Since the first African American denomination was established in Philadelphia in 1818, churches have gone beyond their role as spiritual guides in African American communities and have served as civic institutions, spaces for education, and sites for the cultivation of individuality and identities in the face of limited or non-existent freedom. In this Very Short Introduction, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. explores the history and circumstances of African American religion through three examples: conjure, African American Christianity, and African American Islam. He argues that the phrase "African American religion" is meaningful only insofar as it describes how through religion, African Americans have responded to oppressive conditions including slavery, Jim Crow apartheid, and the pervasive and institutionalized discrimination that exists today. This bold claim frames his interpretation of the historical record of the wide diversity of religious experiences in the African American community. He rejects the common tendency to racialize African American religious experiences as an inherent proclivity towards religiousness and instead focuses on how religious communities and experiences have developed in the African American community and the context in which these developments took place. 0195182898_african
The Igbo people and their unique culture represents a mercurial bridge of time, with potentials of linking the contemporary mind to the mystic realms from whence original knowledge can be profoundly grasped and brought down to earth for practical applications of many vital interests. In this work, Nwafor, a reincarnated Eze Dibia of Ururo-Umunze descent, distills the knowledge, wisdom and experiences of nine life-times of intense spiritual work, culminating in a unique exegesis of Igbo reality and cultural phenomenon. Leopards of the Magical Dawn _Science and the Cosmological Foundations of Igbo Culture_
Postapartheid South Africa's efforts to come to terms with its past, particularly its Truth and Reconciliation Commission's emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation, is of special interest to many in the world community. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was mandated to go beyond truth-finding and to "promote national unity and reconciliation in a spirit of understanding which transcends the conflict and divisions of the past." In contrast with other truth commissions, the TRC was led by clerics rather than lawyers and judge, and the TRC's approach to reconciliation was shaped by and imbued with religious content. The TRC submitted its final report to the Mandela administration in October 1998. Over the next two years, the Rev. Bernard Spong, former communications director of the South African Council of Churches, conducted a series of in-depth interviews about the TRC with thirty-three key religious figures. In this volume, they discuss and evaluate the following issues: How should we understand the concept of national or political reconciliation and its requirements? What are the differences and similarities between religious and political approaches to reconciliation? Does national or political reconciliation require forgiveness between former victims and perpetrators? What is the appropriate role of religious representatives in a truth commission process? And is it recommended that other countries emulate the South African model? How do religious leaders assess the contributions and limitations of the TRC? What kind of initiatives are contemporary religious communities taking to promote reconciliation among their members and in the wider society? The conversations presented in this volume, and the essays interpreting them, seek to illuminate issues and questions raised by the TRC model, including how to conceptualize reconciliation and the differences between political and religious approaches. [Bernard_Spong__Audrey_R._Chapman]_Religion_and_Re_BookZZ.org_
For anyone interested in the origins of Egyptian beliefs this is a must.The possible origin of the ankh is just one example.The link between biology and egptian beliefs is intriguing.
Jean Laude's work is not just another broad, generalized, vulgarized survey of the artistic and cultural heritage of black Africa, not just another civilized look at exotic and mysterious art in museums and private collections. African art objects had been mere data, documents, and curiosities when, a little more than half a century ago, we "discovered" African art; that is, we reacted aesthetically to it and exhaustively studied the African heritage in our museums in order to classify and record our impressions. We later realized that all we could possibly record was the history of our reaction to an art that we could apprehend only from the outside and will never be able to understand otherwise. The well-known poet, Jean Laude, was aware of this fact from the start. The Arts of Black Africa _Art Ebook_
