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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 ...

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.

"Chireau has written a marvelous text on an important dimension of African-American religious culture. Expanding beyond the usual focus of scholarship on Christianity, she describes and analyzes the world of magical-medical-religious practice, challenging hallowed distinctions among "religion" and ...

"Chireau has written a marvelous text on an important dimension of African-American religious culture. Expanding beyond the usual focus of scholarship on Christianity, she describes and analyzes the world of magical-medical-religious practice, challenging hallowed distinctions among "religion" and "magic." Anyone interested in African-American religion will need to reckon seriously with Chireau's text on conjure."--Albert J. Raboteau, Princeton University

"Deprived of their own traditions and defined as chattel, enslaved Africans formed a new orientation in America. Conjuring--operating alongside of and within both the remnants of African culture and the acquired traditions of North America--served as a theoretical and practical mode of deciphering and divining within this, enabling them to create an alternate meaning of life in the New World. Chireau's is the first full-scale treatment of this important dimension of African American culture and religion. A wonderful book!"--Charles H. Long, Professor of History of Religions University of California, Santa Barbara and author of "Significations: Signs, Symbols and Images in the Interpretation of Religion

Suicide among African Americans occurs at about half the rate with which it occurs among white Americans. Why is the black rate of suicide so much lower, particularly when one considers the effects of racism and other socio-economic factors? One answer that has been offered is that churches within ...

Suicide among African Americans occurs at about half the rate with which it occurs among white Americans. Why is the black rate of suicide so much lower, particularly when one considers the effects of racism and other socio-economic factors? One answer that has been offered is that churches within the African-American community have a greater influence than among white Americans and that black churches provide amelioration of social forces that would otherwise lead to suicide. Now, for the first time, Early provides an in-depth ethnographic examination of the impact of the black church and confirms that there is a consensus within the black community opposed to the concept of suicide.

Frederick Harris wades into a perennially contentious debate: the degree to which religious experience is central to African American political involvement and success. For the first time applying the new techniques of a cultural resource model to this question, Harris makes a strong case for the ...

Frederick Harris wades into a perennially contentious debate: the degree to which religious experience is central to African American political involvement and success. For the first time applying the new techniques of a cultural resource model to this question, Harris makes a strong case for the formative influence of religion, both as a source of strength and often determinative in practical political consequences. Harris's argument overturns a large body of quantitative research on political activity, principally in the Chicago religious community.