Ain't Gonna Lay My 'ligion Down

by Johnson, Alonzo; Jersild, Paul T.

• ISBN13: 9781570031090
• ISBN10: 1570031096
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Pr

Summary

"Ain't Gonna Lay My 'Ligion Down" reveals the ways that African Americans have "put flesh on their Christian beliefs," adapting the faith of their European American masters and creating distinctive forms of religious expression. The contributors to the volume examine specific African American religious customs and practices - seekin' the Lord, ring shouting, dancing, pray's houses, ecstatic trances, spirit possession, folk songs, music, tales - and the efforts of African American religious leaders to show the remarkable degree to which newly imported slaves preserved their African spiritual heritage while simultaneously meshing it with Western symbols and theological claims.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction	p. 1
"Pray's House Spirit": The Institutional Structure and Spiritual Core of an African American Folk Tradition	p. 8
The Rhythms of Black Folks	p. 39
Trickster on Trial: The Morality of the Brer Rabbit Tales	p. 52
Motherwit in Southern Religion: A Womanist Perspective	p. 72
Black Methodist Preachers in the South Carolina Upcountry, 1840-1866: Isaac (Counts) Cook, James Porter, and Henry McNeal Turner	p. 87
Biblical Interpretation, Ecclesiology, and Black Southern Religious Leaders, 1860-1920: A Case Study of AMEZ Bishop James Walker Hood	p. 110
Epilogue	p. 139
Contributors	p. 143
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