Can I read The Burden of Black Religion on EtoBox?

The Burden of Black Religion by Curtis J. Evans; Curtis Junius Evans is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is The Burden of Black Religion about?

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 pl

Author

Curtis J. Evans; Curtis Junius Evans

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA; Oxford University Press

Published

2008

Language

EN

ISBN

9780195329315

Subjects

History, Religion, Christian