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Discussion Questions

PART 1: THE NATURE, ORIGINS, AND HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION

  1. What is African American religion?
  2. Africans in the Americas
  3. Beginnings of African American religion
  4. African American religion in the nineteenth century
  5. African American religion in the twentieth century

PART 2: MAJOR THEMES IN AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION

  1. Worldly change, or a new world?
  2. Religion, race, and racism
  3. The question of gender
  4. Dreams of democracy
  5. African American religion and economics
  6. Liberation theology

PART 3: ISSUES AND CONCERNS IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION

  1. Sex and sexuality
  2. Hip hop and the new ‘look’ of religion
  3. The new ‘nones’

Chapter 1

  1. What is the most common way to define African American religion?
  2. What type of features are highlighted typically through this common definition of African American religion, and what features are typically ignored?
  3. What difficulty is created through the common way of defining African American religion?
  4. What is a more useful way of defining African American religion?

Chapter 2

  1. Why did some slaveholders oppose efforts to convert Africans to Christianity?
  2. What were reasons provided by those who were interested in missionary work amongst enslaved Africans?
  3. Why did Methodist and Baptist churches appeal to Africans?
  4. What are some of the signs of Islam’s presence in North America?
  5. What were some of the early practices in North America related to African gods?

Chapter 3

  1. Why did slaveholders fear secret gatherings of slaves, and what did they do to try to prevent them?
  2. What are the “hush arbor” meetings, and what took place during them?
  3. What are some of the elements of African American Christianity that develop prior to the nineteenth century?
  4. What is “double-talk” and how did it function in slave communities?
  5. What are the blues and how do they differ from the spirituals?
  6. How would you describe some of the other traditions that gain some form in the years prior to the nineteenth century?

Chapter 4

  1. How did the Civil War effect the development of independent African American churches?
  2. What is meant by a “this-worldly” orientation? What is meant by an “other-worldly” orientation?
  3. What is the Great Migration and how did it effect the development of African American religious traditions?
  4. What role did religion play in African American slave rebellions?
  5. What is meant by manifest destiny, and what did African American churches make of this idea?
  6. What is the relationship between black nationalism and African American religion?

Chapter 5

  1. Why did many African Americans become disillusioned with churches, and what resulted from this?
  2. What is meant by the “deradicalization of black religion”? Give an example of how this occurred in the twentieth century.
  3. What did African Americans find appealing about Buddhism as presented by Sokka Gakkai International-USA?
  4. What was the impact of Pentecostal teachings on African American religion?
  5. What are some of the reasons African Americans embraced traditions such as “the way of the saints”? What were some the frustrations associated with an effort to participate in the tradition?

Chapter 6

  1. What caused the 1961 schism within the National Baptist Convention USA?
  2. What changes did the Nation of Islam make to its approach to heaven or earth-based transformations?
  3. What is the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships? Why are some opposed to it?
  4. What role did humanism play in the civil rights movement? And, what did humanist such as Huey Newton say about churches?
  5. What reasons did churches give for avoiding social activism? What reasons did they give for promoting social activism as the core of their mission?

Chapter 7

  1. What arguments were used to justify the enslavement of Africans?
  2. What is imago Dei and why is it important?
  3. What is the Black Manifesto? What did it require from religious institutions?
  4. What are some of the ways African American Christians have tried to fight racism and establish a strong sense of self-worth and self-determination?
  5. What did the Nation of Islam say about African Americans, and how did it address issues of racism?
  6. How did the Unitarian Universalist Association understand and address racism within its congregations?

Chapter 8

  1. How was scripture used to justify gender bias against women in churches?
  2. What arguments were used to counter sexism and gain greater leadership opportunities for women within Christian churches?
  3. What roles were considered proper for women in the Nation of Islam? Why?
  4. What are some of the rules of conduct for women in the Nation of Islam? What about the rules for men in the Nation of Islam?
  5. Why are women not allowed to play ritual drums or be priestesses of Orula?
  6. What are similarities and differences in how the issue of gender discrimination has been addressed in Protestant Churches and in the Roman Catholic Churches?

Chapter 9

  1. What reasons were given typically in Jeremiads for the condition of and future of the United States?
  2. What is Manifest Destiny and how did it figure into African American perceptions of their relationship to the United States?
  3. How did the Nation of Islam describe the Apocalypse?
  4. Why did socialism appeal to some African American Christians, and how did it impact their sense of the church’s purpose and ministry?
  5. What are some of the dynamics of Black Christian Nationalism?
  6. What are some of the elements of ministry for churches that critique the economic structure of the country, but do not embrace nationalism?

Chapter 10

  1. Why have some churches objected to a focus on economic development?
  2. Why have other churches argued economic development is essential to their mission?
  3. What types of programs and activities have marked African American religion’s economic development efforts?
  4. What are some of the important elements of the Prosperity Gospel?
  5. According to Prosperity Gospel proponents, what are some of the reasons people experience economic challenges?
  6. For Prosperity Gospel proponents, what is the link between what people think about their financial circumstances and how they experience those circumstances? Are there any similarities between Prosperity Gospel churches and the Nation of Islam on this issue?
  7. Why does the Nation of Islam object to participation in the US economy?
  8. What does the Nation of Islam offer as an alternative to the traditional US model of economic well-being?

Chapter 11

  1. Why did African Americans embrace the social gospel movement? How did they change it?
  2. What gave rise to the first discussions of black theology? What organization started this conversation? What was the perception of black power in these early conversations?
  3. What are the primary source materials for black theology? Do womanist theologians change these source materials? If so, how?
  4. What importance does Alice Walker have for womanist theology?
  5. What are some examples of the contributions of Catholic scholars to black theology? To womanist theology?
  6. How is God described in black theology? What does womanist theology argue is important about the Christ Event?
  7. What have been some of the critiques of black theology offered by scholars other than womanist scholars?
  8. What does black theology think about violence, and what does it mean to say that God is “ontologically black”?

Chapter 12

  1. Why is the issue of sex such a hot button issue for African American religious traditions?
  2. What are some of the general approaches to sex taken by various religious traditions?
  3. How do different traditions seek to control sex? What are considered the proper outlets for sexual interest? Why are these outlets considered acceptable?
  4. What role does scripture play in how religious organizations understand sexuality?
  5. Why is sexuality such a tense issue for African American religion?
  6. What are some of the arguments used to support a liberal take on sex and sexuality? What are some of the arguments used to support a more conservative approach to both?
  7. What have been some of the typical approaches to HIV/AIDS?
  8. What are some of the common thoughts regarding the nature and importance of the human body?

Chapter 13

  1. What are the conditions under which hip hop culture develops?
  2. What is hip hop culture’s relationship to earlier forms of expression, and why is it called hip hop?
  3. What is graffiti art, and how has it changed over time?
  4. What is break dancing, and what was its purpose?
  5. How did the rapper gain prominence and what was the rapper’s initial role?
  6. What are three genres of rap music, and what does each attempt to do?
  7. What is rap music’s relationship to Islam and to Christianity?
  8. What distinguishes Tupac Shakur’s theology from hip hop within Christian churches?
  9. Why does KRS-One consider hip hop a way of being? What does he mean by this, and what has he done to promote this way of thinking about hip hop?

Chapter 14

  1. What are the conditions under which hip hop culture develops?
  2. What is hip hop culture’s relationship to earlier forms of expression, and why is it called hip hop?
  3. What is graffiti art, and how has it changed over time?
  4. What is break dancing, and what was its purpose?
  5. How did the rapper gain prominence and what was the rapper’s initial role?
  6. What are three genres of rap music, and what does each attempt to do?
  7. What is rap music’s relationship to Islam and to Christianity?
  8. What distinguishes Tupac Shakur’s theology from hip hop within Christian churches?
  9. Why does KRS-One consider hip hop a way of being? What does he mean by this, and what has he done to promote this way of thinking about hip hop?