Historic Negro Spirituals as Biblical Interpretation

Christa Klingbeil Dixon, Kim R. Harris, Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, Kim R. Harris

• Publisher: Fortress Academic
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781978784581
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Dr. Christa K. Dixon [1935 – 2003] grew up during the time of World War 2, where her father, a German Confessing Church pastor, regularly visited American POW camps, and young Christa heard African-American soldiers singing spirituals. Her fascination grew, but Dixon's interests became quite focused on her interest in how the famous spirituals interpreted the Bible. In the mid-1960s, Dr. Dixon earned her PhD working on "Negro Spirituals" in Germany and published the text that formed from her years of research and long-lasting passion for the spirituals she heard during her visits to the prisoner camps with her father. A work of careful analysis and scholarship, Dixon's study has since been out of print, but now newly translated and presented for an audience to rediscover. In John Lovell's important 1972 monograph, Black Song: The Forge and Flame, he wrote, "…Perhaps the most intensive study of Biblical influences in the spiritual is found in Christa Dixon's Wesen und Wandel geistlicher Volkslieder Negro Spirituals…her analyses are not only deeply intensive but quite creative…". In this book, Drs. Kim R. Harris and Daniel L. Smith-Christopher provide not only a translation of the published German work, but also contribute two new essays to accompany this timeless study as both modern critique and long overdue appreciation.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Author’s Foreword from the 1967 Edition
• Acknowledgment
• Translator’s Introduction
• Introducing My Mother,Rev. Dr. Christa Klingbeil Dixon
• “Negro Spirituals”: The Interpretation of Scripture ina Religious Folk Tradition
• Introduction and Literature Review
• Chapter 1: Laying the Groundwork for Understanding the Negro Spirituals
• Chapter 2: On the Combining of Biblical Passages
• Chapter 3: On the Combination of Biblical Statements
• Chapter 4: On Modernizing and “Re-Contextualizing” Biblical Statements
• Chapter 5: On the Structuring of Biblical Statements
• Chapter 6: Summary
• Second Part
• Lyrics Section
• Works Cited
• First Communion Questions
• African, Muslim, and Christian
• The Ring Shout: A Unifying Force
• Daniel: A Figure of Resistance
• Literacy, Resistance, and Critique
• Hail Mary
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Part One: Toward An Appreciation of Biblical Lyrics in Spirituals
• On Reception History
• The Study of the Spirituals
• On the Study of the Spirituals
• Excursus: George Pullen Jackson (1874–953)
• End of Excursus
• Spirituals and the “Folk Revival”
• The Spirituals and the Old Testament
• The Study of Lyrics in Spirituals
• Part Two: The Tales of Daniel, Chapters 1–6: A Preliminary Introduction
• Daniel 1–6 as “Diaspora Stories”
• Political Attitudes in the Diaspora Stories in Daniel 1–6
• Daniel Spirituals as Commentary
• Songs Focused on Daniel 6
• Songs Comparing Daniel to Other Biblical Figures
• Songs Comparing Daniel To New Testament Figures
• Songs Comparing Daniel Stories
• Preliminary Conclusions: Resistant Readings and Daniel 1–6
• Works Cited
• Index
• Selected Biblical Reference Index
• About the Editors