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
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... write as a generalist with some claim to expertise in biblical studies, Americanists and ethnomusicologists, art historians and literary critics may read me as a dilettante. So be it. The French psycho- analyst Jacques Lacan once wrote ...
... writes historian of religion Charles Long. “It was adapted to and invested with the experi- ence of the slave.” In so doing, the slaves took in hand what was at hand and impressed it into the service of forming the collective ...
... writes to these congregations that his hardships, rejection, and failure only confirm his exalted vocation as an apostle. And in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, the high and the mighty are incinerated in the fires of ...
... writing, and religion This ambience marked the proselytizing efforts of the Baptists and Meth- odists. “The spread of Baptist and Methodist evangelicalism between 1770 and 1820 , ” observes Albert Raboteau , “ changed 4 the talking book.
... writing , preaching , and assembly of slaves . The consensus of the planter class was that unsupervised reading of the Bible ... write might have their fingers cut off.24 As a young slave the great abolitionist orator Frederick Douglass ...
Contents
1 | |
21 | |
41 | |
49 | |
5 Exodus | 83 |
6 Ethiopia | 138 |
7 Emmanuel | 185 |
Postscript | 240 |
Notes | 247 |
Subject Index | 275 |
Scripture Index | 284 |