Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion - Softcover

Savage, Barbara Dianne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674066278 ISBN 13: 9780674066274

Publisher: Belknap Press, 2012

Synopsis

Even before the emergence of the civil rights movement with black churches at its center, African American religion and progressive politics were assumed to be inextricably intertwined. In her revelatory book, Barbara Savage counters this assumption with the story of a highly diversified religious community whose debates over engagement in the struggle for racial equality were as vigorous as they were persistent. Rather than inevitable allies, black churches and political activists have been uneasy and contentious partners. From the 1920s on, some of the best African American minds - W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, Benjamin Mays, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Mary McLeod Bethune, Charles S. Johnson, and others - argued tirelessly about the churches' responsibility in the quest for racial justice. Could they be a liberal force, or would they be a constraint on progress? There was no single, unified black church but rather many churches marked by enormous intellectual, theological, and political differences and independence. Yet, confronted by racial discrimination and poverty, churches were called upon again and again to come together as savior institutions for black communities. The tension between faith and political activism in black churches testifies to the difficult and unpredictable project of coupling religion and politics in the twentieth century. By retrieving the people, the polemics, and the power of the spiritual that animated African American political life, Savage has dramatically demonstrated the challenge to all religious institutions seeking political change in our time.

About this title

Review:

"With the recent controversy over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, much attention has been recently paid to the topic of the black church in America. Yet historian Savage shows in her book that "there is no such thing as the black church." Countering the image of a monolithic institution, Savage instead portrays the theological, economic and social diversity within black churches. Through biographical vignettes, Savage spans the 20th-century black religious experience, focusing on the ever-present question African-Americans asked about the role their churches should play in the politics for racial justice. Savage's greatest contribution is her restoration of black women to a central place in black religious experience. Though women formed the vast majority of those in the pews, most historians have focused on the male ministers who led the congregations. Savage argues for the importance of Mary McLeod Bethune, Nannie Helen Burroughs, and Fannie Lou Hamer, among others. A concluding chapter on Barack Obama and Wright smartly observes how Wright himself downplayed black religious diversity to make his defense of the black church." --Publishers Weekly, 15th September 2008

"Savage recounts the circuitous journey along which black religious sentiment and political ideology have conflicted, converged, and sometimes melded throughout the 20th century. She presents this sociohistorical study chiefly through an engaging series of portraits of individuals who combined African American religious and political sensibilities in innovative ways, including W.E.B. DuBois, Carter Woodson, Benjamin Mays, E. Franklin Frazier, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Nannie Helen Burroughs." --Dann Wigner, Library Journal, 1st October 2008

About the Author:

Barbara Dianne Savage is Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania.

About this edition

• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0674066278
• ISBN 13: 9780674066274
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368