African American Female Mysticism Nineteenth-Century Religious Activism

by Bostic, Joy R.

• ISBN13: 9781137373724
• ISBN10: 1137373725
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-11-19
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

African-American Female Mysticism: Nineteenth Century Religious Activism adds to the burgeoning conversation regarding African-American female mysticism. The primary subjects of this book are three icons of black female spirituality and religious activism: Jarena Lee, Sojourner Truth, and Rebecca Cox Jackson. All three of these women are usually identified solely within the Protestant Christian tradition and their mystical activism does not fit neatly into a closed monotheistic system. Informed by dreams and visions, Joy Bostic sheds new light on the ways these women inhabited complex sacred-social worlds, entertained flexible notions about divinity, and served as mediators of sacred power in ways that was transformed their communities.

Author Biography

Joy R. Bostic is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Case Western Reserve University, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Nineteenth-Century Contextual Landscape of African American Female Mysticism
2. On Defining Mysticism and the Sacred Social Worlds of African American Women
3. Standing Upon the Precipice: Community, Evil, and Black Female Subjectivity
4. God I Didn't Know You Were So Big: Apophatic Mysticism and Expanding World Views
5. Look at What You Have Done: Spiritual Power and Re-imagining the Divine
6. Wholly Weaving the Spider's Web: African American Women's Mystical Activism