Synopses & Reviews
African American spirituality was forged in the fiery furnace of slavery, segregation, and ongoing racial discrimination in both church and society. But African Americans are a people who are strengthened rather than weakened by their experience. This volume traces how African Americans have articulated their faith and love of God in language, song, and daily living. Beginning with its spiritual roots in Africa, Hayes shows how African American spirituality encompassed and incorporated the experience of slavery and the encounter with Christianity. Remarkably, African American slaves were able to find in the religion of their oppressors a message of hope, affirmation, and resistance. Through stories, song, distinctive forms of prayer, celebration, and prophetic witness, Hayes shows how the spirituality of African Americans has nurtured their survival as well as promoting action on behalf of the community and the greater society.
Synopsis
This essential introduction to African American spirituality shows how spirituality has nurtured their survival through slavery, segregation, and the challenges of society today.
Synopsis
Todays vibrant African American spiritual traditions have their roots in the lives of Africans who arrived as slaves in North America, bringing with them the richness and texture of their cultures and faith. In the words of Dr. Hayes, The world view, traditions, stories, musicality, and religious beliefs of their African ancestors were preserved . . . built upon, syncretized with new understandings and ideas, and passed down from generation to generation, mother to son, father to daughter. In eight chapters, Hayes describes the origins of African American spirituality, developments during slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the periods of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement; the manifestations of this spirituality in music and in the Black churches; the particular contributions of Black women; and the spirituality of key Black leaders.