tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post7048378285154378713..comments2024-03-26T11:33:59.219-06:00Comments on Religion in American History: Free Associate with MePaul Harveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-11805048602767960962015-02-08T12:13:52.668-07:002015-02-08T12:13:52.668-07:00Definitely an important point, Emily. My class is...Definitely an important point, Emily. My class is small, but quite diverse - comprised of African, African American, and white students. This definitely allows them to answer these questions (and me to ask them) in particular ways. I love the expansiveness of your students' definition - Father Pfleger certainly raises an interesting set of questions. <br /><br />I find Eddie Glaude's differentiation between the diversity of African American religious life and "African American religion," as a category of analysis, quite convincing. In _African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction_ (Oxford, 2014) he argues, "in short, African American religious life is as rich and as complicated as the religious life of other groups in the United States, but African American religion emerges in the encounter between faith, in all of its complexity, and white supremacy" (6).Matthew Cresslerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13071172216912668016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-18892140250884330952015-02-05T21:28:09.499-07:002015-02-05T21:28:09.499-07:00As for the humanities v. social science comment, I...<i><br />As for the humanities v. social science comment, I'm not sure I'm clear on your question. But the blog is home to a scholars with a variety of different disciplinary commitments.</i><br /><br />Thx for the reply, Matthew. I'm asking whether the inquiry is useful without some attempt at statistical rigor.<br /><br />Except for 3) that African American worship is spontaneous and emotional, which I suppose is self-evident since I've never heard gospel music as dreadful as well, if you've ever heard Eddie Izzard explain it...<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuEuY4BUMfMTom Van Dykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07121072404143877596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-52386577376475530882015-02-02T17:03:17.091-07:002015-02-02T17:03:17.091-07:00Sounds like an interesting way to start off the se...Sounds like an interesting way to start off the semester with them. I'm wondering how the demographics in the classroom might shape that conversation. I teach at a very white school in the Pacific Northwest. <br /><br />Last semester in my African American Religions class, we had a few conversations about the topic of our course. In other words, what are African American religions? At the beginning of the semester, they were very uncomfortable with defining it themselves and no one wanted to speak up. There was one African American student in the room. <br />By the end of the semester, they had opened up and begun to think about what makes an African American religion. They wanted an expansive category, that while perhaps based on ideas about race, wasn't bound by ideas about race. For example, due to his rhetoric and life experiences, they considered Father Michael Pfleger to fall under the category. esclarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02794977716560232353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-75510745616498708462015-02-01T08:47:51.247-07:002015-02-01T08:47:51.247-07:00Point of clarification: what I am arguing here is ...Point of clarification: what I am arguing here is that the concept "African American religion" usually bears these four assumptions. I am definitely not arguing that "African American religion" actually is constituted by these four things. The scholars I allude to in that paragraph - along with myself - are, in fact, challenging this common conception as much too limited, not to mention burdened by many problematic implications.<br /><br />As for the humanities v. social science comment, I'm not sure I'm clear on your question. But the blog is home to a scholars with a variety of different disciplinary commitments.Matthew Cresslerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13071172216912668016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-63726839828951515302015-02-01T02:09:39.275-07:002015-02-01T02:09:39.275-07:001) that African Americans share a special (perhaps...<i> 1) that African Americans share a special (perhaps even natural) inclination to the religious; 2) that African American religiosity is evangelical and Protestant; 3) that African American worship is spontaneous and emotional; and 4) that (at least in the post-civil rights era) African American religion is politically progressive. (These four points represent my synthesis of what a number of scholars have argued in recent years, </i><br /><br />This is sociology, then, except for 3), which is subjective and more fit for movies, like "The Apostle"[which I enjoyed very much]. <br /><br />The liberal arts, the "humanities," also offer themselves as social "science." <br /><br />So which is to be, then, art or science? What are y'all doing here?<br /><br />Respectfully submitted.<br /><br /><br />Tom Van Dykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07121072404143877596noreply@blogger.com