The New Black Gods: Arthur Huff Fauset and the Study of African American Religions (Religion in North America)

288 Pages·2009·1.2 MB·English

by  Edward E. Curtis IV

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Taking the influential work of Arthur Huff Fauset as a starting point to break down
the false dichotomy that exists between mainstream and marginal, a new generation
of scholars offers fresh ideas for understanding the religious expressions of African Black
Americans in the United States. Fauset’s 1944 classic, Black Gods of the Metropolis,
launched original methods and theories for thinking about African American
religions as modern, cosmopolitan, and democratic. The essays in this collection
show the diversity of African American religion in the wake of the Great Migration
and consider the full field of African American religion from Pentecostalism to
Black Judaism, Black Islam, and Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement.
As a whole, they create a dynamic, humanistic, and thoroughly interdisciplinary
understanding of African American religious history and life. This book is essential
•
reading for anyone who studies the African American experience.
Gods
Edward E. Curtis IV is Millennium Scholar of the Liberal Arts and Associate
edited by
Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies at Indiana University–
Purdue University Indianapolis.
edwArd e. curtis iV And
Danielle Brune Sigler is Curator of Academic Affairs at the Harry Ransom
Center at the University of Texas at Austin. dAnielle brune sigler
contributors
Stephen W. Angell Kelly E. Hayes Carolyn Rouse
Edward E. Curtis IV Sylvester A. Johnson Nora L. Rubel
Jacob S. Dorman Kathryn Lofton Danielle Brune Sigler
Clarence E. Hardy III Leonard Norman Primiano
Cover photographs: Lee (Russell Werner), Father Divine, New York, ca. 1935–1936. e_rl_0110 and
e_rl_0106. Lee (Russell) Photograph Collection. Center for American History, University of Texas–Austin.
•
INDIANA
Religion in North America
University Press INDIANA
Catherine L. Albanese and
Bloomington & Indianapolis
http://iupress.indiana.edu Stephen J. Stein, editors
1-800-842-6796
THE NEW BLACK GODS
religion in north america
Catherine L. Albanese and Stephen J. Stein, editors
THE I
ARTHUR HUFF FAUSET
NEW
AND THE STUDY OF
AFRICAN AMERICAN
RELIGIONS
BLACK
I
GODS
EDITED BY
EDWARD E. CURTIS IV AND
DANIELLE BRUNE SIGLER
indiana university press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796
Fax orders 812-855-7931
Orders by e-mail [email protected]
∫ 2009 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying and recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher. The
Association of American University Presses’
Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only
exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the
minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The new Black gods : Arthur Hu√ Fauset and the study
of African American religions / edited by Edward E.
Curtis IV and Danielle Brune Sigler.
p. cm. — (Religion in North America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-35282-8 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-253-22057-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. African
Americans—Religion. I. Curtis, Edward E., [date]
II. Sigler, Danielle Brune.
BL2525.N484 2009
200.89%96073—dc22
2008038720
1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10 09
To Cece Neef Brune
D.B.S.
To the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI
E.C.
CONTENTS
foreword by Catherine L. Albanese and Stephen J. Stein ix
acknowledgments xiii
Introduction / Edward E. Curtis IV and Danielle Brune Sigler 1
part 1. New Religious Movement(s) of the Great Migration Era
one (cid:2) Fauset’s (Missing) Pentecostals: Church Mothers, Remaking
Respectability, and Religious Modernism / Clarence E. Hardy III 15
two (cid:2) ‘‘Grace Has Given God a Vacation’’: The History and Development of the
Theology of the United House of Prayer of All People / Danielle Brune Sigler 31
three (cid:2) ‘‘Chased out of Palestine’’: Prophet Cherry’s Church of God and
Early Black Judaisms in the United States / Nora L. Rubel 49
four (cid:2) Debating the Origins of the Moorish Science Temple: Toward a
New Cultural History / Edward E. Curtis IV 70
five (cid:2) ‘‘The Consciousness of God’s Presence Will Keep You Well, Healthy,
Happy, and Singing’’: The Tradition of Innovation in the Music of Father Divine’s
Peace Mission Movement / Leonard Norman Primiano 91
six (cid:2) ‘‘A True Moslem Is a True Spiritualist’’: Black Orientalism and Black Gods
of the Metropolis / Jacob S. Dorman 116
part 2. Resurrecting Fauset’s Vision for African American Religious Studies
seven (cid:2) Religion Proper and Proper Religion: Arthur Fauset and the
Study of African American Religions / Sylvester A. Johnson 145
eight (cid:2) The Perpetual Primitive in African American Religious
Historiography / Kathryn Lofton 171
nine (cid:2) Turning African Americans into Rational Actors: The Important
Legacy of Fauset’s Functionalism / Carolyn Rouse 192
ten (cid:2) Defining the ‘‘Negro Problem’’ in Brazil: The Shifting Significance of
Brazil’s African Heritage from the ∞∫Ω≠s to the ∞Ω∂≠s / Kelly E. Hayes 209
eleven (cid:2) Fauset and His Black Gods: Intersections with the Herskovits-
Frazier Debate / Stephen W. Angell 226
list of contributors 249
index 251

FOREWORD
In 1986, we launched the Religion in North America series at Indiana University Press
with the publication of William L. Andrews’s edited collection Sisters of the Spirit. The
book, with its careful introduction by Andrews, contained the nineteenth-century
autobiographies of African Americans Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, and Julia A. J. Foote.
The Andrews Sisters, as we fondly dubbed the volume (and gave away our ages),
signaled a series that wanted to attend to new material in new ways, that intended to
put the overlooked and underexplored under the scrutiny of scholarly eyes and to
help in the task of revising our understanding of American religiosity.
Over the years, the Religion in North America series has arguably done its share
to address American religious diversity. However, not until now has the series suc-
ceeded in publishing another volume on African American religion. So it is with
special pleasure that we, as series editors, welcome the addition of this new collection
of essays to our list. In The New Black Gods: Arthur Hu√ Fauset and the Study of African
American Religions, Edward E. Curtis IV and Danielle Brune Sigler have gathered a
remarkably coherent group of pieces, for the most part by a group of younger scholars
whose professional research and interests intersect in one way or another with African
American religions. Their essays are the result of a collaborative research grant
from the American Academy of Religion as well as additional help from Indiana