 |
| |
| |
|
Down, Up, and Over: Slave Religion and Black Theology (New Vectors in the Study of Religion and Theology)
|
|
|
Average Rating:  out of 2 Reviews
|
Price: $20.00
|
|
Sale: $19.98
|
| |
|
Manufacturer: Augsburg Fortress Publishers
|
|
EAN (European Article Number): 9780800627232
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
Binding: Paperback
|
|
Author: Dwight N. Hopkins
|
|
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers
|
|
Dewey Decimal Number: 230.08996073
|
|
Publication Date: 1999-12-01
|
|
Reading Level: 316
|
|
|
| |
|
Description: Hopkins contends that the lives of enslaved African Americans were the foundational source of liberating faith and practice for African Americans today. Down, Up, and Over draws on their religious experience, and the example of their faith and witness, to develop a constructive theology of liberation. African American belief structures and hope practices blossom from the black folk's religious encounters with God, Hopkins contends. The first half of his ambitious work reconstructs the cultural matrix of African American religion--a total way of life formed by Protestantism, American culture, and the institution of slavery (16191865)--in which racial identities developed. Whites from Europe and blacks from Africa arrived with specific, differing views of God, faith, practice, and humanity. Hopkins recreates their worldviews and how white theology sought to remake African Americans into naturally inferior beings divinely ordained into subservience. The counter voice of enslaved blacks begets the Spirit of Liberation. Tracking that Spirit, Hopkins crafts an explicit black theology of the Spirit of Liberation for us (God, chapter 4), with us (Jesus, chapter 5), and in us (human purpose, chapter 6). Out of the crucible of slavery emerge the lineaments of a constructive religious vision: the constitution of a new self and a divinely purposed liberation toward full spiritual and material humanity. Hopkins's sweeping vision, impressive scholarship, and astute social analysis make for a fascinating and important volume, one that can help all readers find meaning and purpose in the daunting 350-year pilgrimage of African Americans.
|
| |
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
Customer Reviews
|
| |
|
Review Summary: Shoes That Fit Their Feet |
Date: 2005-07-27 |
|
| |
Details: "Down, Up, and Over" traces the complex relationship between White Protestantism, Black Slave Christianity, and post-modern Black Liberation Theology. Though Dwight Hopkins' political and theological stances may not always resonate with all readers, his historical culling of and comparison between Black and White American Christianity is fascinating. Regardless of one's political and/or theological positioning, it would be difficult to read this work without an increasing empathy for what Black Americans endured from their White Christian "brothers and sisters."
Hopkins' research into primary sources offers a detailed examination of what enslaved African Americans endured and believed. His passionate presentation transports readers into the very soul and shoes of their forefathers and mothers of the faith.
The overall message of the book can lead anyone with an open mind and sensitive heart to a greater understanding of the historic African American Christian experience and current African American Christian theology. The reader need not agree with all the political and theological conclusions in order to benefit from the contextual and cultural explanation of modern Black theology based upon past Black spirituality.
Reviewer: Robert W. Kellemen, Ph.D. is the author of "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."
|
| |
|
Review Summary: What a slog. |
Date: 2002-10-14 |
|
| |
|
Details: With respect to content, Down, Up and Over reads like rehashed pc rhetoric and received Marxist criticism. But my problem is with the execution of the book, which makes for a study of bad academic writing. To begin with, Hopkins is very repetitive. There seems to be a general arc of thematic development, but his thesis and supporting argument could be done in a third as many pages. The prose is often awkward and utterly lacking in economy, as if it were contrived to seem "intelligent" and say more than it really does. Two cases in point: "And their bodies and minds are racked
internally by psychological demons created by larger macrostructures circumscribing attempts to live a daily micro-existence of full spiritual and material humanity." "Inspiring words can be with the oppressed and work with them to reconfigure their inner and outer selves, whether this be an actual transformation of an external architecture of systemic oppression or an alteration of a stultifying internal edifice of psychological enslavement." (209) A marginally better writer could say the same thing in 15 words or less, and with more precision. |
| |
|
| |
Similar Products
|
|
|
| |
This Product is similar to and may be found in the Following Categories:
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
