A History of Irreverent Religion in African American Life from Emancipation to the Present

FAIN: FEL-281915-22

Vaughn Angelo Booker
Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH 03755-1808)

Research and writing leading to a book analyzing African American humor about Black churches, to develop the concept of irreverence in religious studies.

Since Emancipation, the growth and evolution of African American Christianity has coincided with the persistence of African American humor about Black churches, often by Black Christians. What are we to make of the endurance of both Black religious life and of jokes and comedy about this deeply important cultural facet? The purpose of my book project is: (1) to define how African American Christianity exists in its current forms with a strong “toleration” of religious humor, and thereby (2) to offer the concept of irreverence to religious studies. As a history of religion, this project’s critical focus on irreverence offers a distinct register of skepticism in African American religion; a posture of religious thought and belonging, between reverence and non-religiosity, whereby practitioners express and sustain their religious or theological commitments while avoiding, opposing, or subverting the norms of reverential religious behavior—especially deference to religious authority.