Anthony
B. Pinn
DuBois' Souls: Thoughts on "Veiled" Bodies
and the
Study of Black Religion
NOTES:
1.W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (New York: Vintage Books/The Library of America, 1990), "The Forethought," 3.
2. Victor Anderson: Beyond Ontological Blackness: An Essay on African American Religious and Cultural Criticism (New York: Continuum Publishing Group, 1995).
3.DuBois, "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," Souls, 7. I am indebted to Charles Long for this notion of opacity as well as a more general sensitivity to black religion beyond institutions and theological doctrines. Long recognized the value of DuBois' work for a general study of black religion decades ago, but black religious studies has been slow to embrace this reformulation. Those familiar with Long's work will notice his influence on my theoretical sensibilities. See his Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the Interpretation of Religion (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986).
4. In his introduction to The Library of America edition of Souls of Black Folk, John Edgar Wideman says the following concerning DuBois' use of spirituals: "…the phrases from slave songs that precede each section of Souls seem to be a relatively conventional means of providing structural coherence and unity. But consider these framing devices in terms of the continuing historic struggle for black voices to make themselves heard in the white literary tradition." (xiv)
5. My comments on music presented here are drawn from a larger discussion: Anthony B. Pinn, "Making a World with a Beat: Musical Expression's Reliationship to Religious Identity and Experience," in Anthony B. Pinn, editor, Can I Get a Witness?: Essays on Rap Music's Religious Sensibilities and Spiritual Commitments (New York: New York University Press, forthcoming).
6. James H. Cone, Spirituals and the Blues (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000), 114.
7. DuBois, "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," Souls, 12.
8. DuBois, "Of the Faith of the Fathers," Souls, 137.
9.DuBois, "Of the Faith of the Fathers," Souls, 142.
10. Charles Long, Significations, 164-167.
11. DuBois, "The Forethought," Souls, 3.
12. I develop this understanding of religion in Terror and Triumph: The Nature of Black Religion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003).