Karenga Chapter 5

Religion of Black people in U.S. mostly

Judeo-Christian

tendency to see Black religion

"white religion in blackface"

General African religion themes

-belief in one supreme god

-god is transcendant

-ancestor veneration

-balance bewteen one's identity and responsibility as a member of society

-respect for nature

Most complex and impressive African religion

Dogon (Mali)

Amma

image of an egg which represented fertility and unlimited creative possibility

nommo

the creative word

Maat

rightness in the Divine, natural, and social realms

Seven Cardinal Virtues

-truth

-justice

-propriety

-harmony

-balance

-reciprocity

-order

sacred text of Maat

the Husia

sacred text of Ifa

Odu Ifa

Black Church began as

-sanctuary

-agency of reconstruction

-economic cooperation

-public and internal educational projects

James Cone

father of black theology

Albert Cleage

"God is black and so is Jesus"

Jacquelyn Grant

-concerned with self naming

-gender-free Jesus

Katie Cannon

Focuses on women being included in the Kingdom of God, says Christology only deems white men to be important enough to enter, when in reality everyone should be able to.

Five Pillars of Islam

-shahada

-salah

-sawn

-zakat

-hajj

Nation of Islam

began in 1930

Debra Majeed

concerned with self-definition and self-assertion

Amina Wadud

promoting principles of equality for women under principles of Islam

jihad

exertion in the path of God

What caused tension between Malcolm X and NOI

NOI was nonviolent, but he had a more active self-defense agenda

Black sociology

The critical study of the structure and functioning of the Black community as a whole, as well as the various units and processes which compose and define it

Black Sociology aims

-rescue black life from racist interpretations

-create new concepts to enhance understanding of black reality and US society

-make critical analysis of structure of US society in terms of race, class, gender