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
Results 1-5 of 41
... prophets — go unheeded, and their oracles, gathered at the end of the Old Testament, become ancient Israel's dustbin of history. The biblical penchant for bringing peripheral people to the center of history continues con brio in the New ...
... prophet Tobit.”21 What it called in its table of contents the book of Tobit is numbered among “the Books called the Apocrypha,” the traditional collection of fourteen books usually placed in the Bible between the Old and New Testaments ...
... Prophet Jonah spake, shall surely come to pass” (14:8). Afterward, “God will have mercy on [our brethren] . . . and afterward they shall return from all places of their captivity, and build up Jerusalem gloriously” (14:5). The book ...
... Prophets with evil, it makes God guilty of an act of adultery by charging Him with being the father of Mary's baby (Jesus), again it charges Noah and Lot with drunkenness, and Lot with getting children by his daughter. What a Poison ...
... prophetic oracle of the Bible. Its words adorn the United Nations building: “And they shall beat their swords into ... prophet Isaiah's: but the same oracle appears verbatim among the prophecies of Micah and Joel as well. African ...
Contents
1 | |
21 | |
3 The Good Book | 41 |
4 Exile | 49 |
5 Exodus | 83 |
6 Ethiopia | 138 |
7 Emmanuel | 185 |
Postscript | 240 |
Notes | 247 |
275 | |
284 | |