Pulpit and Pew”

African American Humor on Irreverent Religious Participation in John H. Johnson's Negro Digest , 1943–1950

Bibliographic Data

ID13047095
AuthorsVaughn A Booker (Dartmouth Hospital, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume8
Issue1
Pages1-36
Publication date2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Africana Religions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2165-5405 • E-ISSN: 2165-5413
PublisherThe Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5325/jafrireli.8.1.0001
OpenAlexW2999879305
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited3

This article examines religious humor in the “Pulpit and Pew” series of the midcentury monthly magazine Negro Digest. By entertaining the recurring link in African American Protestant traditions between religion and irreverence, this study of “Pulpit and Pew” examines the mode of religious affiliation that I characterize as irreverent religious participation. This literary humor provided relatable scenes and scenarios in Afro-Protestant life as the source materials for humor about African American religious thought and practice. With the “Pulpit and Pew” series of compiled jokes, irreverent religious humor reflected the reality of African American social practices and, in turn, provided levity that lessened the association of an ostensibly pious individual's religious devotion with an irreproachable moral status. “Pulpit and Pew” demonstrates that many African Americans with religious commitments have appreciated irreverent religious humor that may register as antireligious without necessarily rejecting all things associated with religious fidelity

Protestantism · Pulpit · Sociology · Theology · American Political and Social Dynamics · Critical Race Theory in Education · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society · Religious studies

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