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Very Short Introductions #397
African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction
Since the first African American denomination was established in Philadelphia in 1818, churches have gone beyond their role as spiritual guides in African American communities and have served as civic institutions, spaces for education, and sites for the cultivation of individuality and identities in the face of limited or non-existent freedom.
In this Very Short Introduction, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. explores the history and circumstances of African American religion through three examples: conjure, African American Christianity, and African American Islam. He argues that the phrase "African American religion" is meaningful only insofar as it describes how through religion, African Americans have responded to oppressive conditions including slavery, Jim Crow apartheid, and the pervasive and institutionalized discrimination that exists today. This bold claim frames his interpretation of the historical record of the wide diversity of religious experiences in the African American community. He rejects the common tendency to racialize African American religious experiences as an inherent proclivity towards religiousness and instead focuses on how religious communities and experiences have developed in the African American community and the context in which these developments took place.
About the Series:
Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.
In this Very Short Introduction, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. explores the history and circumstances of African American religion through three examples: conjure, African American Christianity, and African American Islam. He argues that the phrase "African American religion" is meaningful only insofar as it describes how through religion, African Americans have responded to oppressive conditions including slavery, Jim Crow apartheid, and the pervasive and institutionalized discrimination that exists today. This bold claim frames his interpretation of the historical record of the wide diversity of religious experiences in the African American community. He rejects the common tendency to racialize African American religious experiences as an inherent proclivity towards religiousness and instead focuses on how religious communities and experiences have developed in the African American community and the context in which these developments took place.
About the Series:
Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2014
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About the author
Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
19 books581 followersEddie S. Glaude Jr. is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University and author of Democracy in Black.
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August 27, 2021
Martyrs for Hope
There are no African-American Christian martyrs. There are many ancient Christian martyrs (who knows, some may have been African), a large number of martyrs among Christian missionaries to European colonies (certainly almost all white folk), a few dozen Protestant and Catholic martyrs of the Reformation (black folk missed that one altogether), somewhat fewer recognised as the martyrs of various totalitarian regimes in the 20th century (others too get murdered for being identifiably different from the dominant group). There is even a basilica in Africa in honour of the twenty-two African Christians killed for their faith in the 19th century.
Yet despite the thousands of (known) deaths among African-Americans by lynching, mob and police brutality, judicial prejudice, or pure social neglect by the dominant white culture, there are none who are recognised as dying for their faith - even those killed in churches while they prayed. Why? I think Glaude offers a clue when he cites the 20th century black theologian, Howard Thurman:
At the risk of offending a very large segment of African-American Christians, not to mention Christians in general, I suggest that what Thurman is saying is that African American religion is something different than that derived from the Pauline tradition of professed dedication to a text, either biblical or dogmatic. This is a Christianity of practice, not belief in the sense of credal assertion of a set of orthodox opinions. Glaude confirms this explicitly: “I view African American religion as a practice of freedom.”
This non-doctrinal character of African-American religion is at least a partial explanation of why there are no African-American martyrs. Those black Americans who lost there lives didn’t do so proclaiming a belief in propositions of faith. They died in the name of hope not faith. This, I think, might be what Glaude calls “the specific inflection of Christianity in the hands of those who lived as slaves.”
Hope does not reside in propositions or credal statements. Hope, like Love and unlike Faith, is a practice. Hope is un-dogmatic about its intentions. It will accept ‘deliverance,’ or ‘salvation,’ or ‘rescue,’ or simply ‘comfort’ as its end without trying to make a distinction among them. That is, Hope is a confidence that there will be a change in the world but it has no particular object.
This is the example of Jesus. Even when he feels forsaken, he doesn’t despair but maintains Hope: simple undogmatic, perhaps even content-free confidence that the future is worthwhile even in his misery. Glaude puts it this way: “… my approach to African American religion insists on its open-ended orientation… that ‘all is not settled.’” Exactly. What ‘settlement’ might look like is completely “open-ended.” This is a religion of undisclosed, hidden promise. In this sense, it is pre-Pauline, that is to say, Judaic (also a genetically based religion of Hope and physical difference).
Faith is ritualistic; it is a matter of words and submission to words. Hope is an entirely different kind of religious practice. Glaud quotes the black sociologist W. E. B. DuBois about the three things that characterise African-American religious practice: “the preacher, the music, and the frenzy.” Each of these is distinctive, the last most dramatically: “The frenzy (the shouting), for Du Bois, captures that delicate balance between joy and terror that shadows black life in the United States. It is the eruption of the spirit in ordinary time that assures the presence of God amid the absurdity of white supremacy.”
Hope is, I think, what Glaude means by “the sign of difference” in African American religion. Hope is an antidote to absurdity (and therefore even an antidote to faith according to Tertullian). It nullifies or cancels the existence of a hostile and oppressive current world-order. Hope trusts nothing except itself. Not institutions, not people, and, in the midst of the eruption of the spirit, not even words of prayer. This is what Glaude calls “the site for self-creation and for communal advancement with political implication.”
Faith is something one can inquire about and use as a sign of membership or political affiliation. Sometimes people are killed for this affiliation. Hope is a different expression altogether - non-verbal, unpolitical, transcendent one might say. But Hope is apparent in behaviour - an attitude of independence, a willingness to engage, an acceptance of compromise, and a demonstrated tolerance for change and uncertainty. This behaviour makes some people outside what might be called the Community of Hope, (which is much larger than a church congregation) annoyed, resentful, and even homicidally hateful. Unlike faith, it can neither be questioned nor argued against. It persists in silence rather than proclaiming itself. And those who die in Hope do so unrecognised.
Thus, no African-American martyrs. We can only hope the killing stops.
There are no African-American Christian martyrs. There are many ancient Christian martyrs (who knows, some may have been African), a large number of martyrs among Christian missionaries to European colonies (certainly almost all white folk), a few dozen Protestant and Catholic martyrs of the Reformation (black folk missed that one altogether), somewhat fewer recognised as the martyrs of various totalitarian regimes in the 20th century (others too get murdered for being identifiably different from the dominant group). There is even a basilica in Africa in honour of the twenty-two African Christians killed for their faith in the 19th century.
Yet despite the thousands of (known) deaths among African-Americans by lynching, mob and police brutality, judicial prejudice, or pure social neglect by the dominant white culture, there are none who are recognised as dying for their faith - even those killed in churches while they prayed. Why? I think Glaude offers a clue when he cites the 20th century black theologian, Howard Thurman:
“… the slave dared to redeem the religion profaned in his midst, he offered a particular understanding of black Christianity: this expression of Christianity was not the idolatrous embrace of Christian doctrine that justified the superiority of white people and the subordination of black people. Instead, black Christianity embraced the liberating power of Jesus’s example.”
At the risk of offending a very large segment of African-American Christians, not to mention Christians in general, I suggest that what Thurman is saying is that African American religion is something different than that derived from the Pauline tradition of professed dedication to a text, either biblical or dogmatic. This is a Christianity of practice, not belief in the sense of credal assertion of a set of orthodox opinions. Glaude confirms this explicitly: “I view African American religion as a practice of freedom.”
This non-doctrinal character of African-American religion is at least a partial explanation of why there are no African-American martyrs. Those black Americans who lost there lives didn’t do so proclaiming a belief in propositions of faith. They died in the name of hope not faith. This, I think, might be what Glaude calls “the specific inflection of Christianity in the hands of those who lived as slaves.”
Hope does not reside in propositions or credal statements. Hope, like Love and unlike Faith, is a practice. Hope is un-dogmatic about its intentions. It will accept ‘deliverance,’ or ‘salvation,’ or ‘rescue,’ or simply ‘comfort’ as its end without trying to make a distinction among them. That is, Hope is a confidence that there will be a change in the world but it has no particular object.
This is the example of Jesus. Even when he feels forsaken, he doesn’t despair but maintains Hope: simple undogmatic, perhaps even content-free confidence that the future is worthwhile even in his misery. Glaude puts it this way: “… my approach to African American religion insists on its open-ended orientation… that ‘all is not settled.’” Exactly. What ‘settlement’ might look like is completely “open-ended.” This is a religion of undisclosed, hidden promise. In this sense, it is pre-Pauline, that is to say, Judaic (also a genetically based religion of Hope and physical difference).
Faith is ritualistic; it is a matter of words and submission to words. Hope is an entirely different kind of religious practice. Glaud quotes the black sociologist W. E. B. DuBois about the three things that characterise African-American religious practice: “the preacher, the music, and the frenzy.” Each of these is distinctive, the last most dramatically: “The frenzy (the shouting), for Du Bois, captures that delicate balance between joy and terror that shadows black life in the United States. It is the eruption of the spirit in ordinary time that assures the presence of God amid the absurdity of white supremacy.”
Hope is, I think, what Glaude means by “the sign of difference” in African American religion. Hope is an antidote to absurdity (and therefore even an antidote to faith according to Tertullian). It nullifies or cancels the existence of a hostile and oppressive current world-order. Hope trusts nothing except itself. Not institutions, not people, and, in the midst of the eruption of the spirit, not even words of prayer. This is what Glaude calls “the site for self-creation and for communal advancement with political implication.”
Faith is something one can inquire about and use as a sign of membership or political affiliation. Sometimes people are killed for this affiliation. Hope is a different expression altogether - non-verbal, unpolitical, transcendent one might say. But Hope is apparent in behaviour - an attitude of independence, a willingness to engage, an acceptance of compromise, and a demonstrated tolerance for change and uncertainty. This behaviour makes some people outside what might be called the Community of Hope, (which is much larger than a church congregation) annoyed, resentful, and even homicidally hateful. Unlike faith, it can neither be questioned nor argued against. It persists in silence rather than proclaiming itself. And those who die in Hope do so unrecognised.
Thus, no African-American martyrs. We can only hope the killing stops.
February 24, 2025
African American Religion In The Very Short Introduction Series
Eddie Glaude begins his "Very Short Introduction" to "African American Religion" with a story. Glaude was raised in a small town on the Mississippi coast and attended a predominantly African American Catholic Church as a child. Following Vatican II, Glaube attended an inter-denominational gathering of various African American churches at a local gospel festival where his church choir was invited to participate. Glaude sat in a crowded pew in the church and experienced for the first time the singing of the black Pentecostal and Baptist traditions. "This was true theater", Glaude recalls, "It took my breath away." During the singing, a large elderly woman sitting next to him "caught the spirit", lost her balance, and tumbled onto the shy youngster next to her shouting, "Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus."
Glaude's youthful experience roughly captures what many Americans probably consider a characteristic of African American religion, "the preacher, the music, and the frenzy". But following this engaging initial story, Glaude's book takes a different course. Glaude distinguishes between "religion as practiced by African Americans" and "African American religion". The former includes many different practices, as African Americans follow different religious traditions including Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and more in different ways. To identify and describe "African American Religion", Glaude argues, more is required. If there is, in fact, "African American religion" as opposed to African Americans practicing different faiths, it must be found a commonality of African American experience. Glaude finds this commonality in African American history, with its beginning in slavery and the subsequent continued oppression of and discrimination against African Americans in the name of white supremacy. Glaude is the William S. Todd Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University and chair of Princeton's Center for African American Studies.
Taking what he describes as a "pragmatic" approach to African American religion, Glaude identifies three defining ideas. First, Glaude sees African American religion As teaching a "practice of freedom" to open up possibilities closed by white supremacy. Second, Glaude sees African American religion as based on a "sign of difference" in which African Americans deliberately set themselves apart in important ways from the oppression from the majority. Third, Glaude sees African American religion as having an "open-ended orientation" as its practitioners look to a better world "beyond the constraints of now." Glaude writes:
"The preacher, the frenzy, and the music (what I experienced in that small church house on the coast of Mississippi) stand as just one dimension of a complex religious response that has made possible freedom dreams, that has rejected the evil of white supremacy, and has insisted that the future remains open. The phrase 'African American religion' turns our attention to this wonderful human response to the ordeal of living."
Glaude describes three forms of "African American religion" following his delineation of the topic. He discusses the practice of conjuring and its historical and continued impact. He offers three chapters on African American Christianity, covering its development during the years of slavery, its change in character with Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Great Migration, and its current status, with a culture that aims, with dubious success at "color blindness." Glaude tries to show how African American religion has changed and evolved with changing social conditions and demographics. In his final chapter, Glaude discusses the rise of African American Islam, arguing that its appeal is based upon a rejection of African American Christianity as overly-accommodating to an oppressive culture. This succinct chapter offers a perceptive overview of several different strands of African American Islam. In a brief conclusion, Glaude questions whether "African American religion" will remain a proper descriptive category given changes in African American life and changes in the culture.
I learned a great deal from this book but want to offer some comments. The writing style in the book varies from the personal and immediately engaging, as in the opening material, to the stilted and overly-schematized. The study becomes overly-conceptualized at times. The historical and the religious discussions frequently are insightful and fascinating and Glaude relates them well to history and to African American experience. Still, for a short book with limited space, I wanted to learn more about the religions themselves and about different varying approaches during a particular time that might be considered "African American religion". I thought Glaude was frequently too short with the views of different churches and leaders and that he spent too much space on historical events, such as slavery, the Civil War, and the Great Migration, that are amply covered in other books. In other words, the book leans too heavily on social history and too lightly on religion. Finally, I found the book in places anachronistic and polemical. Glaude tends to stress throughout feminist related themes when, by his own account, such themes were neglected or not well-received by African American religion during much of the time covered by the book. The polemical portions of the book, I thought, arose when Glaude downplays or tries to explain away parts of African American religion that took a more accomodationist, apolitical stance to social issues than Glaude believes warranted. To summarize these comments, I think the distinction between the "religions of African Americans" and "African American religions" on which the book turns is useful but too sharply drawn.
This book is thoughtful and provocative. Readers interested in American religion or in African American studies will enjoy and learn a great deal from Glaude's "Very Short Introduction" in the outstanding series from Oxford University Press.
Robin Friedman
Eddie Glaude begins his "Very Short Introduction" to "African American Religion" with a story. Glaude was raised in a small town on the Mississippi coast and attended a predominantly African American Catholic Church as a child. Following Vatican II, Glaube attended an inter-denominational gathering of various African American churches at a local gospel festival where his church choir was invited to participate. Glaude sat in a crowded pew in the church and experienced for the first time the singing of the black Pentecostal and Baptist traditions. "This was true theater", Glaude recalls, "It took my breath away." During the singing, a large elderly woman sitting next to him "caught the spirit", lost her balance, and tumbled onto the shy youngster next to her shouting, "Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus."
Glaude's youthful experience roughly captures what many Americans probably consider a characteristic of African American religion, "the preacher, the music, and the frenzy". But following this engaging initial story, Glaude's book takes a different course. Glaude distinguishes between "religion as practiced by African Americans" and "African American religion". The former includes many different practices, as African Americans follow different religious traditions including Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and more in different ways. To identify and describe "African American Religion", Glaude argues, more is required. If there is, in fact, "African American religion" as opposed to African Americans practicing different faiths, it must be found a commonality of African American experience. Glaude finds this commonality in African American history, with its beginning in slavery and the subsequent continued oppression of and discrimination against African Americans in the name of white supremacy. Glaude is the William S. Todd Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University and chair of Princeton's Center for African American Studies.
Taking what he describes as a "pragmatic" approach to African American religion, Glaude identifies three defining ideas. First, Glaude sees African American religion As teaching a "practice of freedom" to open up possibilities closed by white supremacy. Second, Glaude sees African American religion as based on a "sign of difference" in which African Americans deliberately set themselves apart in important ways from the oppression from the majority. Third, Glaude sees African American religion as having an "open-ended orientation" as its practitioners look to a better world "beyond the constraints of now." Glaude writes:
"The preacher, the frenzy, and the music (what I experienced in that small church house on the coast of Mississippi) stand as just one dimension of a complex religious response that has made possible freedom dreams, that has rejected the evil of white supremacy, and has insisted that the future remains open. The phrase 'African American religion' turns our attention to this wonderful human response to the ordeal of living."
Glaude describes three forms of "African American religion" following his delineation of the topic. He discusses the practice of conjuring and its historical and continued impact. He offers three chapters on African American Christianity, covering its development during the years of slavery, its change in character with Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Great Migration, and its current status, with a culture that aims, with dubious success at "color blindness." Glaude tries to show how African American religion has changed and evolved with changing social conditions and demographics. In his final chapter, Glaude discusses the rise of African American Islam, arguing that its appeal is based upon a rejection of African American Christianity as overly-accommodating to an oppressive culture. This succinct chapter offers a perceptive overview of several different strands of African American Islam. In a brief conclusion, Glaude questions whether "African American religion" will remain a proper descriptive category given changes in African American life and changes in the culture.
I learned a great deal from this book but want to offer some comments. The writing style in the book varies from the personal and immediately engaging, as in the opening material, to the stilted and overly-schematized. The study becomes overly-conceptualized at times. The historical and the religious discussions frequently are insightful and fascinating and Glaude relates them well to history and to African American experience. Still, for a short book with limited space, I wanted to learn more about the religions themselves and about different varying approaches during a particular time that might be considered "African American religion". I thought Glaude was frequently too short with the views of different churches and leaders and that he spent too much space on historical events, such as slavery, the Civil War, and the Great Migration, that are amply covered in other books. In other words, the book leans too heavily on social history and too lightly on religion. Finally, I found the book in places anachronistic and polemical. Glaude tends to stress throughout feminist related themes when, by his own account, such themes were neglected or not well-received by African American religion during much of the time covered by the book. The polemical portions of the book, I thought, arose when Glaude downplays or tries to explain away parts of African American religion that took a more accomodationist, apolitical stance to social issues than Glaude believes warranted. To summarize these comments, I think the distinction between the "religions of African Americans" and "African American religions" on which the book turns is useful but too sharply drawn.
This book is thoughtful and provocative. Readers interested in American religion or in African American studies will enjoy and learn a great deal from Glaude's "Very Short Introduction" in the outstanding series from Oxford University Press.
Robin Friedman
August 25, 2021
An excellent VSI about the category of African American religion. It begins with conjure, spiritual beliefs and rituals that survived the trauma of the middle passage. It proceeds to analyze Christianity and white missionary efforts during slavery and the way Christian doctrine was interpreted by slaveholders and associated ministers to buoy slavery: it also shows how slaves resisted this allying of Christianity with white superemacy and interpreted the faith so that it became a nourishment to struggles for freedom and self-authorization. It looks at African American religion in reconstruction, early modernity, and through the latter half of the 20th century, with an emphasis on the confluence of Civil Rights and African American religion. Although mostly focused on Christianity, it obliquely references Islam and the Nation of Islam. Overall, an excellent, informative survey to spur deeper reading.
February 7, 2017
I can't fault this book for not explaining certain movements or events that I knew nothing about because this is "A Very Short Introduction," but I do feel like the author could've dumbed it down a bit? I know that's wrong to say, but some of the complicated terms he used weren't necessary. It's like when you're reviewing someone's college paper and you can tell that they heavily relied on a thesaurus.
That being said this book was a great introduction to the topic and I have definitely learned from it.
That being said this book was a great introduction to the topic and I have definitely learned from it.
August 6, 2023
What is African American Religion? Author and historian Eddie Glaude addresses this question head on in this Very Short Introduction on the history, nature, scope, and intricacies of religion for Black people born in the United States. Glaude starts out by distinction between African American religious life and African American Religion—with the former being the various religions and beliefs that Black Americans subscribe to, and the latter being the fundamental role that religion plays for Black people in an anti-Black, white supremacist society.
African American Religion is how enslaved Africans—and Black “Americans” in the subsequent decades—reconstructed the world around them from one built around their enslavement, colonization, and ontological destruction, to one beaming with the possibilities of liberation and self-determination. Religion—whether Christianity, Islam, or traditional beliefs—was foundational in that endeavor.
Glaude’s analysis of African American Religion traces three main traditions (albeit in varying degrees of depth)—traditional African “conjure,” Black Christianity, and Black Islam. Glaude characterizes African conjure as a mystical (i.e. magic-oriented) practice that often accompanied larger religious beliefs in Christianity and Islam, that served the purpose of healing or protecting oneself from the ravages of slavery and anti-Blackness. Conjure connecting African American slaves to their traditional African past, reaffirming their humanity in the process. Conjure (magic) became an instrument of freedom and autonomy for Black folks—a running theme for Glaude is his overall analysis.
The evaluation of Christianity was by far the largest portion of the book. Glaude analyzes three distinct periods of African American Christendom, tracing how it rose, developed, and evolved all within the confines of violent and rabid anti-Blackness. Enslaved Africans—upon their eventual conversion to Christianity (a slow process at first, given slave-masters’ hesitance on converting their “property” out of fear of its potential humanizing effects)—developed a fundamentally different view of and relationship with Christianity than white Christians. Instead of viewing as a system that facilitated and justified their slave status, Africans used it to envision a new, autonomous future. The Black Church was the foundation of Black self-determination and institution-building in almost every sector of sociopolitical life, both before and especially after the Civil War. Glaude focuses on the evolution of the Black Church over the years, detailing its role as the nerve center for all of Black life, to its liberalized transformations during the Great Migrations and suburbanization.
Finally, Glaude gives some attention to Islam, focusing on how Islam was first introduced to North America via enslavement, but more specifically, how 20th Century Black “Americans” used variants of Islam to reposition and self-determine the masses of Black folks in urban America. In conclusion, this is a very informative book that clarifies and features politics as the central driver of African American Religion.
African American Religion is how enslaved Africans—and Black “Americans” in the subsequent decades—reconstructed the world around them from one built around their enslavement, colonization, and ontological destruction, to one beaming with the possibilities of liberation and self-determination. Religion—whether Christianity, Islam, or traditional beliefs—was foundational in that endeavor.
Glaude’s analysis of African American Religion traces three main traditions (albeit in varying degrees of depth)—traditional African “conjure,” Black Christianity, and Black Islam. Glaude characterizes African conjure as a mystical (i.e. magic-oriented) practice that often accompanied larger religious beliefs in Christianity and Islam, that served the purpose of healing or protecting oneself from the ravages of slavery and anti-Blackness. Conjure connecting African American slaves to their traditional African past, reaffirming their humanity in the process. Conjure (magic) became an instrument of freedom and autonomy for Black folks—a running theme for Glaude is his overall analysis.
The evaluation of Christianity was by far the largest portion of the book. Glaude analyzes three distinct periods of African American Christendom, tracing how it rose, developed, and evolved all within the confines of violent and rabid anti-Blackness. Enslaved Africans—upon their eventual conversion to Christianity (a slow process at first, given slave-masters’ hesitance on converting their “property” out of fear of its potential humanizing effects)—developed a fundamentally different view of and relationship with Christianity than white Christians. Instead of viewing as a system that facilitated and justified their slave status, Africans used it to envision a new, autonomous future. The Black Church was the foundation of Black self-determination and institution-building in almost every sector of sociopolitical life, both before and especially after the Civil War. Glaude focuses on the evolution of the Black Church over the years, detailing its role as the nerve center for all of Black life, to its liberalized transformations during the Great Migrations and suburbanization.
Finally, Glaude gives some attention to Islam, focusing on how Islam was first introduced to North America via enslavement, but more specifically, how 20th Century Black “Americans” used variants of Islam to reposition and self-determine the masses of Black folks in urban America. In conclusion, this is a very informative book that clarifies and features politics as the central driver of African American Religion.
July 17, 2016
Provided an epic array of answers for questions no one in my life has been able to answer. Gives a generational background and analysis that is currently missing from the consciousness of African American history. Speaks to my state of mind and the rhythm of my soul. Made me realize how much of this is continually being erased and denied from the psyche of a dying nation. Imperative to the ethnography of this nation, Mr. Glaude enlightens his readers and helps provide insight into the historical and current state of religion in this country. Powerful!
August 9, 2021
A great starter book for one who wants to get a taste of the unequivocal essence of religion in African American culture! Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr drops many names and gems for the reader to further investigate.
One thing that I’d wish Dr. Glaude would have done is provide the same fervor in fully illustrating and narrating the Islamic history of African Americans, just as he had done with the sections on Christianity prior. It is understandable that as a Catholic, he may have more of an inclination to showcase a religious creed/religion that he grew up with and dedicated his studies to.
Yet besides the curt nature of the Islamic section, I couldn’t help but sense a biased tone in his iteration of early African Islamic history (it came of as brief and one-dimensional); but this bias is more pronounced when discussing Islamic manifestations in the early twentieth century. He only dedicated the Islamic section to this time period and no other earlier timeframes, claiming that no distinctive manifestations of Islamic traditions were abound or stuck, which according to various historians, i.e. Sylviane Diouf is definitely not the case. Although many proto-Islamic institutions (namely the Moorish Science Temple and the NOI) may have their own different creeds, they did, without a doubt, brought countless amounts of African Americans to Sunni Islam, whether intended or not.
Besides this observation, it was a great read!
One thing that I’d wish Dr. Glaude would have done is provide the same fervor in fully illustrating and narrating the Islamic history of African Americans, just as he had done with the sections on Christianity prior. It is understandable that as a Catholic, he may have more of an inclination to showcase a religious creed/religion that he grew up with and dedicated his studies to.
Yet besides the curt nature of the Islamic section, I couldn’t help but sense a biased tone in his iteration of early African Islamic history (it came of as brief and one-dimensional); but this bias is more pronounced when discussing Islamic manifestations in the early twentieth century. He only dedicated the Islamic section to this time period and no other earlier timeframes, claiming that no distinctive manifestations of Islamic traditions were abound or stuck, which according to various historians, i.e. Sylviane Diouf is definitely not the case. Although many proto-Islamic institutions (namely the Moorish Science Temple and the NOI) may have their own different creeds, they did, without a doubt, brought countless amounts of African Americans to Sunni Islam, whether intended or not.
Besides this observation, it was a great read!
October 12, 2014
Great read. Really thorough and precise. Dr. Glaude really did a terrific job with this text.
July 30, 2018
The summary of the political landscape in the 1980s until now (chapter 6) is suscinct and accurate. Quite the best I've read. I have not seen a summary quite like that.
April 26, 2018
I read and reviewed this one for my American Christianity and the Restored Gospel class, I only needed to read a portion of it to get the full credit, but it was interesting enough that I ended up finishing it. Here's the conclusion from the review I turned in (and got a 96% on):
Overall, Glaude produced a thorough and precise volume that succinctly covered several hundred years of a marginalized people’s history. He explains the cultural significance of key events concisely and included a length list of additional reading material if one desires to investigate a subject further. However, Glaude seemed to focus more on the social and cultural events of the periods, and less on the religions themselves. At some points, it seemed that Glaude was describing how a certain event affected African American life in general as opposed to African American religion. This may be in part due to the sharp distinction the author draws between religions practiced by African Americans, and African American religion. Furthermore, while Glaude begins his introduction with a readable and engaging voice, he quickly switches into a more abstruse language that slows the reader. This certainly grants the volume the intended academic quality, yet approaches the topics at hand with swiping macro analysis as opposed to the individual stories that quilts singular experiences into the greater tapestry of African American religion. Nonetheless, Glaude achieved a significant accomplishment in thoroughly examining such an expansive topic within a limited space.
Overall, Glaude produced a thorough and precise volume that succinctly covered several hundred years of a marginalized people’s history. He explains the cultural significance of key events concisely and included a length list of additional reading material if one desires to investigate a subject further. However, Glaude seemed to focus more on the social and cultural events of the periods, and less on the religions themselves. At some points, it seemed that Glaude was describing how a certain event affected African American life in general as opposed to African American religion. This may be in part due to the sharp distinction the author draws between religions practiced by African Americans, and African American religion. Furthermore, while Glaude begins his introduction with a readable and engaging voice, he quickly switches into a more abstruse language that slows the reader. This certainly grants the volume the intended academic quality, yet approaches the topics at hand with swiping macro analysis as opposed to the individual stories that quilts singular experiences into the greater tapestry of African American religion. Nonetheless, Glaude achieved a significant accomplishment in thoroughly examining such an expansive topic within a limited space.
July 27, 2020
I was going to give this a four star. Well written, learned a lot of new things, concise and to the point. But then I got to the chapter on Islam and there is only a very brief and watered down mention of Malcolm X criticisms of Elijah Muhammad and no mention at all of how he was likely killed by NOI thugs.
One might argue that the author just didn’t have time to go into this, Yet in the very same chapter he writes multiple paragraphs criticizing Wallace Muhammad (Elijah’s son), who pushed the organization in a direction closer to mainstream Islam (thereby, the author claims, neutralizing it’s nationalist ideology). He also spends no time discussing Malcom X move towards authentic Islam while remaining a black nationalist.
For those interested, Malcom X called out Elijah Muhammad as a racist thug who built an exploitive cult to enrich himself and rape women. Leaving this out is particularly egregious in light of the slavish accolades given to Elijah Muhammad’s self appointed successor, Farrakhan, who unlike Malcolm X & Wallace Muhammad, continues to propagate Elijah’s racist, fraudulent cult.
One might argue that the author just didn’t have time to go into this, Yet in the very same chapter he writes multiple paragraphs criticizing Wallace Muhammad (Elijah’s son), who pushed the organization in a direction closer to mainstream Islam (thereby, the author claims, neutralizing it’s nationalist ideology). He also spends no time discussing Malcom X move towards authentic Islam while remaining a black nationalist.
For those interested, Malcom X called out Elijah Muhammad as a racist thug who built an exploitive cult to enrich himself and rape women. Leaving this out is particularly egregious in light of the slavish accolades given to Elijah Muhammad’s self appointed successor, Farrakhan, who unlike Malcolm X & Wallace Muhammad, continues to propagate Elijah’s racist, fraudulent cult.
August 22, 2022
Chapter 1: The category of "African American religion"
Chapter 2: Conjure and African American religion
Chapter 3: African American Christianity: The early phase (1760-1863)
Chapter 4: African American Christianity: The modern phase (1863-1935)
Chapter 5: African American Christianity: The modern phase (1935-1980)
Chapter 6: African American Christianity since 1980
Chapter 7: African American Islam
Chapter 2: Conjure and African American religion
Chapter 3: African American Christianity: The early phase (1760-1863)
Chapter 4: African American Christianity: The modern phase (1863-1935)
Chapter 5: African American Christianity: The modern phase (1935-1980)
Chapter 6: African American Christianity since 1980
Chapter 7: African American Islam
September 19, 2020
A readable overview, but lacking in depth. Time that could have been spent on unraveling important social and theological issues in more detail is instead wasted on talking in circles about the definition of African American Religion.
November 29, 2022
Keenly and focused historical analysis of African American religion. It's amazing how many practices have become ingrained in the Black church as fact and law...when they were literally just imagined up by some random guy more than 50 years ago and stuck.
September 20, 2018
the section on Islam was too short
July 5, 2020
Excellent. May be a 5. Very good complement to BLM to black liberation. Useful idea of thinking in terms of this ans that instead of us and them
July 13, 2022
Very useful overview, especially for me the sections on conjure and Islam which I knew very little about, and a good source for additional resources. Short and very readable.
August 12, 2023
The author provides an introductory overview of a very large topic. Any reader wanting to build a firm foundation of understanding of the subject should start here.
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December 12, 2014200.8996 G552 2014
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