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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... century, at the very moment the Founding Fathers of the new nation were reaching the conclusion that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness did not extend to slaves. African- Americans were taking texts of the Bible ...
... century before its mis- sionary success in the Congo . Catholic priests catechized illiterate African slaves in the ... centuries . Some clergymen composed special catechisms of biblical phrases and doctrinal sentences that slaves could ...
... century, few slaves professed Christianity, and those who did often gained little more than a vague assurance of blessedness in the afterlife. The few words of scripture they learned were bowdlerized in catechetical instruc- tion that ...
... century Henry Highland Garnet, Frederick Douglass, Richard Allen, and the abolitionist firebrand David Walker all assert that “heathenism” was predominant in the slave community.7 Never- theless the impact of Protestant Evangelicalism ...
... century , the Baptists had traded their unvarnished revivalist manners , and the emancipationist sentiment that attended them , for respectability under the Southern slave regime . The early decades of this period gave rise to a cadre ...
Contents
1 | |
21 | |
41 | |
49 | |
5 Exodus | 83 |
6 Ethiopia | 138 |
7 Emmanuel | 185 |
Postscript | 240 |
Notes | 247 |
Subject Index | 275 |
Scripture Index | 284 |