Synopses & Reviews
Founded by free people of color in Philadelphia in the aftermath of the American Revolution, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church emerged in the nineteenth century as the preeminent black institution in the United States. In 1896, the church opened mission work in South Africa, absorbing an independent "Ethiopian" church founded by dissident African Christians a few years earlier. In the process, the church helped ignite one of the most influential popular movements in South African history.
Songs of Zion examines this remarkable historical convergence from both sides of the Atlantic. James Campbell charts the origins and evolution of black American independent churches, arguing that the very act of becoming Christian forced African Americans to reflect on their relationship to their ancestral continent. He then turns to South Africa, exploring the AME Church's entrance and evolution in a series of specific South African contexts. Throughout the book, Campbell focuses on the comparisons that Africans and African Americans themselves drew between their situations. Their transatlantic encounter, he argues, enabled both groups to understand and act upon their worlds in new ways.
Review
A wonderful example of the best of comparative religious history.
Religious Studies Review
Review
A sweeping, powerful, vibrant study.
Frederick Jackson Turner Award committee
Review
Campbell's analysis is illuminating, important and in some ways courageous.
American Historical Review
Review
Prodigiously researched, well crafted, and insightful.
Journal of American History
Review
A major contribution to a genre just beginning to appear, what one can only call transatlantic history.
Transition
Synopsis
Discusses the interaction between the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and in South Africa, arguing that each group influenced the other to understand and act on their worlds in new ways.
Synopsis
A wonderful example of the best of comparative religious history.
Religious Studies Review A major contribution to a genre just beginning to appear, what one can only call transatlantic history.
Transition A sweeping, powerful, vibrant study.
Frederick Jackson Turner Award committee Campbell's analysis is illuminating, important and in some ways courageous.
American Historical Review Prodigiously researched, well crafted, and insightful.
Journal of American History
About the Author
James T. Campbell is senior research officer at the Institute for Advanced Social Research at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Table of Contents
Contents
Book One
1. Vindicating the Race
2. Harnessing the Spirit
3. Through the Looking Glass
Book Two
4. Stretch Forth Thy Hands
5. African Methodism as a Social Movement, I
6. African Methodism as a Social Movement, II
Book Three
7. The Making of a Religious Institution
8. "The Seed You Sow in Africa"
9. Middle Passages
Epilogue
Notes
Index