The Burden of Black Religion | 
 enlarge | Author: Curtis J. Evans
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Sales Rank: 271394
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 392
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0195329317
Dewey Decimal Number: 277.30808996073
EAN: 9780195329315
ASIN: 0195329317
Publication Date: April 17, 2008
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Product Description
Religion has always been a focal element in the long and tortured history of American ideas about race. In The Burden of Black Religion, Curtis Evans traces ideas about African American religion from the antebellum period to the middle of the twentieth century.
Central to the story, he argues, was the deep-rooted notion that blacks were somehow "naturally" religious. At first, this assumed natural impulse toward religion served as a signal trait of black people's humanity - potentially their unique contribution to American culture. Abolitionists seized on this point, linking black religion to the black capacity for freedom. Soon, however, these first halting steps toward a multiracial democracy were reversed.
As Americans began to value reason, rationality, and science over religious piety, the idea of an innate black religiosity was used to justify preserving the inequalities of the status quo. Later, social scientists - both black and white - sought to reverse the damage caused by these racist ideas and in the process proved that blacks were in fact fully capable of incorporation into white American culture.
This important work reveals how interpretations of black religion played a crucial role in shaping broader views of African Americans and had real consequences in their lives. In the process, Evans offers an intellectual and cultural history of race in a crucial period of American history.
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