The African American Jeremiad

"This study shows how Martin Luther King and other national black leaders have employed social criticism rhetoric and prophecy known as the American Jeremiad. The American jeremiad and the major contributions of African Americans to its development are analysed through an examination of the thought and rhetoric of these prominent figures." Sage Race Relations Abstracts "David Howard-Pitney contributes finely to understanding the cultural history of African American protest and accommodation in his African American Jeremiad...Pitney's work as a cultural historian is supremely evident in this volume. Among the overarching arguments he persuasively demonstrates (in departure from Wilson Moses) is that the African American jeremiad has not undergone a declension toward extinction but has, rather, periodically experienced a waning and resurgence, the latter of which characterizes its present course. Jesse Jackson and Alan Keyes, he explains, are key indicators of such. His discussion is detailed and analytically astute. In addition, he adds tremendous knowledge to the intellectual mapping of how the jeremiad has intersected with the social reality of race in American religious history. Readers from undergraduate students to advanced scholars will learn immensely from this work." H-Net "This text would have great value in African-American Religious History courses as a way to explore the American religious scene, particularly the intertwining of African-American readings of Christian sacred texts and evolving civil religion. Examining both of these 'religious' dimensions of African-American public discourse reveals the development of a distinct public theology that significantly animates Black Church life. This book works well to characterize sacred rhetoric as a fusion of confessional and civil religious discourse. Its focus on both Christian and explicitly non-Christian enactments demonstrates the significance of American civil religion in 'religious' discourse in the United States; I believe this makes the text essential for coursework in Public Theology." Teaching Theology and Religion, Jan 2009

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