Description
Book SynopsisProvides an illuminating look at the diverse world of Black religious life in North America, focusing particularly outside of mainstream Christian churchesFrom the Moorish Science Temple to the Peace Mission Movement of Father Divine to the Commandment Keepers sect of Black Judaism, myriad Black new religious movements developed during the time of the Great Migration. Many of these stood outside of Christianity, but some remained at least partially within the Christian fold. The Black Coptic Church is one of these. Black Coptics combined elements of Black Protestant and Black Hebrew traditions with Ethiopianism as a way of constructing a divine racial identity that embraced the idea of a royal Egyptian heritage for its African American followers, a heroic identity that was in stark contrast to the racial identity imposed on African Americans by the white dominant culture. This embrace of a royal Blacknesswhat McKinnis calls an act of fugitive spiritualityilluminates how the Black Copti
Trade ReviewMcKinnis’s writing style is clear and inviting. . . . This book is poised to make a major contribution to American and African American religious studies. -- Wallace D. Best, author of Langston’s Salvation: American Religion and the Bard of Harlem
The book makes original contributions to our understanding of Black religious diversity, providing a theological portrait of an unexamined Black new religious movement and engaging the Black Coptic Church as a lens on religion and race in America. -- Judith Weisenfeld, Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion, Princeton University
Contributes valuably to underscoring the diversity of African American religious diversity. -- Charles A. Price, Temple University
