Honoring the ancestors
Subtitle: an African cultural interpretation of Black religion and literature
By: Donald H. Matthews.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 171
Subjects: Black theology; African Americans -- Religion; Spirituals (Songs) -- History and criticism
Description: Donald Matthews affirms once and for all the African foundation of African-American religious practice.

Because the Negro spiritual is the earliest extant body of African-American folk religious narration, Matthews believes that it holds the key to understanding African-American religion. He explores the works of such seminal black scholars as W. E. B. DuBois, Melville Herskovits, and Zora Neale Hurston, tracing the early development of the African-centered approach to the interpretation of African-American religion.

This book poses a challenge to end the battle between Afrocentrists and multiculturalists by acknowledging their common intellectual heritage in the works of DuBois, Herskovits, and Hurston. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of African-American religion and culture and those interested in Afrocentric literature.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-167) and index.
Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Chicago.