Honoring the Ancestors: An African Cultural Interpretation of Black Religion and Literature

by Donald H. Matthews

Overview

In Honoring the Ancestors, Donald H. Matthews affirms once and for all the African foundation of African-American religious practice. His analysis of the methods employed by historians, social scientists, and literary critics in the study of African-American religion and the Negro spiritual leads him to develop a methodology that encompasses contemporary scholarship without compromising the integrity of African-American religion and culture. Exploring the works of such seminal black scholars as W. E. B. DuBois, Melville Herskovits, and Zora Neale Hurston, Matthews traces the early development of the African-centered approach to the interpretation of African-American religion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199963997
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/12/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1460L (what's this?)

About the Author

Donald H. Matthews is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Lead Faculty of the Master of Divinity Program at Naropa University.

Table of Contents

1. Interpretation and the African American Situation
2. Cultural Contact and Cultural Space: The Dialectics of Negation and Resistance
3. A Theology of the Spirituals: The Spirituals as Postmodern Discource
4. Black Literary Criticism and Narrative Hermeneutics
5. An Analysis of All God's Dangers Based on the Spirituals
6. The Spirituals: An African Cultural Narrative Theology
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"It is a significant contribution to scholarship and should be of interest to many readers."—Christianity and Literature

"Recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty and researchers."—Choice

From the Publisher