The New Black Gods: Arthur Huff Fauset and the Study of African American Religions (Religion in North America)

Taking the influential work of Arthur Huff Fauset as a starting point to break down the false dichotomy that exists between mainstream and marginal, a new generation of scholars offers fresh ideas for understanding the religious expressions of African Americans in the United States. Fauset's 1944 classic, Black Gods of the Metropolis, launched original methods and theories for thinking about African American religions as modern, cosmopolitan, and democratic. The essays in this collection show the diversity of African American religion in the wake of the Great Migration and consider the full field of African American religion from Pentecostalism to Black Judaism, Black Islam, and Father Divine's Peace Mission Movement. As a whole, they create a dynamic, humanistic, and thoroughly interdisciplinary understanding of African American religious history and life. This book is essential reading for anyone who studies the African American experience. Foreword / By Catherine L. Albanese And Stephen J. Stein -- Introduction / Edward E. Curtis Iv And Danielle Brune Sigler -- New Religious Movement(s) Of The Great Migration Era -- Fauset's (missing) Pentecostals : Church Mothers, Remaking Respectability, And Religious Modernism / Clarence E. Hardy Iii -- Grace Has Given God A Vacation : The History And Development Of The Theology Of The United House Of Prayer Of All People / Danielle Brune Sigler -- Chased Out Of Palestine : Prophet Cherry's Church Of God And Early Black Judaisms In The United States / Nora L. Rubel -- Debating The Origins Of The Moorish Science Temple : Toward A New Cultural History / Edward E. Curtis Iv -- The Consciousness Of God's Presence Will Keep You Well, Healthy, Happy, And Singing : The Tradition Of Innovation In The Music Of Father Divine's Peace Mission Movement / Leonard Norman Primiano -- A True Moslem Is A True Spiritualist : Black Orientalism And Black Gods Of The Metropolis / Jacob S. Dorman -- Resurrecting Fauset's Vision For African American Religious Studies -- Religion Proper And Proper Religion : Arthur Fauset And The Study Of African American Religions / Sylvester A. Johnson -- The Perpetual Primitive In African American Religious Historiography / Kathryn Lofton -- Turning African Americans Into Rational Actors : The Important Legacy Of Fauset's Functionalism / Carolyn Rouse -- Defining The Negro Problem In Brazil : The Shifting Significance Of Brazil's African Heritage From The 1890s To The 1940s / Kelly E. Hayes -- Fauset And His Black Gods : Intersections With The Herskovits-frazier Debate / Stephen W. Angell. Edited By Edward E. Curtis Iv And Danielle Brune Sigler. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contents......Page 7 Foreword......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 14 Introduction......Page 18 Part 1. New Religious Movement(s) of the Great Migration Era......Page 30 One Fauset’s (Missing) Pentecostals: Church Mothers, Remaking Respectability, and Religious Modernism......Page 32 Two ‘‘Grace Has Given God a Vacation’’: The History and Development of the Theology of the United House of Prayer of All People......Page 48 Three ‘‘Chased out of Palestine’’: Prophet Cherry’s Church of God and Early Black Judaisms in the United States......Page 66 Four Debating the Origins of the Moorish Science Temple: Toward a New Cultural History......Page 87 Five ‘‘The Consciousness of God’s Presence Will Keep You Well, Healthy, Happy, and Singing’’......Page 108 Six ‘‘A True Moslem Is a True Spiritualist’’: Black Orientalism and Black Gods of the Metropolis......Page 133 Part 2. Resurrecting Fauset’s Vision for African American Religious Studies......Page 160 Seven Religion Proper and Proper Religion: Arthur Fauset and the Study of African American Religions......Page 162 Eight The Perpetual Primitive in African American Religious Historiography......Page 188 Nine Turning African Americans into Rational Actors: The Important Legacy of Fauset’s Functionalism......Page 209 Ten Defining the ‘‘Negro Problem’’ in Brazil: The Shifting Significance of Brazil’s African Heritage from the 1890s to the 1940s......Page 226 Eleven Fauset and His Black Gods: Intersections with the Herskovits-Frazier Debate......Page 243 List of contributors......Page 266 Index......Page 268 Taking the influential work of Arthur Huff Fauset as a starting point to break down the false dichotomy that exists between mainstream and marginal, this title features a new generation of scholars who offer fresh ideas for understanding the religious expressions of African Americans in the United States.