Description
Book SynopsisAnalyzes the various ways black southerners transformed African American religion in Chicago during their Great Migration northward. This book illustrates how the migration launched a new sacred order among blacks in the city that reflected aspects of both Southern black religion and modern city life.
Trade ReviewWinner of the 2006 Illinois State Historical Society Award in Publications "Passionately Human, No Less Divine is both meticulously researched and carefully written. Wallace Best has performed a thorough investigation of migration-era black churches that will benefit anyone interested in the shape of African-American religion and culture since."--Josef Sorett, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion "[A] study brimming with insights."--Mark Noll, Christian Century "[This book] makes an important contribution to the study of African American religion in Chicago during the Great Migration... [It is a] pivotal text that will help scholars of American Religion and African American Religion to rethink the assumptions that Cayton's and Drake's as well as a host of other sociologists like W.E.B. Dubois, have placed upon our analysis of the African American Religious experience."--Anthea D. Butler, Church History "Best's work opens the way for further research into the complexities of, not only African American religion, but also other religious traditions that have likewise suffered from historically inaccurate and ideologically suspect scholarly analyses. Scholars interested in urban and African American religion will find this text immensely rewarding. And to those interested in the effect that the southern religious ethos has had on the broader spectrum of American religion, this text is essential reading."--Adam Stewart, University of Waterloo "This work makes a substantial and insightful contribution to the study of African-American Christianity and culture and, in particular, the role of the poor in the reconceptualisation of black faith."--Graham Duncan, Historiae Ecclesiasticae
Table of ContentsAbbreviations ix Figures xi Tables xiii Preface xv Acknowledgments xix Introduction 1 Chapter One: "Mecca of the Migrant Mob" 13 Chapter Two: The South in the City 35 Chapter Three: Southern Migrants and the New Sacred Order 71 Chapter Four: The Frenzy,the Preacher,and the Music 94 Chapter Five: The Chicago African Methodist Episcopal Church in Crisis 118 Chapter Six: A Woman's Work, an Urban World 147 Conclusion i81 Epilogue 191 Notes 195 Index 239
