In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam
With In and Out of This World Stephen C. Finley examines the religious practices and discourses that have shaped the Nation of Islam (NOI) in America. Drawing on the speeches and writing of figures such as Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Warith Deen Mohammad, and Louis Farrakhan, Finley shows that the NOI and its leaders used multiple religious symbols, rituals, and mythologies meant to recast the meaning of the cosmos and create new transcendent and immanent black bodies whose meaning cannot be reduced to products of racism. Whether examining how the myth of Yakub helped Elijah Muhammad explain the violence directed at black bodies, how Malcolm X made black bodies in the NOI publicly visible, or the ways Farrakhan’s discourses on his experiences with the Mother Wheel UFO organize his interpretation of black bodies, Finley demonstrates that the NOI intended to retrieve, reclaim, and reform black bodies in a context of antiblack violence.
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In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam
With In and Out of This World Stephen C. Finley examines the religious practices and discourses that have shaped the Nation of Islam (NOI) in America. Drawing on the speeches and writing of figures such as Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Warith Deen Mohammad, and Louis Farrakhan, Finley shows that the NOI and its leaders used multiple religious symbols, rituals, and mythologies meant to recast the meaning of the cosmos and create new transcendent and immanent black bodies whose meaning cannot be reduced to products of racism. Whether examining how the myth of Yakub helped Elijah Muhammad explain the violence directed at black bodies, how Malcolm X made black bodies in the NOI publicly visible, or the ways Farrakhan’s discourses on his experiences with the Mother Wheel UFO organize his interpretation of black bodies, Finley demonstrates that the NOI intended to retrieve, reclaim, and reform black bodies in a context of antiblack violence.
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In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam

In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam

by Stephen C. Finley
In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam
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In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam

In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam

by Stephen C. Finley

Overview

With In and Out of This World Stephen C. Finley examines the religious practices and discourses that have shaped the Nation of Islam (NOI) in America. Drawing on the speeches and writing of figures such as Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Warith Deen Mohammad, and Louis Farrakhan, Finley shows that the NOI and its leaders used multiple religious symbols, rituals, and mythologies meant to recast the meaning of the cosmos and create new transcendent and immanent black bodies whose meaning cannot be reduced to products of racism. Whether examining how the myth of Yakub helped Elijah Muhammad explain the violence directed at black bodies, how Malcolm X made black bodies in the NOI publicly visible, or the ways Farrakhan’s discourses on his experiences with the Mother Wheel UFO organize his interpretation of black bodies, Finley demonstrates that the NOI intended to retrieve, reclaim, and reform black bodies in a context of antiblack violence.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781478018773
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication date: 11/29/2022
Series: Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People
Pages: 266
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Stephen C. Finley is Inaugural Chair, Department of African and African American Studies at Louisiana State University, and coeditor of The Religion of White Rage: White Workers, Religious Fervor, and the Myth of Black Racial Progress and Esotericism in African American Religious Experience.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction. Black Bodies In- and Out-of-Place: Rereading the Nation of Islam through a Theory of the Body  1
1. Elijah Muhammad, the Myth of Yakub, and the Critique of “Whitenized” Black Embodiment  15
2. Elijah Muhammad, Transcendent Blackness, and the Construction of Ideal Black Bodies  46
3. Malcolm X and the Politics of Resistance: Visible Bodies, Language, and the Implied Critique of Elijah Muhammad  74
4. Warith Deen Mohammed and the Nation of Islam: Race and Black Embodiment in “Islamic” Form  100
5. Mothership Connections: Louis Farrakhan as the Culmination of Muslim Ideals in the Nation of Islam  131
Conclusion. (Re)forming Black Embodiment, White Supremacy, and the Nation of Islam's Class(ist) Response  158
Wheels, Wombs, and Women: An Epilogue  174
The “Louis Farrakhan” That the Public Does Not Know, or Doesn’t Want to Know?: An Afterword  189
Farrakhan’s Swan Song? A Postscript  198
Notes  201
Bibliography  235
Index  245

What People are Saying About This

Black Nationalism in the United States: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama - James Lance Taylor

“In this cutting edge and timely book, Stephen C. Finley gives the first full treatment to the Nation of Islam’s little-known lynchpin UFO doctrine, which holds all other doctrines together and is ultimately to be put to use for the liberation of all black people. Readily outlining the keys to understanding the Nation of Islam’s uncertain future, he shows how its disparate histories and ideologies might inform future modes of leadership to emerge in the twenty-first century.”

Elijah Muhammad and Islam - Herbert Berg

“Stephen C. Finley provides unique and intriguing insights into the four most prominent African American Muslims: Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Warith Deen Mohammed, and Louis Farrakhan. His comparison of these charismatic and influential leaders and his focus on the body (both material and extraterrestrial) provide valuable new perspectives not only on the Nation of Islam as a religious movement but also on the often tense and competitive relationships between these men as each struggles with the religious meaning of black embodiment.”

Black Nationalism in the United States: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama - James L. Taylor

“In this cutting edge and timely book, Stephen C. Finley gives the first full treatment to the Nation of Islam’s little known lynchpin UFO doctrine, which holds all other doctrines together and is ultimately to be put to use for the liberation of all black people. Readily outlining the keys to understanding the Nation of Islam’s uncertain future, he shows how its disparate histories and ideologies might inform future modes of leadership to emerge in the twenty-first century.”

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