The Sociological Spirituality of W. E. B. Du Bois's Prayers for Dark People
Scholarship on W. E. B. Du Bois's understanding of religion is in the midst of a renaissance. Yet, few engage Du Bois's Prayers for Dark People, written over 1909-10 at Atlanta University. As a remedy, I first provide historical context on the production and reception of Prayers. I then de...
| Subtitles: | W. E. B. Du Bois Special Issue on Religion and Social Inequality |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
2023
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| In: |
Journal for the scientific study of religion
Year: 2023, Volume: 62, Pages: 7-26 |
| Further subjects: | B
Spirituality
B Prayers B Du Bois B Race B Liturgy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Scholarship on W. E. B. Du Bois's understanding of religion is in the midst of a renaissance. Yet, few engage Du Bois's Prayers for Dark People, written over 1909-10 at Atlanta University. As a remedy, I first provide historical context on the production and reception of Prayers. I then delve into the content of Prayers, identifying the tenets of a Du Boisian "sociological spirituality" brought to bear on the study and navigation of "race" and the "color-line." Through four strategies, Du Bois blended sociological empiricism and theorization with appeals to spirituality in the form of moral realism, stoicism, hypostasis, and metaphysics: (1) a critical deism that conserves belief in sacred divinity; (2) pedagogical racial uplift strategies that help resolve theodicies; (3) symbolic interactionism that sanctifies the Black self, and; (4) a sociology of knowledge based on otherworldly dimensions. I conclude that Du Bois's Prayers serves as a liturgy for Black liberation. Prayers emphasizes a transgressive rhetoric that exceeds the confines of social theory through a sacralization of sociological knowledge as a prophetic anticipation of moral Black lifeworlds. |
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| ISSN: | 1468-5906 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the scientific study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/jssr.12849 |