Oxford University Press, Date: 2008-04-16. 1. Used - Very Good. A copy that may have been read, very minimal wear and tear. May have a remainder mark. 2008. Oxford University Press ISBN 0195329317 9780195329315 [US]

Oxford University Press, Date: 2008-04-17. 1. paperback. Used: Good. 2008. Oxford University Press ISBN 0195329317 9780195329315 [US]

New. New Book; Fast Shipping from UK; Not signed; Not First Edition; The The Burden of Black Religion. ISBN 0195329317 9780195329315 [GB]

ISBN10: 0195329317, ISBN13: 9780195329315, [publisher: Oxford University Press Inc, New York] Softcover Paperback. 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 asignal 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 whiteAmerican 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 intheir lives. In the process, Evans offers an intellectual and cultural ...
Show/Hide image

Paperback / softback. New. In the long and tortured history of American ideas about race, religion has played a prominent role. In this book, 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, is the notion-popular throughout this period-that blacks were somehow naturally religious. In the antebellum period, the religious sentiments of blacks were commonly pointed to as a signal trait of their humanity and as a potential source for their contribution to American culture. Abolitionists began linking the distinctive religious feelings of blacks to their capacity for freedom and by doing so made the first, halting steps toward multiracial democracy. Yet the very notion of a peculiar African religious sensibility masked doubts about the intellectual abilities of blacks and reflected white misgivings about the lack of spiritual and moral values in their own culture. Later, when religion was less central to the lives and thought of American cultural elites, the notion of natural religion became an obstacle to African American integration. As more and more value was placed on reason, rationality, and science, many whites pointed to blacks' natural religiosity as a sign of their inferiority and used that argument to justify their subordination. At the same time, many social scientists-both black and white-sought to debunk the idea of innate religiosity to show that ...