One of the things that I think about when I think about this body of music.
Pope Francis says women will never be Roman Catholic priests | World news | The Guardian
I realize that it was the foundation for most other American music. And this music has changed the face of music in the 20th century. And the story behind the creation of the spirituals, it's a miraculous story. Normally, when you hear the story of African-American music in a documentary or something, you go back to Ella Fitzgerald or Louis Armstrong.
But if you really want to know the story behind the story, find out who Louis' grandmother was and what she was singing. What were the songs he learned when he was a baby? And what were the messages of those songs? And the thing that we find is that in the midst of all of the most horrible pain, some of these powerful individuals lived transcendent, shining lives. They were able to rise up above. They were able to be loving and forgiving in the midst of it all. Mammy was taking care of master's baby. It was mammy, not master's wife, that was nursing that little baby.
Mammy could have poisoned the child. She could have smothered the child. But she loved that child like it was her own child. Because there was something in her faith that said, "You're supposed to be loving. You're supposed to be kind. You're supposed to be forgiving.
And there's no excuse if you are not. They're the most noble sentiments. Now, you find a song like this: These are people who were victims. Come and fix me. And again, I mean this is not only sound theology and psychology, it's extremely mature spirituality, right? What was it that came together in the lives and the spiritual sensibility of those slaves that connected them so powerfully to — really those are the best attributes of Christianity that you're talking about. They're not often practiced.
James Weldon Johnson talked about this as the verging of the spirit of Christianity with the vestiges of African music or an African sensibility. Do you have any ideas about what made that such a special fusion? Well, I've thought about it a lot, and one thing that occurs to me, if we go back to the cultures of the slaves that came from many different African nations and languages, one thing they had in common was they believed in a supreme deity. But they believed he was very busy and very, very holy, and in order to get to him, you had to go through the ancestors.
It wasn't very dissimilar to the way Europeans felt with the saints, and so on. When slavery took place — and there was also this concept that you commune with deity with magic, shining songs. If your songs come forth with great fervor, you not only reach deity, but deity comes and possesses you, becomes part of you, and gives you the strength to do whatever you've got to do to win your battles, to harvest your crop.
And when people were taken suddenly as slaves, when they were literally kidnapped from their normal lives, whatever those lives were, they were taken away from the land of their ancestors. The spirit of the ancestors couldn't cross the water. And so, when they were taken on these boats away from their homes, they experienced the most deep desolation possible, because not only were they being removed from their friends and kindred, but they were being removed from their God.
And they had no way to get to God, because the ancestors were way back in Africa on the land. And I imagine when the slaves heard about this Jesus — now, the master's religion, first of all, you've got to realize this: They were not impressed by the master's Christianity, may I say. This is why it's even surprising to me that they adopted Christianity. Exactly, because they saw all of the brutality, they saw all the hypocrisy, and were the brunt of it. But they heard about this Jesus, this man of sorrow who suffered, and they identified.
And then they were told that Jesus is the Son of the High God. Wait, the Son of the High God? We can get to the High God through this guy? And his story sounds like our story? He's born in terrible circumstances, he's mistreated. He's finally abused and killed. Maybe He will carry us to the High God. After a short break, more conversation and song with Joe Carter. Subscribe to On Being on Apple Podcasts to listen again any time and discover everything we create.
Watch your feed in coming days. They were never made available as an album in his lifetime. I'm Krista Tippett and this is On Being. Joe embodied the beauty, sorrow, and hidden meanings within the spirituals, songs composed by nameless bards in slavery, and yet a tradition that gave us gospel, blues, jazz, and hip-hop. Were there songs reaching back to the ancestors? Do you think they felt that, also, that old belief that was planted in them of their songs reaching to God?
I think in the early days of slavery, yes. Because for a long time there were a lot of ancestors from Africa who were still there on the plantations. So they got that sense. For example, with Mary McLeod Bethune — her grandmother came over from Africa with two sisters, and she remembered the songs and stories and sang those songs to the children. Now nobody in my family now remembers any of the songs, but we have the stories of her singing the songs to the children and so on.
And it was through the songs that the faith was transmitted. The Jews in Egypt.
Let My People Go: A Call to End the Oppression of Women in the Church
An old master comes out one day. I don't hear nobody singing down there. You guys strike me up one of them good, old spiritual songs. You know how I like them. Give me one of them good, old songs. Now pretend you're going to be — you're all slaves, OK? And master wants us to sing a song, but we don't really want to sing for master, do we?
Master loves our singing, but he doesn't listen to the words we say. He doesn't have a clue. So we can say anything we want. So, let's give the master a good old song.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
One of the connections also that I learned about that period of time from my grandparents was, my grandfather was a storyteller. And he would regale the family, every time we were together, with slavery stories. That's what he always talked about. And there was a slave by the name of John who was the star of all of these stories. And you never knew whether the story was true or not, but it was always funny, and it got your attention, and Grandpa was a good storyteller.
There was also always a moral at the end of the story. But the one theme that went through all of these stories was that John had outsmarted the master.
He was always ahead of the master. So there was this concept — the master doesn't really understand us. And so, the spirituals were — all of the spirituals, all of the songs were masks. As well as these transcendent, wonderful moments. They were also signals for escape. It's like you get into the stream of that living water. And there's no past, present, and future. It's just right now, and right now everything is all right.
You know, there's a story about Elijah and a woman whose son died. She had received this son as a miracle, actually. And the prophet told her that she was going to have this son at a certain time and she did, and the son dies. Send for that prophet. I want to see the man. Now, you gave me the promise, I have a child, and my child has died. I'm having a tragedy right now. And it doesn't say that I'm doing OK.
It doesn't say that everything's OK in my life. So the sense of well-being does not depend on whether things are good or bad or up or down because, if we had to live that way as slaves, we would constantly be buried underneath the ground, because the circumstances were so horrible and so bad we had to find, as I say, that secret door. We talked about how there was this subversive power of the words of the spirituals, saying things which really contradicted the interests of the masters, for example. But also there were more overt codes and real practical references in some of the spirituals.
And give me an example of that, where there was almost a secret language. Someone is going to meet us on the other side of the river. Well, first, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was a death song, as most of them were in some way. And it was often sung when a child died. It was a way to evoke one's dignity, to say, even though I'm a slave, God has to send a golden chariot down from the sky. I'm going to have dignity. Although the Methodists did not grant women the full authority of ordination until , they gave local preaching licenses to several women, including Maggie Newton Van Cott — , who was licensed to preach in New York in As waves of Catholic immigrants arrived from Germany, Ireland, Italy and Poland during the 19th century, Catholic sisters played a crucial role in building an American Catholic Church, especially because they vastly outnumbered priests.
Although sisters could not administer the sacraments, they built hundreds of Catholic schools, hospitals, and orphanages. The Oblate Sisters of Providence , the first black religious order in America, taught free black children to read. According to nativists, Catholic sisters were a danger to the republic because of their loyalty to Rome, and in bestselling books like The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk , sisters were portrayed as the victims of aggressive, sexually voracious priests.
This book was later determined to be a fabrication. In reality, however, Catholic sisters were among the best-educated women in America, and they willingly chose the convent over marriage and motherhood. By , 90, women belonged to Catholic religious orders. Two 19th-century women founded new religious movements that continue to endure today. Ellen Harmon Gould White — , hailed by her followers as a prophet, emerged as the leader of the Seventh-day Adventists during the s, and along with several men she founded the first Seventh-day Adventist church in Both religious movements gained followers around the globe.
In , according to the Seventh-day Adventists, they numbered more than 18 million members. Inspired by the feminist movement, however, large numbers of women during the s and s began to pursue careers in ministry. The Lutheran Church in America ordained its first woman minister in , and the Episcopal Church accepted women priests in After decades of debate and controversy, Reform Jews ordained Sally Preisand — as the first woman rabbi in , and Conservative Jews ordained Amy Eilberg — in Hindus do not practice ordination, but many American Hindu women gained renown as gurus.
By , 12 percent of all Christian clergy in the United States were women. Even the Seventh-day Adventist Church, founded by Ellen White, began to push women out of leadership positions after her death in Even though the Catholic Church continued to encourage women to become sisters, they insisted that women could not become priests. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.
Orthodox Jews and Muslims have also refused to allow women to serve in positions of formal religious leadership. Similarly, many Muslims were angered in when Amina Wadud — , a Muslim and an American scholar of Islam, led Friday prayer and delivered the khutbah sermon to a mixed audience of men and women in New York City. Yet even though Wadud has received death threats, she has continued to lead mixed gatherings for prayer. Gone are the days when female preaching stood as a symbol of protest against the religious mainstream.
Historians writing about women and American religion have been deeply influenced by the larger field of American religious history. Yet despite a growing interest in immigrant faiths during the s, relatively few historians have explored the lives of American women who practice Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism.
Scholars have asked several questions about the history of women and religion in colonial North America and the United States. How have women defended their call to religious leadership? Some of the liveliest debates have focused on whether religion has empowered or disempowered women. Why did some women choose to belong to reactionary religious groups like the Fundamentalists, and how did their religious beliefs shape their political commitments?
The rise of gender studies during the s has had a significant impact on the study of women and religion in America. Although many historians continue to focus on women, they have become increasingly interested in the way that religious experience is gendered. Historians have published several collections of documents about women and religion in colonial North America and the United States.
Many historians have focused on collecting the documents of women in particular faith traditions. There are only a few archives that specialize in the history of women and religion in colonial North America and the United States. It includes writings by religious women.
Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography includes articles about Unitarian and Universalist women. Religion in American History is an online resource containing essays and primary documents about American religious history. Some of the documents focus on women. The Pluralism Project , Harvard University, includes information about women who practice a variety of religious traditions in the United States. Portraits of American Women in Religion , the Library Company of Philadelphia, includes sketches of religious women whose stories appeared in print before Religion and the Founding of the American Republic , Library of Congress, includes documents about early American women and religion.
Women and Religion includes many primary sources written by American women. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. Women and Religion , an online resource from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, includes links to articles about women and religious leadership in the United States. Women and Social Movements in the United States, — includes documents about religiously-based activism.
Catherine A. Brekus
Women and American Religion. Oxford University Press, Female Preaching in America, — University of North Carolina Press, The Religious History of American Women: Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World.
- Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
- Women and Religion in Colonial North America and the United States.
- Smoke Show;
- Martin Luther King, Jr. - Wikiquote.
- Balzac (French Edition);
- The Mathematics of Frobenius in Context: A Journey Through 18th to 20th Century Mathematics (Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences).
Jesus, Jobs and Justice: African American Women and Religion. The University of North Carolina Press, The Bonds of Womanhood: Yale University Press, New Women of the Old Faith: Gender and American Catholicism in the Progressive Era. Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism. Harvard University Press, Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission.
- Let My People Go: A Call to End the Oppression of Women in the Church by Bob Edwards.
- .
- Vergleichende Analyse der Geschäftsmodelle ausgewählter Billigfluganbieter am Beispiel von Ryanair und AirBerlin (German Edition)!
- In This Article?
University of California Press, Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, Jane I. Smith, and Kathleen M. Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today. Jewish Women in America: Cornell University Press, Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America.
Indiana University Press, A History of Women and Religion in America. Westminster John Knox Press, Women Who Would be Rabbis: The Madonna of th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, — Choctaw Women in a Chaotic World: The Clash of Cultures in the Colonial Southeast. University of New Mexico Press, African American Women and Christian Activism: Women and Religion in Early America, — The Puritan and Evangelical Traditions.
Norton, , 48— Samuel Green, , Wind and James W. University of Chicago Press, , Essays and Speeches , ed. Indiana University Press, , 31— Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Memoirs of Abigail Abbott Bailey , ed. Orsi, Thank You, St. Maureen Fitzgerald, Habits of Compassion: University of Illinois Press, Ross, Witnessing and Testifying: Fortress Press, , 32— Princeton University Press, , Indiana University Press, , 1: Louisiana State University Press, , 82, Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, — Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, , 59—60, 64— Coburn and Martha Smith, Spirited Lives: University of North Carolina Press, , 2.
Reimagining the Past Chapel Hill: Kathryn Kish Sklar, Catharine Beecher: A Biography Chapel Hill: Selections from the Journal of Frances E. On Native American women, see Michelene E. Pesantubbee, Choctaw Women in a Chaotic World: Anderson, Chain Her by One Foot: Routledge, ; Carol Devens, Countering Colonization: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits New York: A Life, a Symbol New York: New York University Press, There is a growing perspective in secular spaces that Christianity doesn't "believe in" or care about it's women which is harmful and just wrong.
Many women leave churches who teach this perspective without finding churches and denominations that would welcome them, their leadership, their call or just their participation. While I recognize that religion and faith isn't for everyone, I find it especially disappointing that people might be kept away from it due to misrepresentation alone.
Jacob rated it it was amazing Aug 01, Renee rated it it was amazing Dec 26, Donna rated it it was amazing Sep 24, Lesley rated it really liked it Jan 28, Lori rated it it was amazing Jan 27, Dawn rated it it was amazing May 08, Eva rated it it was amazing May 24, Christina Davidson rated it it was amazing Jul 01, Meagan rated it it was amazing Feb 06, Jessica rated it it was amazing Mar 30, Jessica Lopez rated it it was amazing Feb 10, Emily marked it as to-read May 27, Wendy Kropf-cotter marked it as to-read Jan 25, Dalaina May marked it as to-read Feb 24, Amanda marked it as to-read Feb 25, Joy marked it as to-read Jul 08, Sweetpeala marked it as to-read Aug 07, Amanda marked it as to-read Apr 20, Sabra marked it as to-read Feb 03, Maria Swanson marked it as to-read Mar 04,