The Talking Book: African Americans and the BibleYale University Press, 2008 M10 1 - 295 pages A striking narrative of the Bible’s central role in African-American history from the early days of slavery to the present The Talking Book casts the Bible as the central character in a vivid portrait of black America, tracing the origins of African-American culture from slavery’s secluded forest prayer meetings to the bright lights and bold style of today’s hip-hop artists. The Bible has profoundly influenced African Americans throughout history. From a variety of perspectives this wide-ranging book is the first to explore the Bible’s role in the triumph of the black experience. Using the Bible as a foundation, African Americans shared religious beliefs, created their own music, and shaped the ultimate key to their freedom—literacy. Allen Callahan highlights the intersection of biblical images with African-American music, politics, religion, art, and literature. The author tells a moving story of a biblically informed African-American culture, identifying four major biblical images—Exile, Exodus, Ethiopia, and Emmanuel. He brings these themes to life in a unique African-American history that grows from the harsh experience of slavery into a rich culture that endures as one of the most important forces of twenty-first-century America. |
From inside the book
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... Evangelical Protestantism . It is at the collision of the Great Awakening and the Peculiar Institution in colonial America that African Americans became literate and , subsequently , literary . London , an African in America and a slave ...
... Evangelicalism were the paramount authority of the Bible and direct personal experience of God.3 Unmediated access to the Bible was an Evangelical imperative. Thus for Evangelicals, read- ing became a matter of religion. Leaders of the ...
... Evangelical preachers as well.6 Evangelical Christianity was and remains a formidable force in African- American religion. This is not to suggest that anything like a majority of American slaves were Evangelical Christians or Christians ...
... Evangelicalism was transmogrified in the postrevolutionary South , where sporadic outbreaks of revivalist religion ... Evangelicals in converting African Americans . Or better put : African Americans were most successful at becoming ...
... Evangelical religion that Evangelicals challenged antiliteracy slave codes by teaching converted slaves how to read. Following the Revolutionary War, Evangelical Christians established so-called Sabbath Schools for the instruction of ...
Contents
1 | |
21 | |
41 | |
49 | |
5 Exodus | 83 |
6 Ethiopia | 138 |
7 Emmanuel | 185 |
Postscript | 240 |
Notes | 247 |
Subject Index | 275 |
Scripture Index | 284 |