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Glossary of Key Terms

African American religion – the quest to making meaning out of life.  It serves as a primary way by which African Americans wrestle with the huge questions of life.

Babalawo – a priest in Santería who can perform divination.

Back-to-Africa Movement – the nineteenth-century movement to take African Americans back to Africa.

Black theology – a late twentieth-century theology that argues God is working toward the liberation from oppression of African Americans.

Blues – a form of American music developed by African Americans that chronicles the joys and problems of life.  It was called “devil music” by Christians because it embraced behaviors and opinions challenged by the Christian faith.

Botánica – a shop that sells items needed for the practice of African-based traditions.

Buddha – the Enlightened One, upon whose teachings the religion of Buddhism is based.

Call and response – the back-and-forth exchange between the preacher and the congregation during which preachers’ remarks are met with words of encouragement:  “preach!” and “amen!”

Civil Rights Movement – the mid-twentieth century struggle to secure equal rights for African Americans.

Conjure – the manipulation of natural materials for spiritual benefit, associated with magic.

Convention – a gathering of like-minded congregations.

Cult of true womanhood – the idea that the proper place for women is in the home, and that women must be protected from the negativity of public life, such as politics.  It is tied to a similar sense of women belonging in the home referred to as the “Cult of domesticity.”

Curse of Ham – an old argument used to justify slavery by saying the son of Ham, Canaan, was cursed because of Ham’s wrong doing – and this curse involved perpetual servitude.

Diocese – geographic area overseen by a bishop.

Divination – the process of securing information concerning one’s destiny.

Double-talk – the practice of saying something that has more than one meaning.

Fundamentos – elements that represent the characteristics and functions of particular orisha.

Glossolalia – speaking in tongues, a language the person has not studied, as a sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Great Awakening – a period of energetic worship and revivals prior to the twentieth century during which many people converted to Christianity and joined churches.

Great migration – the mass movement of African Americans after slavery from rural to urban settings, from the period of the Civil War through the mid-twentieth century.

Gris-gris – material used in conjure that is believed to have great power to keep evil away.  It is often associated with a small bag of dirt from the cemetery.

Hajj – the pilgrimage to Mecca required of all able Muslims.

Hoodoo – a popularized version of Voodoo that is associated with magical practices and lacks the detailed cosmology and ritual structures of Voodoo.

Hounfor – (also Oum’phor) the place of worship in Vodou.

Humanism – a system of life practice based on reason and human activity, and typically without any adherence to trans-historical beings.

Hush Arbor Meetings – secret meetings during the period of slavery where enslaved Africans would practice their religious beliefs.

Imago dei – the theological idea that humans are made in the image of God.

Imam – a religious leader in Islam.

Invisible institution – the informal and secret meetings of slaves that represent the beginnings of more formal religious practices.

Kawaida – a philosophy of black consciousness and black progress developed by Dr. Maulana Karenga.

Kwanzaa – an African American holiday involving the celebration of African principles, such as unity, that was organized and founded by Dr. Maulana Karenga.

Manifest destiny – the belief that a group of people has a special mission or role in human history.

Megachurches – large churches with more than 2,000 members that make strong use of technology.  Many of them are associated with the belief that God wants Christians to be prosperous, including economic wealth.

Middle Passage – the movement of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

Mother ship – the space ship Master Fard Muhammad will use to purge the earth and restore the rule of the original people.

Normative gaze – the assumption that people of European descent are superior to people of African descent because Europeans more closely resemble the Greek ideal body and features.

Oba – a Yoruba king.

Ontological blackness – the idea that God is so identified with suffering African Americans that God’s very being – who God is – cannot be separated from blackness.

Parish – a local congregation.

Peculiar institution – a reference to the system of slavery.

Prosperity gospel – the idea that proper Christian faith and knowledge of the Bible result in material gain and economic well-being for the believer, the result of God’s favor.

Ring shout – a practice during the period of slavery when worshippers would gather, sing, and move in a circle until those involved received the Holy Spirit.

Root work – a form of religious practice that revolves around using natural items – such as plants – to harness and use spiritual energy for one’s benefit.

Sanctification – the belief that, after being saved from sin, one has the ability to live a life free from sin.

Social gospel – the belief that commitment to the Christian faith must involve work to improve socio-economic and political conditions of life.

Spirit guides – figures who aid and protect humans.

Spirituals – an early form of American music developed by enslaved Africans in North America.

Spiritualism – the religious movement revolving around rituals meant to bring the living and the dead into contact.

Spiritualists – persons who seek contact with the deceased in order to improve temporal existence.

Tagging – the practice of writing messages or one’s name on public spaces.

Talmud – a central text in Judaism involving rabbinic discussions of ethics, philosophy, and law.

Theism – belief in God or gods.

Voodoo – an African-based tradition drawn from West Africa and combined with elements of Christianity.  It is associated with Haiti, but it has also had a long history in North America.

Womanist theology – a form of theology that argues attention must be given to the plight and experience of African American women, that God requires an end to racism, sexism, and classism.