African American Religions: An Introduction RLST 19

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1 RLST 19 Course Description The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the religious practices, beliefs, and movements of African Americans from 17th century to present. Topics include, but not limited to, black religions in North America under slavery, black churches, black Muslims, Jews and conjuring traditions, the civil rights movement, and the relation of African American religion to the arts. We will read a range of primary and secondary texts. Readings will include Albert Raboteau, Michael Gomez, Evelyn Brooks-Higginbotham, Judith Weisenfeld, Cornel West and others.

2 Jonathan L. Walton Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Professor of Religion and Society Course Requirement & Grade Distribution Take Home Midterm Examination Attendance/Discussion Participation Critical Review Essays Final Examination 25 points 20 points 30 points 25 points Required Texts James Baldwin, Go Tell It On the Mountain. Vintage Reprint Edition, Melissa L. Cooper. Making Gullah: A History of Sapelo Islanders, Race, and the American Imagination. University of North Carolina Press, Eddie Glaude, Jr. & Cornel West. African American Religious Thought: An Anthology. Westminster John Knox, Michael Gomez. Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South. University of North Carolina Press, R. Marie Griffith & Barbara Dianne Savage. Women and Religion in the African Diaspora: Knowledge, Power, and Performance. John Hopkins University Press, Carolyn Morrow Long. A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau. University Press of Florida, Albert Raboteau. A Fire in the Bones: Reflections on African American Religious History. Beacon Press, 1996.

3 Judith Weisenfeld, New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity During the Great Migration. New York University Press, What is African American Religious Studies? Theories and Origins Week 1 Course Introduction, Syllabus Reading: Towards New Vision and New Approaches in AART Praying the ABCs: Reflection on Faith in History in Raboteau Fire in the Bones Week 2 September 5-Gomez, Exchanging Our Country Marks, Chapters 1, 4, 7 Week 3 September (Critical Review Essay due on September 14) Gomez, Exchanging Our Country Marks, Chapters 8, Albert Raboteau, Death of the Gods, in AART Week 4 September Cornel West, African Americans in Conflict: Alienation in an Insecure Culture in AART Carla Peterson Doers of the Word, Theorizing African American Women Speakers and Writers in the Antebellum North, in AART Albert Raboteau, Richard Allen and the African Church Movement, in FITB Week 5 September (Critical Review Essay due on September 28)

4 Elsa Barkley Brown, Negotiating and Transforming the Public Sphere: African American Political Life in the Transition from Slavery to Freedom in AART Albert Raboteau, Minority within a Minority: The History of Black Catholics in America, in FITB Week 6 October 3-5 Cooper, Making Gullah, Chapters 1-4 Watch, Cheating the Stillness: The World of Julia Peterkin Women s Work: Performing, Suppressing, & Subverting Gender and Sexuality Week 7 October (Critical Review Essay due on October 12) Zora Neale Hurston, Hoodoo in America, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol 44. NO 174. (October-December, 1931), pp Aisha Beliso De-Jesus, A Hieroglyphics of Zora Neale Hurston, Journal of Africana Religions, 4 no 2, 2016, p Week 8 October Carolyn Morrow Long, A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau Week 9 October (Critical Review Essay due on October 26) Wallace Best, The Spirit of the Holy Ghost is a Male Spirit : African American Preaching Women and the Paradoxes of Gender in WRAD Anthea Butler, Only a Woman Would Do : Bible Reading and African American Women s Organizing Work in WRAD Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Exploring the Religious Connection: Black Women Community Workers, Religious Agency, and the Force of Faith in WRAD

5 Black Gods of the Metropolis: The Great Migration and Creating Oneself Anew Week 10 October 31-Nov 1 Richard Brent Turner, The Ahmadiyya Mission to Blacks in the United States in the 1920s, Journal of Religious Thought. Winter/ Spring 88. Vol 44 Issue 2. P50-67 Marie R. Griffith, Body Salvation: New Thought, Father Divine, and the Feast of Material Pleasures. Religion and American Culture. Summer Vol 11. Issue 2. Week 11 November 7-9 (Critical Review Essay November 9) Judith Weisenfeld, New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration Week 12 November Week 13 Judith Weisenfeld, continued. Begin Reading, James Baldwin, Go Tell It On the Mountain November Thanksgiving Break James Baldwin, Go Tell It On the Mountain Week 14 Black Religion and the Struggle for Civil Rights November (Critical Review Essay November 30) Clayborn Carson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the African American Social Gospel in West and Glaude

6 Martin Luther King, Jr. A Letter from Birmingham City Jail Vincent Harding, The Religion of Black Power in AART Malcolm X, I am talking to you, White Man. Saturday Evening Post, 9/12/1964. Vol Issue 31, p30-53 Assignments CRITICAL REVIEW ESSAYS Critical review essays provide an opportunity to respond thoughtfully to the readings. You will be required to write five analytical review essays. They should be one page single-spaced. They are due on the designated dates above. If you will not be in attendance, you should arrange for an electronic copy of your essay to be uploaded to Canvas prior to the due date class meeting. The following questions should guide your discussion: 1. What is the historical and political context of the subject under consideration? 2. What is the general argument of the book(s)/article(s) read in this particular section? 4. How are debates about class, gender and race negotiated? 4. What major themes connect this work with other works in our readings? 5. How is the intersection of religion, art, and politics understood? The above questions do not form a rigid template for your review essays. You may want to address other issues and some will not be particularly relevant for specific texts. These questions, however, should help structure your reading, note-taking in class, and your essays. Critical review essays are compulsory! Failure to submit three of the five analytical essays will result in an automatic F in the course.

7 ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION Fundamental to learning is full participation in the classroom experience. It is here where questions are raised and discussion brings about clarity, though not necessarily agreement on all issues. Your participation is not only crucial to your growth, but also that of your classmates. Thus absence from the class should be avoided at all costs. Nevertheless, emergencies do arise. In light of this, you are permitted one excused absence. After this, your grade will be affected. Full participation in the classroom dynamic is expected at all times. We have entered into a contract of reciprocity where we learn from one another. Let us enjoy and respect the process. Moreover, though we require critical interpretations of the assigned readings and each other s perspectives, all conversation MUST remain collegial. Always err to the side of generosity! You never know when you will need liberality reciprocated. Being rude and going hard in order to perform your intelligence is not a sign of intelligence. It is a sign of being Academic Integrity Using the ideas of others without giving appropriate credit is plagiarism. You are expected to cite your work (including electronic/internet/media sources). I suggest the Chicago humanities style of documentation. For examples of appropriately cited sources according to the Chicago Manual of Style see: Moreover, any other form of intellectual dishonesty is unacceptable. Academic integrity is expected at all times. This is not a matter of getting caught (though you will be punished according to University guidelines) but a matter of your own personal integrity. You owe yourself nothing less than your best. Do not compromise your most valuable assets: your name and character.