The New Black Gods: Arthur Huff Fauset and the Study of African American Religions [Paperback]

Taking the influential work of Arthur Huff Fauset as a starting point to break down the false dichotomy that exists between mainstream and marginal, a new generation of scholars offers fresh ideas for understanding the religious expressions of African Americans in the United States. Fauset's 1944 classic,Black Gods of the Metropolis,launched original methods and theories for thinking about African American religions as modern, cosmopolitan, and democratic. The essays in this collection show the diversity of African American religion in the wake of the Great Migration and consider the full field of African American religion from Pentecostalism to Black Judaism, Black Islam, and Father Divine's Peace Mission Movement. As a whole, they create a dynamic, humanistic, and thoroughly interdisciplinary understanding of African American religious history and life. This book is essential reading for anyone who studies the African American experience.

Most authors dedicate their books to family members or inspirational figures. IUPUI professor Edward Curtis has dedicated his latest volume, The New Black Gods: Arthur Huff Fauset and the Study of African American Religions (IU Press, 2009) to the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. 'I wanted to give credit where the credit was due,' said Curtis, faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies and the Millennium Scholar of the Liberal Arts. He noted the central role that the School played in hosting a national conference that brought together scholars from around the country with IUPUI students and Indianapolis community members to discuss religious diversity among African Americans. The book revolves around anthropologist Arthur Huff Fauset's groundbreaking volume, Black Gods of the Metropolis, first published in 1944. A study of African American religions in Philadelphia, the book was the first to use ethnographic techniques in the study of African-American religions. Fauset spent time with diverse grouplÓ$