In this thought-provoking episode, our guest, William D. Hart, shares how his penchant for religious autobiographies led him to critique what he coins as “the standard narrative of Black religion” and how Afro-ecentric forms of spirituality develop strong communities and fight for freedom.

Highlights:

• What William D. Hart means by “the standard narrative of Black religion”
• The Black church as a school of leadership, business and virtue – the “outsized” role that the Black church played in the lives of African Americans
• How historians and sociologists created an entity called “The Black Church”
• The positive and negative sides of strong communities
• Afro-Eccentric forms of spirituality as distinct from the norms of “the Black Church”
• Black freedom movements for the unchurched and anti-church

Mentioned in This Episode:

• E.B. DuBois, The Negro Church: https://amzn.to/4nkJZm1
• Judith Weisenfeld, New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration: https://amzn.to/3Wisp7a
• Anthony Hoekema, The Four Major Cults: Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Seventh-Day Adventism: https://amzn.to/3L04mYe
• Arthur Huff Fauset, Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Religious Cults: https://amzn.to/48J3uRG
• Joseph Murphy, Working the Spirit: Ceremonies of the African Diaspora: https://amzn.to/4qoes5e
• Tracy E. Hucks, Yoruba Traditions and African American Nationalism: https://amzn.to/49hGHwn
• Tracey E. Hucks: Obeah, Orisa and Religious Identity in Trinidad, Vol. 1, Obeah: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination: https://amzn.to/47D6ZrG
• Robert Farris Thompson, Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy: https://amzn.to/4hkfZoS
• Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Phoenix, AZ: https://ambc-az.org/
• Cornel West: http://www.cornelwest.com/

Books by William D. Hart:

Edward Said and the Religious Effects of Culture: https://amzn.to/4o48FAs

Black Religion: Malcolm X, Julius Lester, and Jan Willis: https://amzn.to/4hr4Um3

Afro-Eccentricity: Beyond the Standard Narrative of Black Religion: https://amzn.to/47eGKq5

The Blackness of Black: Key Concepts in Critical Discourse: https://amzn.to/4hjUNPO

Guest Information:

William David Hart is the Margaret W. Harmon Professor of Religious Studies at Macalester College. He is the author of The Blackness of Black: Key Concepts in Critical Discourse (Lexington 2020); Afro-Eccentricity: Beyond the Standard Narrative of Black Religion (Palgrave (2011); Black Religion: Malcolm X, Julius Lester, and Jan Willis (Palgrave 2008); and Edward Said and the Religious Effects of Culture (Cambridge 2000). His research interests include Black studies, social theory, philosophy of race, American philosophy, and the intersections of religion, ethics, and politics.

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