Title Black is a church : Christianity and the contours of African American life / Josef Sorett

Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2023] ©2023

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 239 pages) Contents The literary beginning(s) of Afro-Protestantism -- Afro-Protestantism, pluralism(s) and the problem of the color line -- Afro-Protestantism and the politics of (studying) Black life -- The Afterlives of Afro-Protestantism Summary "Across four chapters that proceed as chronologically organized episodes, Black is a Church maps the ways in which black American culture and identity have been animated by a particular set of often unmarked Protestant logics. In doing so, it tracks the entangled discourses of racial authenticity and religious orthodoxy as Christianity was made constitutive of the content and forms of black subjectivity and facilitated the emergence of black social life in North America. Chapter 1 argues that Afro-Protestantism relied upon literary strategies to enunciate itself since the earliest years of its formation. As seen in slave narratives, Protestant Christianity was essential to the establishment of the earliest black literary forms. Chapter 2 follows Afro-Protestantism’s heterodox history in the convergence of literature, politics, and religion at the end of the nineteenth century. This chapter tracks a set of social movements, revealing how religious aspirations animated early calls for a “race literature” and the “the color line” provided an organizing logic for religious innovations as divergent as the practices of pluralism and Pentecostalism at the century’s close. Chapter 3 surveys historical, sociological, and anthropological work during the 1930s and 1940s—focusing especially on the launch of Phylon: The Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture—at a key moment in the study of African American culture. Finally, chapter 4 presents three recent episodes, across the spheres of scholarship, literature, and politics, to illustrate the persistence—that is, the afterlives—of Afro-Protestantism at the turn of the twenty-first century"--Publisher's description Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based on online resource; title from home page (Oxford Academic, viewed on February 8, 2024) Subject African Americans -- Religion -- History Protestantism -- United States -- History Race -- Religious aspects -- Christianity. African Americans -- Social life and customs -- History Slave narratives -- History and criticism African Americans -- Religion. African Americans -- Social life and customs. African Americans -- Religion African Americans -- Social life and customs Protestantism Race -- Religious aspects -- Christianity Slave narratives Religion & beliefs. Religion. United States Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book LC no. 2022058622 ISBN 9780190615161 0190615168 019061515X 9780190615147 0190615141 9780190615154

Other Titles Christianity and the contours of African American life

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