AFRS 250 - Across Religious Boundaries: Understanding Differences

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2018/19b: African American Religions and the Practice of Social Criticism. RELI 250) This class introduces students to the study of African American religions. Our focus is not only the historical variety of religious practices, but equally on the way the study of African American religious practices, serve to influence, wrestle with, protest, and critique constructions of race and racial identities. By considering topics such as the religious culture of the enslaved in the antebellum South, the development of independent black churches in the late 18th and 19th centuries, expressive culture in music, sermon, and song, and the intersections of religion and black political movements, we explore the ways the category of religion functions as a contested site to think through notions of black liberation, agency, and struggle. Jonathon Kahn.

Two 75-minute periods.