretation of Black Religion and Literature » Read Now
by Donald H. Matthews. 171 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Literature, Entire Library

Donald Matthews affirms once and for all the African foundation of African-American religious practice. His analysis of the methods employed by historians, social scientists, and literary critics in the study of African-American religion and the Negro spiritual leads him to develop a methodology...
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Donald Matthews affirms once and for all the African foundation of African-American religious practice. His analysis of the methods employed by historians, social scientists, and literary critics in the study of African-American religion and the Negro spiritual leads him to develop a methodology that encompasses contemporary scholarship without compromising the integrity of African-American religion and culture. Because the Negro spiritual is the earliest extant body of African-American folk religious narration, Matthews believes that it holds the key to understanding African-American religion. He explores the works of such seminal black scholars as W. E. B. DuBois, Melville Herskovits, and Zora Neale Hurston, tracing the early development of the African-centered approach to the interpretation of African-American religion. This approach involves "cultural/structuralism", the author's term for the method used by DuBois, Herskovits, and Hurston that emphasizes the thick reading of narrative expressions. Such a reading allows the scholar to identify the cultural significance of particular oral and written texts and serves as a point of identification and a cultural link between African and African-American religion. Matthews' close analysis of the spiritual employs a dialectical and postmodernist reading and reveals a religious philosophy that addresses the deepest concerns and desires of Africans in America. These concerns are cultural, political, and psychological, but are ultimately related to African religious structures of meaning. This book poses a challenge to end the battle between Afrocentrists and multiculturalists by acknowledging their common intellectual heritage in the works of DuBois, Herskovits, and Hurston. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of African-American religion and culture and those interested in Afrocentric literature.
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12.

Revealing Prophets: Prophecy in Eastern African History » Read Now
by David M. Anderson, Douglas H. Johnson. 310 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London...Hansen is Senior Lecturer in Religions, at the University of Copenhagen...and moral action. 35 New...
13.

Shrines of the Slave Trade: Diola Religion and Society in Precolonial Senegambia » Read Now
by Robert M. Baum. 292 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

In this groundbreaking work, Robert Baum seeks to reconstruct the religious and social history of the Diola communities in southern Senegal during the precolonial era, when the Atlantic slave trade was at its height. Baum shows that Diola community leaders used a complex of religious shrines and...
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In this groundbreaking work, Robert Baum seeks to reconstruct the religious and social history of the Diola communities in southern Senegal during the precolonial era, when the Atlantic slave trade was at its height. Baum shows that Diola community leaders used a complex of religious shrines and priesthoods to regulate and contain the influence of the slave trade. He demonstrates how this close involvement with the traders significantly changed Diola religious life.
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14.

Oedipus and Job in West African Religion » Read Now
by Meyer Fortes. 81 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...one of the characteristic marks of West African religions, as compared with other African religions e.g. East and South Africa n Bantu religions...Tale thought, in contrast...
15.

Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa » Read Now
by James T. Campbell. 424 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

This is a study of the transplantation of a creed devised by and for African Americans--the African Methodist Episcopal Church--that was appropriated and transformed in a variety of South African contexts. Focusing on a transatlantic institution like the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the book...
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This is a study of the transplantation of a creed devised by and for African Americans--the African Methodist Episcopal Church--that was appropriated and transformed in a variety of South African contexts. Focusing on a transatlantic institution like the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the book studies the complex human and intellectual traffic that has bound African American and South African experience. It explores the development and growth of the African Methodist Episcopal Church both in South Africa and America, and the interaction between the two churches. This is a highly innovative work of comparative and religious history. Its linking of the United States and African black religious experiences is unique and makes it appealing to readers interested in religious history and black experience in both the United States and South Africa.
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