Down in the Valley

An Introduction to African American Religious History

Julius H. Bailey

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781451497038
• eBook ISBN: 9781506408040
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Religion

African American religions constitute a diverse group of beliefs and practices that emerged from the African diaspora brought about by the Atlantic slave trade. Traditional religions that had informed the worldviews of Africans were transported to the shores of the Americas and transformed to make sense of new contexts and conditions. This book explores the survival of traditional religions and how African American religions have influenced and been shaped by American religious history. The text provides an overview of the central people, issues, and events in an account that considers Protestant denominations, Catholicism, Islam, Pentecostal churches, Voodoo, Conjure, Rastafarianism, and new religious movements such as Black Judaism, the Nation of Islam, and the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. The book addresses contemporary controversies, including President Barack Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright, and it will be valuable to all students of African American religions, African American studies, sociology of religion, American religious history, the Black Church, and black theology.

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Index

Abaluyia, 13

Abel, Elijah, 214–15

Abolition, 26

Abuk, 11

Accommodationists, xxvi

Acornley, John H., 94

Adam and Eve, 11, 34, 146

Adefunmi, Oseijeman, 210

African Independent Churches, 23

African Initiatives in Christianity, 23

African Methodist Episcopal Church, 54–58, 69–74, 76, 81–85, 88–97, 100–102, 107, 109–10, 112, 115, 218

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 58, 69, 74–75, 84–85, 93–95, 101, 218–19

African Repository, 111

African retentions, xv–xxi

African Traditional Religions, xii, xvi, xxix–xxx, 5–7, 8–16, 17–18, 21, 23, 30–32, 224

Afrocentricity, 193, 218

Akan, 13, 210

Akposso, 10

Albernathy, Ralph D., 184

Ali, Noble Drew, xxx, 126–27, 154

Allen, Richard, xxxi, 54–58, 71, 88–90, 96, 102, 109, 223

American Baptist Home Mission Society, 76–77

American Colonization Society, 95, 103, 109, 111, 118

American Missionary Association, 69

Anderson, Leafy, 180

Anglican Church, 30

Animism, 4

Arbella, x

Aro, 15

Asante, Molefi, 193, 218

Ashanti, 11, 13, 16

Ashe, 21

Augustine, 66

Augustine, James, 48

Azor, 112, 114–15

Azusa Street Revival, 140, 175–77

Babalu Aye, 22

Back to Africa Movements, xxvi, 110–15, 117, 119–21

Bacote, Samuel William, 94

Baer, Hans, 179

Baha’i, 212

Bahia, 17

Bainbridge, William, 152

Baker, Ella, 183

Baker, George, 139–40

Ball, Charles, 39

Bambuti, 11

Banyarwanda, 15

Baptists, 44–46, 59–61, 69, 76–78, 85, 88, 93–95, 97, 103, 219, 221

Barundi, 16

Bevel, James, 185

Bey, Yusuf, 168–69, 172

Bilal, 38

Bilali, 40

Black families, 217–18

Black Panther Party, 188

Black Power Movement, xxiv, 153, 188–90, 192

Bluett, Thomas, 42–43

Blyden, Edward Wilmot, 104–7

Boothe, Charles Octavius, 94

Braide, Garrick, 23

Branch Davidians, 151, 154–55, 172

Broughton, John, 78

Broughton, Virginia, 77–78

Brown, Mary L., 83

Brownson, Orestes, 47–48

Bryan, Andrew, 59

Buddhism, 211–12

Cain, R. H., 115

Calvin, John, 198

Campbell, Mary A., 83

Candomble, 7, 16–19, 224

Cannon, Katie, 191

Canossian Sisters, 65

Carey, Lott, 103

Carter, E. R., 94

Chagga...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Introduction: The Study of African American Religions
• West African Traditional Religions
• The Religious Life of Enslaved Americans
• African American Religious Institutions
• Enduring Themes in Nineteenth-Century African American Religious Life
• African American New Religious Movements
• The Contemporary Scene
• Bibliography
• Index