You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Theologizing in Black is a creative and rigorous comparative study on black theological musings and liberative intellectual contemplations engaging the theological ethics and anthropology of both continental African theologians (Tanzania, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo) and black theologians in the African Diaspora (Haiti, Trinidad, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, United States). Using the pluralist approach to religion promoted by the philosopher of religion and theologian John Hick, the book is also an attempt to bridge an important gap in the comparative study of religion, Africana Studies, and Liberation theology, both in Africa and its diaspora. The book provides an analytical fr...
Thinking in Public provides a probing and provocative meditation on the intellectual life and legacy of Jacques Roumain. As a work of intellectual history, the book investigates the intersections of religious ideas, secular humanism, and development within the framework of Roumain's public intellectualism and cultural criticism embodied in his prolific writings. The book provides a reconceptualization of Roumain's intellectual itineraries against the backdrop of two public spheres: a national public sphere (Haiti) and a transnational public sphere (the global world). Second, it remaps and reframes Roumain's intellectual circuits and his critical engagements within a wide range of intellectua...
Race, Religion, and The Haitian Revolution explores the intersections of history, race, religion, decolonization, and revolutionary freedom leading to the founding of the postcolonial state of Haiti in 1804. Particular attention is given to the place of religion in this freedom story. The book not only examines the multiple legacies and the problem of Enlightenment modernity, imperial colonialism, Western racism and hegemony, but also studies their complex relationships with the institution of slavery, religion, and Black freedom. This present work is a collection of five interdisciplinary essays, which underscore the role of faith in Black Atlantic discourse and Haitian thought in shaping the lives of the people in the Black Diaspora and the Haitian people in particular. Topics range from Makandal's Postcolonial religious imagination to Boukman's Liberation Theology, Langston Hughes' discussion of the role of prophetic religion in the Haitian Revolution to Frederick Douglass' critiques of Christianity as a “slave religion;” the text also brings in conversation Du Bois's theory of double consciousness with Fanon's theory of decolonization and revolutionary humanism.
In Revolutionary Change and Democratic Religion, Celucien Joseph provides a fresh and careful reexamination of Haiti’s intellectual history by focusing on the ideas and writings of five prominent thinkers and public intellectuals: Toussaint Louverture, Joseph Antenor Firmin, Jacques Roumain, Dantes Bellegarde, and Jean Price-Mars. The book articulates a twofold argument. First of all, Haiti has produced a strong intellectual tradition from the revolutionary era to the postcolonial present, and that Haitian thought is not homogeneous and monolithic. Joseph puts forth the idea that the general interweaving themes of rhetoric, the race concept, race vindication, universal emancipation, religi...
Between Two Worlds: Jean Price-Mars, Haiti, and Africa is a special volume on Jean Price-Mars that reassesses the importance of his thought and legacy, and the implications of his ideas in the twenty-first century’s culture of political correctness, the continuing challenge of race and racism, and imperial hegemony in the modern world. Price-Mars’s thought is also significant for the renewed scholarly interests in Haiti and Haitian Studies in North America, and the meaning of contemporary Africa in the world today. This volume explores various dimensions in Price-Mars’ thought and his role as historian, anthropologist, cultural critic, public intellectual, religious scholar, pan-Africanist, and humanist. The goal of this book is fourfold: it explores the contributions of Jean Price-Mars to Haitian history and culture, it studies Price-Mars’ engagement with Western history and the problem of the “racist narrative,” it interprets Price-Mars’ connections with Black Internationalism, Harlem Renaissance, and the Negritude Movement, and finally, the book underscores Price-Mars’ contributions to post colonialism, religious studies, Africana Studies, and Pan-Africanism.
Joseph investigates the intersections of history, literature, race, religion, decolonization, and freedom that led to the founding of the postcolonial state of Haiti in 1804. Topics range from Makandal's postcolonial religious imagination to Boukman's liberation theology to Langston Hughes' discussion of the role of prophetic religion in the Haitian Revolution.
When Zoom worship emerged in Britain during the COVID lockdown of 2020, Christians quickly turned to an art form, a form of theater, to deliver their worship. It was a quest for immanence, the very thing the Reformation dealt with by the elevation of transcendence. What an intriguing thought: Could John Calvin with his dictum regarding piety have practiced Zoom worship? Served as he was with the principle that the finite cannot contain the infinite, we must admit it looks very unlikely! At least in this Calvin saw eye-to-eye with Erasmus, but what of Luther? He may have been a comfortable Zoom worshiper, with his views that “Religious artworks are neither here nor there” and “We may ha...
Providing an intellectual interpretation to the work of Edwidge Danticat, this new edited collection provides a pedagogical approach to teach and interpret her body of work in undergraduate and graduate classrooms. Approaches to Teaching the Works of Edwidge Danticat starts out by exploring diasporic categories and postcolonial themes such as gender constructs, cultural nationalism, cultural and communal identity, and moves to investigate Danticat’s human rights activism, the immigrant experience, the relationship between the particular and the universal, and the violence of hegemony and imperialism in relationship with society, family, and community. The Editors of the collection have carefully compiled works that show how Danticat’s writings may help in building more compassionate and relational human communities that are grounded on the imperative of human dignity, respect, inclusion, and peace.
Vodou has often served as a scapegoat for Haiti’s problems, from political upheavals to natural disasters. This tradition of scapegoating stretches back to the nation’s founding and forms part of a contest over the legitimacy of the religion, both beyond and within Haiti’s borders. The Spirits and the Law examines that vexed history, asking why, from 1835 to 1987, Haiti banned many popular ritual practices. To find out, Kate Ramsey begins with the Haitian Revolution and its aftermath. Fearful of an independent black nation inspiring similar revolts, the United States, France, and the rest of Europe ostracized Haiti. Successive Haitian governments, seeking to counter the image of Haiti ...
Too few Christians today, says Joshua Jipp, understand hospitality to strangers and the marginalized as an essential part of the church's identity. In this book Jipp argues that God's relationship to his people is fundamentally an act of hospitality to strangers, and that divine and human hospitality together are thus at the very heart of Christian faith. Jipp first provides a thorough interpretation of the major biblical texts related to the practice of hospitality to strangers, considering especially how these texts portray Christ as the divine host who extends God's welcome to all people. Jipp then invites readers to consider how God's hospitality sets the pattern for human hospitality, offering suggestions on how the practice of welcoming strangers can guide the church in its engagement with current social challenges—immigration, incarceration, racism, and more.