Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations of Black AmericaOxford University Press, 1994 - 287 páginas This book provides a sophisticated new interdisciplinary interpretation of the formulation and evolution of African American religion and culture. Theophus Smith argues for the central importance of "conjure"--a magical means of transforming reality--in black spirituality and culture. Smith shows that the Bible, the sacred text of Western civilization, has in fact functioned as a magical formulary for African Americans. Going back to slave religion, and continuing in black folk practice and literature to the present day, the Bible has provided African Americans with ritual prescriptions for prophetically re-envisioning, and thereby transforming, their history and culture. In effect the Bible is a "conjure book" for prescribing cures and curses, and for invoking extraordinary and Divine powers to effect changes in the conditions of human existence--and to bring about justice and freedom. Biblical themes, symbols, and figures like Moses, the Exodus, the Promised Land, and the Suffering Servant, as deployed by African Americans, have crucially formed and reformed not only black culture, but American society as a whole. Smith examines not only the religious and political uses of conjure, but its influence on black aesthetics, in music, drama, folklore, and literature. The concept of conjure, he shows, is at the heart of an indigenous and still vital spirituality, with exciting implications for reformulating the next generation of black studies and black theology. Even more broadly, Smith proposes, "conjuring culture" can function as a new paradigm for understanding Western religious and cultural phenomena generally. |
Contenido
Formulary | 3 |
Ethnographic Perspectives | 17 |
Theoretical Perspectives | 111 |
Theological Perspectives | 177 |
Diaspora | 249 |
Selected Bibliography | 257 |
273 | |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations of Black America Theophus H. Smith Vista previa limitada - 1995 |
Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations of Black America Theophus Harold Smith Sin vista previa disponible - 1994 |
Términos y frases comunes
aesthetic African American Afro-American Apocalypse Bercovitch Bible biblical figures Black Adam black American black Christian black culture black North American black religious Black Theology blues catharsis century chapter Chicago Christ church claim communities configurations conjure book conjuring culture contemporary context cure Diaspora divine elements emancipation Ethiopianism ethnic Exodus figure feature forms freedom Girard God's gospel hermeneutic High John homeopathic hoodoo human Ibid iconic imitation incantatory intention interpretation James jeremiad Lerone Bennett liberation literary magic Martin Luther King means metaphor mimesis mimetic Moses movement narrative nation Negro nkisi nonviolent operation oppression Orbis Books orisha Osanyin performance perspective pharmacopeic pharmakon pharmakos political practitioners praxis prophetic Puritan Raboteau reference René Girard representation ritual sacred scapegoat Scriptures shamanic signifying Slave Religion slavery social Sojourner Truth spiritual strategy symbol theory tradition transformation trickster typology victims violence W.E.B. Du Bois wisdom York Zora Neale Hurston