Race, Religion, and Politics series – serie

How Barbara Jordan used sacred and secular scriptures in her social activismUS Congresswoman Barbara Jordan is well-known as an interpreter and defender of the Constitution, particularly through her landmark speech during Richard Nixon’s 1974 impeachment hearings. However, before she developed faith in the Constitution, Jordan had faith in Christianity. In “My Faith in the Constitution is Whole”: Barbara Jordan and the Politics of Scripture, Robin L. Owens shows how Jordan turned her religious faith and her faith in the Constitution into a powerful civil religious expression of her social activism. Owens begins by examining the lives and work of the nineteenth-century Black female orator-activists Maria W. Stewart and Anna Julia Cooper. Stewart and Cooper fought for emancipation and women’s rights by “scripturalizing,” or using religious scriptures to engage in political debate. Owens then demonstrates how Jordan built upon this tradition by treating the Constitution as an American “scripture” to advocate for racial justice and gender equality. Case studies of key speeches throughout Jordan’s career show how she quoted the Constitution and other founding documents as sacred texts, used them as sociolinguistic resources, and employed a discursive rhetorical strategy of indirection known as “signifying on scriptures.” Jordan’s particular use of the Constitution—deeply connected with her background and religious, racial, and gender identity—represents the agency and power reflected in her speeches. Jordan’s strategies also illustrate a broader phenomenon of scripturalization outside of institutional religion and its rhetorical and interpretive possibilities.

How Barbara Jordan used sacred and secular scriptures in her social activismUS Congresswoman Barbara Jordan is well-known as an interpreter and defender of the Constitution, particularly through her landmark speech during Richard Nixon’s 1974 impeachment hearings. However, before she developed faith in the Constitution, Jordan had faith in Christianity. In “My Faith in the Constitution is Whole”: Barbara Jordan and the Politics of Scripture, Robin L. Owens shows how Jordan turned her religious faith and her faith in the Constitution into a powerful civil religious expression of her social activism. Owens begins by examining the lives and work of the nineteenth-century Black female orator-activists Maria W. Stewart and Anna Julia Cooper. Stewart and Cooper fought for emancipation and women’s rights by “scripturalizing,” or using religious scriptures to engage in political debate. Owens then demonstrates how Jordan built upon this tradition by treating the Constitution as an American “scripture” to advocate for racial justice and gender equality. Case studies of key speeches throughout Jordan’s career show how she quoted the Constitution and other founding documents as sacred texts, used them as sociolinguistic resources, and employed a discursive rhetorical strategy of indirection known as “signifying on scriptures.” Jordan’s particular use of the Constitution—deeply connected with her background and religious, racial, and gender identity—represents the agency and power reflected in her speeches. Jordan’s strategies also illustrate a broader phenomenon of scripturalization outside of institutional religion and its rhetorical and interpretive possibilities.

A critical examination of the impact of Evangelical Christianity on African societies todayEvangelical Christianity's presence is increasing exponentially in African states and is exercising significant influence in virtually all spheres of life.African Evangelicalism and the Transformation of Africa is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary study of the impact of Evangelical Christianity on Africa. It examines the social, cultural, political, and economic forces at play, and its essays address Evangelical subjectivity and identity formation in Nigeria, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other nations. Its contributors also reflect on ways that the African diaspora and transnational ties have contributed to the makeup of contemporary African Evangelicalism.Readers will gain a deeper understanding of how Evangelical Christianity is transforming both public and private life in Africa today.

A critical examination of the impact of Evangelical Christianity on African societies todayEvangelical Christianity's presence is increasing exponentially in African states and is exercising significant influence in virtually all spheres of life.African Evangelicalism and the Transformation of Africa is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary study of the impact of Evangelical Christianity on Africa. It examines the social, cultural, political, and economic forces at play, and its essays address Evangelical subjectivity and identity formation in Nigeria, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other nations. Its contributors also reflect on ways that the African diaspora and transnational ties have contributed to the makeup of contemporary African Evangelicalism.Readers will gain a deeper understanding of how Evangelical Christianity is transforming both public and private life in Africa today.

A comprehensive resource on the nature and value of African religious lifePortrayals of African spirituality have been tainted in the past by harmful stereotypes and negative judgments or have altogether ignored African religions. Very few scholarly works have encompassed the depth of how spiritual care is conceptualized and practiced in African and African diasporic communities.Spiritual Care in African Religious Cultures offers insights into the nature and value of African religious life while also giving persons of different religious persuasions information about African beliefs and practices. This book reveals how practitioners of African traditional religions and people who engage in African spirituality draw on their own spiritual traditions to help them live satisfying and productive lives. Lartey addresses key beliefs about the divine realm, ancestors, evil, health, death, and life, as well as practices such as ceremonies, manifestation of spirit, naming, and healing rites inherent in African and African Heritage religions, which are utilized in providing care for persons amid the challenges of living. He invites us to go beyond maligning and misrepresenting African religions and to enter into the therapeutic and life-giving realities of African life and thought.Spiritual Care in African Religious Cultures is a comprehensive resource on African understandings of spiritual care and has the potential to enhance communal relationships for multicultural communities.