Sylvester A Johnson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3676422 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sylvester A Johnson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sylvester A |
| FAMILY NAME | Johnson |
| SIGNATURE | JOHNSON S A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Virginia Tech |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Religion and Empire in Transnational Perspective: A Response to Pamela Klassen’s Story of Radio Mind and Jennifer Graber’s Gods of Indian Country
This article examines the parallels and contrasts between Pamela Klassen’s and Jennifer Graber’s recent studies of settler colonialism and Indigenous nations of North America. I identify major themes in their analysis and assess the import of their work for the greater understanding of religion, settler-states, and Indigeneity. I note especially the challenge they raise for scholars concerned with missionary friendship with Indians, as both autho…
Red Squads and Black Radicals: Reading Agency in the Archive
Scholarly accounts of racial formation have regularly focused on the role of state actors or non-state oppressive subjects administering racial systems against a dominated population. Challenges or resistance to state racialization practices by dissenting communities, on the other hand, have not received commensurate engagement, particularly at the level of race-making. Judith Weisenfeld demonstrates in New World A-Coming that African American re…
Introduction: James H. Cone and Black Theology in Africana Perspective
This special issue recognizes the fiftieth anniversary of Black Theology and Black Power. It foregrounds the intellectual legacy of James H. Cone himself. It also examines the broader scholarship on Africana religions that has emerged through the paradigm shifts that Black liberation theology embodies—liberationist political movements, Black consciousness, anticolonial movements, and religious activism rooted in social justice.When James Hal Cone…
The Transnational and Diasporic Future of African American Religions in the United States
This article calls forth a vision for the future study of African American religions in the United States by examining how transnational contact and diasporic consciousness have affected the past practice and are likely to affect the future practice of Christianity, Islam, and African-derived, Orisha-based religions in Black America. It offers a synthesis of scholarly literature and charts possible directions for analyzing Africana religions beyo…
Religions in All Ages and Places: Discerning Colonialism with Jonathan Z. Smith
IF Jonathan Z. Smith was not the first to trouble the category of religion, he was certainly among the most successful in troubling scholars of religion about the subject of their craft. Smith indelibly unsettled an ease of presumption that religion is a given or has always been around as the common-sense category of today’s popular experience. Among the most cherished and widely read of his works is the cogent essay “Religion, Religions, Religio…
A Muslim in the White House? Race, Islam, and the Presidency of Barack Obama
Bayyinah Sharrieff: African American Traveler, University of Khartoum Student, Nation of Islam Leader
Bayyinah Sharrieff is a significant, but largely unknown figure for the study of Africana religions in the 1960s. This primary source includes dozens of her columns in the Muhammad Speaks newspaper that discuss a period of twenty-two months during which she was a student at the University of Khartoum in Sudan
Christopher M. Driscoll, White Lies: Race and Uncertainty in the Twilight of American Religion
African Americans, the Racial State, and the Cultus of War
This essay examines Black support for US militarism from the 1890s to the First World War amid devastating forms of institutional racism. As the first African American soldiers were deployed to France to liberate Europe's White citizens, the US government hanged thirteen Black soldiers because they sought to defend themselves from mob violence at the hands of White soldiers and civilians. Despite this, the nation's strident racism did not prevent…
African Americans and Religion
Beginning with trans-Atlantic slavery, which forced hundreds of thousands of people into what is presently the United States, religion among African Americans consistently featured a complex of efforts toward innovation, preservation, and agential intervention rooted in efforts toward survival against structures of racial domination. Social factors including slavery, black responses to a range of political conflicts, influences of immigration, an…
African American Religions, 1500–2000: Colonialism, Democracy, and Freedom
This book provides a narrative historical, postcolonial account of African American religions. It examines the intersection of Black religion and colonialism over several centuries to explain the relationship between empire and democratic freedom. Rather than treating freedom and its others (colonialism, slavery and racism) as opposites, Sylvester A. Johnson interprets multiple periods of Black religious history to discern how Atlantic empires (p…
Thomas J. Little. The Origins of Southern Evangelicalism: Religious Revivalism in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1670–1760
This volume joins a steady stream of historical studies that examine Anglo-American evangelical religion. Unlike most, however, Thomas J. Little's book focuses on the early American southern settler colony of Carolina. As the subtitle suggests, the author intends by “evangelical” to denote the emergence of revivalism in this region. The context for Little's account is the range of conflicts among European (mostly English) settlers fighting for th…
Divine Imperium and the Ecclesiastical Imaginary: Church History, Transnationalism, and the Rationality of Empire
Laurie Maffly-Kipp's address to the American Society of Church History proffers the challenge of engaging seriously with the "church" in church history. She notes that scholarship on Christianity has increasingly focused on broader cultural themes in lieu of a more strict concern with churches as institutions in their own right. Maffly-Kipp's challenge reminded me of a particular context in the history of Christianity: the eighteenth-century city…
Embodiment and the New Shape of Black Theological Thought – By Anthony B. Pinn
The Rise of the Nacirema and the Descent of European Man: A Response to Manuel A. Vásquez’s More than Belief
Manuel Vásquez’s Beyond Belief richly examines the prospects of rooting the study of religion more seriously within the imperatives of materialist theory. His study also prompts scholars to consider how attention to the body has been shaped by race and empire. In this essay, I reflect on how the linkage of religion, race, and empire has shaped the imperial history of imagining dark bodies and matter more broadly. I conclude that the ethnographic …
Show Us How You Do It: Marshall Keeble and the Rise of Black Churches of Christ in the United States, 1914–1968
Book Review| January 01 2011 Show Us How You Do It: Marshall Keeble and the Rise of Black Churches of Christ in the United States, 1914–1968 Show Us How You Do It: Marshall Keeble and the Rise of Black Churches of Christ in the United States, 1914–1968. By Edward J. Robinson. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2008. xii + 272 pp. Photos, appendices, notes, index, and bibliography. $39.95 (cloth). Sylvester A. Johnson Sylvester A. Johnson In…
The Black Church
This chapter contains sections titled: Slavery, African religions, and Christianization Free Africans, Christian Conquest, and Independent Black Churches Historical Consciousness, Missions, and Moral Reform Urban Churches and New Religions Civil Rights and black Power The Post-Civil Rights Era Bibliography
The Rise of Black Ethnics: The Ethnic Turn in African American Religions, 1916-1945
During the world war years of the early twentieth century, new African American religious movements emerged that emphasized black heritage identities. Among these were Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew's Congregation of Commandment Keepers (Jewish) and "Noble" Drew Ali's Moorish Science Temple of America (Islamic). Unlike African American religions of the previous century, these religious communities distinctly captured the ethos of ethnicity (cultu…
Colonialism, Biblical World-Making, and Temporalities in Olaudah Equiano'sInteresting Narrative
The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) offers an unusual portrait of the dynamic relationship between scripture and colonialism. In 1789 Equiano, who also went by the name Gustavus Vassa, related his experience of slavery to support abolitionism in Britain in the form of a best-selling, two-volume autobiography titledThe Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself. Equiano's a…
Roundtable Discussion: Native/First Nation Theology: Response
Response Sylvester Johnson (bio) Smith invites us to observe critical features of colonialism and what these imply for Native studies. Among these is the fact that colonialism has been integral to the U.S. nation-state. The genocide of Native Americans has been essential and integral to fulfilling the imperatives of U.S. nationalism and expansion.1 At the same time, the nation is a sacred principle, and it should come as no surprise that well-mea…
Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective. Kelly Brown Douglas
The Rise of Black Ethnics: The Ethnic Turn in African American Religions, 1916-1945
During the world war years of the early twentieth century, new African American religious movements emerged that emphasized black heritage identities. Among these were Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew's Congregation of Commandment Keepers (Jewish) and "Noble" Drew Ali's Moorish Science Temple of America (Islamic). Unlike African American religions of the previous century, these religious communities distinctly captured the ethos of ethnicity (cultu…
African Americans, the Racial State, and the Cultus of War
This essay examines Black support for US militarism from the 1890s to the First World War amid devastating forms of institutional racism. As the first African American soldiers were deployed to France to liberate Europe's White citizens, the US government hanged thirteen Black soldiers because they sought to defend themselves from mob violence at the hands of White soldiers and civilians. Despite this, the nation's strident racism did not prevent…
The Transnational and Diasporic Future of African American Religions in the United States
This article calls forth a vision for the future study of African American religions in the United States by examining how transnational contact and diasporic consciousness have affected the past practice and are likely to affect the future practice of Christianity, Islam, and African-derived, Orisha-based religions in Black America. It offers a synthesis of scholarly literature and charts possible directions for analyzing Africana religions beyo…
Religions in All Ages and Places: Discerning Colonialism with Jonathan Z. Smith
IF Jonathan Z. Smith was not the first to trouble the category of religion, he was certainly among the most successful in troubling scholars of religion about the subject of their craft. Smith indelibly unsettled an ease of presumption that religion is a given or has always been around as the common-sense category of today’s popular experience. Among the most cherished and widely read of his works is the cogent essay “Religion, Religions, Religio…
Colonialism, Biblical World-Making, and Temporalities in Olaudah Equiano'sInteresting Narrative
The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) offers an unusual portrait of the dynamic relationship between scripture and colonialism. In 1789 Equiano, who also went by the name Gustavus Vassa, related his experience of slavery to support abolitionism in Britain in the form of a best-selling, two-volume autobiography titledThe Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself. Equiano's a…
Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective. Kelly Brown Douglas
Roundtable Discussion: Native/First Nation Theology: Response
Response Sylvester Johnson (bio) Smith invites us to observe critical features of colonialism and what these imply for Native studies. Among these is the fact that colonialism has been integral to the U.S. nation-state. The genocide of Native Americans has been essential and integral to fulfilling the imperatives of U.S. nationalism and expansion.1 At the same time, the nation is a sacred principle, and it should come as no surprise that well-mea…
Colonialism, Biblical World-Making, and Temporalities in Olaudah Equiano'sInteresting Narrative
The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) offers an unusual portrait of the dynamic relationship between scripture and colonialism. In 1789 Equiano, who also went by the name Gustavus Vassa, related his experience of slavery to support abolitionism in Britain in the form of a best-selling, two-volume autobiography titledThe Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself. Equiano's a…
The Black Church
This chapter contains sections titled: Slavery, African religions, and Christianization Free Africans, Christian Conquest, and Independent Black Churches Historical Consciousness, Missions, and Moral Reform Urban Churches and New Religions Civil Rights and black Power The Post-Civil Rights Era Bibliography
The Rise of Black Ethnics: The Ethnic Turn in African American Religions, 1916-1945
During the world war years of the early twentieth century, new African American religious movements emerged that emphasized black heritage identities. Among these were Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew's Congregation of Commandment Keepers (Jewish) and "Noble" Drew Ali's Moorish Science Temple of America (Islamic). Unlike African American religions of the previous century, these religious communities distinctly captured the ethos of ethnicity (cultu…
Show Us How You Do It: Marshall Keeble and the Rise of Black Churches of Christ in the United States, 1914–1968
Book Review| January 01 2011 Show Us How You Do It: Marshall Keeble and the Rise of Black Churches of Christ in the United States, 1914–1968 Show Us How You Do It: Marshall Keeble and the Rise of Black Churches of Christ in the United States, 1914–1968. By Edward J. Robinson. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2008. xii + 272 pp. Photos, appendices, notes, index, and bibliography. $39.95 (cloth). Sylvester A. Johnson Sylvester A. Johnson In…
Embodiment and the New Shape of Black Theological Thought – By Anthony B. Pinn
The Rise of the Nacirema and the Descent of European Man: A Response to Manuel A. Vásquez’s More than Belief
Manuel Vásquez’s Beyond Belief richly examines the prospects of rooting the study of religion more seriously within the imperatives of materialist theory. His study also prompts scholars to consider how attention to the body has been shaped by race and empire. In this essay, I reflect on how the linkage of religion, race, and empire has shaped the imperial history of imagining dark bodies and matter more broadly. I conclude that the ethnographic …
Thomas J. Little. The Origins of Southern Evangelicalism: Religious Revivalism in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1670–1760
This volume joins a steady stream of historical studies that examine Anglo-American evangelical religion. Unlike most, however, Thomas J. Little's book focuses on the early American southern settler colony of Carolina. As the subtitle suggests, the author intends by “evangelical” to denote the emergence of revivalism in this region. The context for Little's account is the range of conflicts among European (mostly English) settlers fighting for th…
Divine Imperium and the Ecclesiastical Imaginary: Church History, Transnationalism, and the Rationality of Empire
Laurie Maffly-Kipp's address to the American Society of Church History proffers the challenge of engaging seriously with the "church" in church history. She notes that scholarship on Christianity has increasingly focused on broader cultural themes in lieu of a more strict concern with churches as institutions in their own right. Maffly-Kipp's challenge reminded me of a particular context in the history of Christianity: the eighteenth-century city…
African Americans and Religion
Beginning with trans-Atlantic slavery, which forced hundreds of thousands of people into what is presently the United States, religion among African Americans consistently featured a complex of efforts toward innovation, preservation, and agential intervention rooted in efforts toward survival against structures of racial domination. Social factors including slavery, black responses to a range of political conflicts, influences of immigration, an…
African American Religions, 1500–2000: Colonialism, Democracy, and Freedom
This book provides a narrative historical, postcolonial account of African American religions. It examines the intersection of Black religion and colonialism over several centuries to explain the relationship between empire and democratic freedom. Rather than treating freedom and its others (colonialism, slavery and racism) as opposites, Sylvester A. Johnson interprets multiple periods of Black religious history to discern how Atlantic empires (p…
Christopher M. Driscoll, White Lies: Race and Uncertainty in the Twilight of American Religion
African Americans, the Racial State, and the Cultus of War
This essay examines Black support for US militarism from the 1890s to the First World War amid devastating forms of institutional racism. As the first African American soldiers were deployed to France to liberate Europe's White citizens, the US government hanged thirteen Black soldiers because they sought to defend themselves from mob violence at the hands of White soldiers and civilians. Despite this, the nation's strident racism did not prevent…
Bayyinah Sharrieff: African American Traveler, University of Khartoum Student, Nation of Islam Leader
Bayyinah Sharrieff is a significant, but largely unknown figure for the study of Africana religions in the 1960s. This primary source includes dozens of her columns in the Muhammad Speaks newspaper that discuss a period of twenty-two months during which she was a student at the University of Khartoum in Sudan
A Muslim in the White House? Race, Islam, and the Presidency of Barack Obama
Introduction: James H. Cone and Black Theology in Africana Perspective
This special issue recognizes the fiftieth anniversary of Black Theology and Black Power. It foregrounds the intellectual legacy of James H. Cone himself. It also examines the broader scholarship on Africana religions that has emerged through the paradigm shifts that Black liberation theology embodies—liberationist political movements, Black consciousness, anticolonial movements, and religious activism rooted in social justice.When James Hal Cone…
The Transnational and Diasporic Future of African American Religions in the United States
This article calls forth a vision for the future study of African American religions in the United States by examining how transnational contact and diasporic consciousness have affected the past practice and are likely to affect the future practice of Christianity, Islam, and African-derived, Orisha-based religions in Black America. It offers a synthesis of scholarly literature and charts possible directions for analyzing Africana religions beyo…
Religions in All Ages and Places: Discerning Colonialism with Jonathan Z. Smith
IF Jonathan Z. Smith was not the first to trouble the category of religion, he was certainly among the most successful in troubling scholars of religion about the subject of their craft. Smith indelibly unsettled an ease of presumption that religion is a given or has always been around as the common-sense category of today’s popular experience. Among the most cherished and widely read of his works is the cogent essay “Religion, Religions, Religio…
Religion and Empire in Transnational Perspective: A Response to Pamela Klassen’s Story of Radio Mind and Jennifer Graber’s Gods of Indian Country
This article examines the parallels and contrasts between Pamela Klassen’s and Jennifer Graber’s recent studies of settler colonialism and Indigenous nations of North America. I identify major themes in their analysis and assess the import of their work for the greater understanding of religion, settler-states, and Indigeneity. I note especially the challenge they raise for scholars concerned with missionary friendship with Indians, as both autho…
Red Squads and Black Radicals: Reading Agency in the Archive
Scholarly accounts of racial formation have regularly focused on the role of state actors or non-state oppressive subjects administering racial systems against a dominated population. Challenges or resistance to state racialization practices by dissenting communities, on the other hand, have not received commensurate engagement, particularly at the level of race-making. Judith Weisenfeld demonstrates in New World A-Coming that African American re…
Sociology (17 works) · History (14 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Gender Studies (13 works) · Political science (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Race, History, and American Society (12 works) · Religious studies (10 works) · Politics (9 works) · Theology (8 works)