Description
Book SynopsisWith
In and Out of This World Stephen C. Finley examines the religious practices and discourses that have shaped the Nation of Islam (NOI) in America. Drawing on the speeches and writing of figures such as Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Warith Deen Mohammad, and Louis Farrakhan, Finley shows that the NOI and its leaders used multiple religious symbols, rituals, and mythologies meant to recast the meaning of the cosmos and create new transcendent and immanent black bodies whose meaning cannot be reduced to products of racism. Whether examining how the myth of Yakub helped Elijah Muhammad explain the violence directed at black bodies, how Malcolm X made black bodies in the NOI publicly visible, or the ways Farrakhan’s discourses on his experiences with the Mother Wheel UFO organize his interpretation of black bodies, Finley demonstrates that the NOI intended to retrieve, reclaim, and reform black bodies in a context of antiblack violence.
Trade Review“Finley offers here a well-crafted interpretation of the religious symbols of the NOI as efforts to liberate black identity from social and symbolic confinement. . . . In addition to being an informative work on The Nation of Islam, this book is a dexterous literary ethnography, particularly affluent in insights on religious anthropology.” -- Abdessamad Belhaj * Social Identities *
"
In and Out of This World peels back closely guarded beliefs and practices and gives readers the context to understand them not as fringe lunacy but a logical endpoint to a diverse and robust cosmology. Dr. Finley does what the best historians do—makes us care about people while giving us the information to understand their ideas and beliefs." -- Christina Ward * Shepherd *
"
In and Out of This World places bodies at the heart of an engaging redescription of the Nation of Islam. . . . Emphasizing the ties between body and religion in the NOI, Finley makes a welcome contribution to the collection of scholarship that points to the role of religion in African-American racial formation and self-fashioning." -- Nick Andersen * Body and Religion *
"In and Out of this World is an ambitious study and is noteworthy specifically for its creative attention to the implications of obscure [Nation of Islam] doctrines. . . . Broad readerships in the fields of religion and African American studies will find additional value in the volume’s potential ties to Afrofuturistic discourses and what role alternative religio-racial movements play therein."
-- Darrius Hills * Nova Religio *
"An incisive analysis of the Nation of Islam ... The book is a model of religious studies theory, method, and methodology."
-- Merin Shobhana Xavier * Reading Religion *
"A strength of Finley’s book is his attention to the theological content of the NOI, which all too often is ignored or even dismissed. . . . This book should transform our understanding of the NOI, placing it firmly among other ufological and esotericist movements." -- Benjamin E. Zeller * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *
"
In and Out of This World by Stephen Finley is an eye-opening and sharp reassessment of Nation of Islam (NOI) discourse that offers wide-ranging interventions in the study of Black religions, Islam in the Americas, and material religion. . . . The book in its entirety would be useful in advanced undergraduate or graduate courses. Whether for research or teaching, readers will find Finley’s detail-oriented project stimulating and novel." -- Max Johnson Dugan * Material Religion *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction. Black Bodies In- and Out-of-Place: Rereading the Nation of Islam through a Theory of the Body 1
1. Elijah Muhammad, the Myth of Yakub, and the Critique of “Whitenized” Black Embodiment 15
2. Elijah Muhammad, Transcendent Blackness, and the Construction of Ideal Black Bodies 46
3. Malcolm X and the Politics of Resistance: Visible Bodies, Language, and the Implied Critique of Elijah Muhammad 74
4. Warith Deen Mohammed and the Nation of Islam: Race and Black Embodiment in “Islamic” Form 100
5. Mothership Connections: Louis Farrakhan as the Culmination of Muslim Ideals in the Nation of Islam 131
Conclusion. (Re)forming Black Embodiment, White Supremacy, and the Nation of Islam's Class(ist) Response 158
Wheels, Wombs, and Women: An Epilogue 174
The “Louis Farrakhan” That the Public Does Not Know, or Doesn’t Want to Know?: An Afterword 189
Farrakhan’s Swan Song? A Postscript 198
Notes 201
Bibliography 235
Index 245
