the elusive dream: the power of race in interracial churches – by korie l. edwards

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trators, gold miners, and missionaries in the nineteenth century, Arosi relationship to their land and ancestors was weakened but not lost. Under the influence of outsiders, Arosi moved from their original places and came into contact with people from other matrilineages. Many became Christian and incorporated Christian ideology into their ways of understanding themselves as Arosi. While the Maasina Rule movement in the Solomon Islands in the mid- twentieth century urged an abandonment of Christianity and a return to tradition (kastom), many Arosi chose another path, which Scott discusses in a final chapter devoted to Arosi ethno-theologies. They denied a “radical difference between Christianity and objectified formula- tions of custom,” and were able to integrate indigenous tradition and Christianity. The Severed Snake is a work of significance for anthropologists, historians of religion, mis- siologists, and students of folklore. Mary N. MacDonald Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY The Americas: USA CREATIVE EXCHANGE: A CONSTRUCTIVE THE- OLOGY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. By Victor Anderson. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008. Pp. xi + 190. Paper, $23.00. The construction of a pragmatic theology of African American religious experience, one not indicative of only resistance and survival but characterized by multiple expe- riences of connectedness, porosity, and irreducibility, serves as the driving force of Anderson’s argument. Such a posture, according to him, requires the utilization of “creative exchange,” a mode of engagement opened to the expansion of specific interpretations via transcendence of difference. Anderson illustrates the applicability of creative exchange in African American religious experience, particularly in the areas of race, source materials, and redemptive suffering. He creatively navigates race beyond rigid dichotomies, yielding it as a relational symbol while acknowledging opaqueness associated with source material, which suggests a move- ment away from usage as a means to promote fixed ideolo- gies. However, his posturing of redemptive suffering as an “ethical” construct rather than a “theological” symbol does not totally eradicate the presence of causality but only places it in an implicit form through the utilization of co-existence. Despite this concern, Anderson’s use of creative exchange to construct a “pragmatic theology of African American reli- gious experience,” a “beloved community” or theological form premised upon a reception of messiness, porosity, and differences as expressed in various types of experiences, makes it a must read for scholars and students interested in religions of the Americas in general and African American religion in particular. Margarita Simon Guillory Rice University POET OF THE LOST CAUSE: A LIFE OF FATHER RYAN. By Donald Robert Beagle and Bryan Albin Giemza. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 2008. Pp. xii + 342. $48.95. Parish priest, poet, southern ideologue, and ardent defender of the Confederate cause, Fr. Abram J. Ryan is one of the most influential personalities in southern history and lore. Best known for his poems “The Conquered Banner” and “The Sword of Robert Lee,” Ryan wrote of the South in sacred terms, embedded in mourning and melancholy verse in which the suffering body of Christ came to symbolize south- ern misery following defeat. The book is a welcome addition to the increasing interest in examining the nexus between religion and the Civil War. Moreover, Fr. Ryan’s life exem- plifies the ability of a religious and cultural outsider who successfully overcame anti-Catholic animosity. Utilizing Ryan’s writings, diocesan archives, and a wide variety of southern print sources, the authors provide students in history, literature, and religious studies a comprehensive account of a complex individual whose influence resonated with a host of later southern writers. Yet, some issues remain unresolved, specifically those involving Ryan’s asso- ciations with Protestant chaplains during war time, the undocumented periods of time in his life, and his alleged relationship with the Ku Klux Klan in its early years. None- theless, this is a superior study that resurrects the leading architect and apologist of the Lost Cause. A. J. Scopino, Jr. Central Connecticut State University THE ELUSIVE DREAM: THE POWER OF RACE IN INTERRACIAL CHURCHES. By Korie L. Edwards. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Pp. vii + 225. $29.95. Martin Luther King’s dream of racial justice and equality is not alive in interracial congregations. Edwards’s case study is a well-organized explanation of the ideological and social dynamics that can sustain white hegemony in interracial congregations. She uses a mix of research methods—participant observation, interviews, and surveying—to demonstrate how issues from worship content and style to congregational agendas, lay leadership posi- tions, and ministerial staff selections ultimately reflect the needs and desires of whites, even when whites do not hold majority membership in the congregation; racists need not be present. Preservation of the interracial component of the congregation leads members to work together, sometimes unconsciously, to achieve white normative structures rather than to create racial and cultural exchange and power equity—all in the interest of sustaining the congregation. Edwards points out how whites and blacks often acknowl- edge structural hindrances as causative, but mostly address racial differences and conflicts with individual, micro-level recommendations. This is an important work with implica- tions for institutions beyond the local congregation. It pro- vides evaluative measures for churches and other settings Religious Studies Review VOLUME 35 NUMBER 4 DECEMBER 2009 298

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Page 1: The Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches – By Korie L. Edwards

trators, gold miners, and missionaries in the nineteenthcentury, Arosi relationship to their land and ancestors wasweakened but not lost. Under the influence of outsiders,Arosi moved from their original places and came intocontact with people from other matrilineages. Manybecame Christian and incorporated Christian ideology intotheir ways of understanding themselves as Arosi. While theMaasina Rule movement in the Solomon Islands in the mid-twentieth century urged an abandonment of Christianityand a return to tradition (kastom), many Arosi choseanother path, which Scott discusses in a final chapterdevoted to Arosi ethno-theologies. They denied a “radicaldifference between Christianity and objectified formula-tions of custom,” and were able to integrate indigenoustradition and Christianity. The Severed Snake is a work ofsignificance for anthropologists, historians of religion, mis-siologists, and students of folklore.

Mary N. MacDonaldLe Moyne College, Syracuse, NY

The Americas: USACREATIVE EXCHANGE: A CONSTRUCTIVE THE-OLOGY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGIOUSEXPERIENCE. By Victor Anderson. Minneapolis, MN:Fortress Press, 2008. Pp. xi + 190. Paper, $23.00.

The construction of a pragmatic theology of AfricanAmerican religious experience, one not indicative of onlyresistance and survival but characterized by multiple expe-riences of connectedness, porosity, and irreducibility, servesas the driving force of Anderson’s argument. Such a posture,according to him, requires the utilization of “creativeexchange,” a mode of engagement opened to the expansionof specific interpretations via transcendence of difference.Anderson illustrates the applicability of creative exchangein African American religious experience, particularly in theareas of race, source materials, and redemptive suffering. Hecreatively navigates race beyond rigid dichotomies, yieldingit as a relational symbol while acknowledging opaquenessassociated with source material, which suggests a move-ment away from usage as a means to promote fixed ideolo-gies. However, his posturing of redemptive suffering as an“ethical” construct rather than a “theological” symbol doesnot totally eradicate the presence of causality but only placesit in an implicit form through the utilization of co-existence.Despite this concern, Anderson’s use of creative exchange toconstruct a “pragmatic theology of African American reli-gious experience,” a “beloved community” or theologicalform premised upon a reception of messiness, porosity, anddifferences as expressed in various types of experiences,makes it a must read for scholars and students interested inreligions of the Americas in general and African Americanreligion in particular.

Margarita Simon GuilloryRice University

POET OF THE LOST CAUSE: A LIFE OF FATHERRYAN. By Donald Robert Beagle and Bryan Albin Giemza.Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 2008.Pp. xii + 342. $48.95.

Parish priest, poet, southern ideologue, and ardentdefender of the Confederate cause, Fr. Abram J. Ryan is oneof the most influential personalities in southern history andlore. Best known for his poems “The Conquered Banner” and“The Sword of Robert Lee,” Ryan wrote of the South in sacredterms, embedded in mourning and melancholy verse inwhich the suffering body of Christ came to symbolize south-ern misery following defeat. The book is a welcome additionto the increasing interest in examining the nexus betweenreligion and the Civil War. Moreover, Fr. Ryan’s life exem-plifies the ability of a religious and cultural outsider whosuccessfully overcame anti-Catholic animosity. UtilizingRyan’s writings, diocesan archives, and a wide variety ofsouthern print sources, the authors provide students inhistory, literature, and religious studies a comprehensiveaccount of a complex individual whose influence resonatedwith a host of later southern writers. Yet, some issuesremain unresolved, specifically those involving Ryan’s asso-ciations with Protestant chaplains during war time, theundocumented periods of time in his life, and his allegedrelationship with the Ku Klux Klan in its early years. None-theless, this is a superior study that resurrects the leadingarchitect and apologist of the Lost Cause.

A. J. Scopino, Jr.Central Connecticut State University

THE ELUSIVE DREAM: THE POWER OF RACE ININTERRACIAL CHURCHES. By Korie L. Edwards.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Pp. vii + 225.$29.95.

Martin Luther King’s dream of racial justice andequality is not alive in interracial congregations. Edwards’scase study is a well-organized explanation of the ideologicaland social dynamics that can sustain white hegemony ininterracial congregations. She uses a mix of researchmethods—participant observation, interviews, andsurveying—to demonstrate how issues from worship contentand style to congregational agendas, lay leadership posi-tions, and ministerial staff selections ultimately reflect theneeds and desires of whites, even when whites do not holdmajority membership in the congregation; racists need notbe present. Preservation of the interracial component of thecongregation leads members to work together, sometimesunconsciously, to achieve white normative structures ratherthan to create racial and cultural exchange and powerequity—all in the interest of sustaining the congregation.Edwards points out how whites and blacks often acknowl-edge structural hindrances as causative, but mostly addressracial differences and conflicts with individual, micro-levelrecommendations. This is an important work with implica-tions for institutions beyond the local congregation. It pro-vides evaluative measures for churches and other settings

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where hegemony, of any kind, thwarts transformativechange—where creating King’s “beloved community”remains an elusive dream.

Terri LawsRice University

ON ZION’S MOUNT: MORMONS, INDIANS, ANDTHE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE. By Jared Farmer.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008. Pp. 455,illustrations, maps. $29.95.

A focused study about landscape and landmarks in Utahthat offers broader contributions than its singular subjectsuggests. Farmer provides an excellent work on the geogra-phy of religion. Although the narrative relates how Mormonsrecreated the Utah Valley, marginalized Native Americans,and remembered a false past, Farmer also tells a story of howcolonization, religion, politics, and geography interacted tocreate a vision of what it meant to be “American.” AsMormons destroyed Utah Lake, reimagined the Utah Valleyas a desert, and reconstructed legends of who the “Indians”were that lived in the area before them, memory and imagi-nation intertwined with cultural mythos to move the focusfrom the lake to the mountains as Mormons fabricated a pastto support financial and other interests. Farmer’s book is agood reminder of how conceptual geography always overlaysphysical geography, especially in the context of religion. Heperhaps could have made even more out of how Mormonmythmaking was a part of how they both conceived of them-selves and the land they inhabited, but his mining of archivalmaterial and his interweaving of factual detail, physicaldetail, and narrative make this an important work. It is atremendous source not only for those interested in Mormonor Native American studies, but for those interested inAmerican history (religious or not) as well.

Todd M. BrennemanFlorida State University

FRANCIS SCHAEFFER AND THE SHAPING OFEVANGELICAL AMERICA. By Barry Hankins. Libraryof Religious Biography. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008.Pp. xv + 239, $20.00.

This biographical study follows closely Hankins’sFrancis Schaeffer: Cultural Apologist, Evangelical Prophet(Presbyterian & Reformed, 2007), and complements ColinDuriez’s Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life (Crossway,2008). The former German American fundamentalist subse-quently influenced by European evangelicalism becomesa stalwart “prophet of culture,” Bible defender, Christianapologist, founder of L’Abri, lecturer, author, filmmaker, andChristian Right activist for evangelical Christianity inAmerica. Hankins credits Schaeffer with being “probably thesingle greatest intellectual influence on young evangelicalsof the 1960s and 1970s,” leaving a threefold legacy ofdefending biblical Christianity, engaging culture, and prac-ticing Christian activism. This study carefully analyzesSchaeffer’s writings to show how Schaeffer develops his pre-

suppositions for affirming a “Christian worldview” againstthe currents of his milieu. Schaeffer’s view of the develop-ment of western intellectual thought and social cultureagainst what he perceives as fundamental to the Christianworldview is presented as a notable example of a Christianengagement with culture. Issues discussed include ecology,aesthetics, race, economics, wealth accumulation, politicsand civil disobedience, abortion, human activism, religiousexperience, and the ground of faith in different intellectualeras. While analysts are generally critical of Schaeffer’sbroad and sweeping appropriation of data, Hankins arguesthat Schaeffer’s “big picture” critique of the intellectual,social, and political trends is instructive in calling Christians“to think in Christian ways about all of life and culture.”

Timothy Lim T. N.Regent University School of Divinity

SEARCHING FOR SACRED GROUND: THEJOURNEY OF CHIEF LAWRENCE HART. By RayleneHinz-Penner. Telford, PA: Cascadia Publishing House, 2007.Pp. 205. $19.95.

Hinz-Penner’s book Searching for Sacred Ground createsa portrait of Chief Hart that is neither overly romantic norexcessively critical. Instead, we are left with a meaningful lifestory that serves as a source of raw data and creative bio-graphical technique. The book, which records the stories andlife of Chief Hart, Cheyenne and a Mennonite, as well as thehistory of Mennonite missions to the Cheyenne, is wellwritten but informative rather than analytical or theoreticalin nature. I do not believe, however, that these were the goalsof the book, and therefore cannot be considered shortcom-ings. The strength of Hinz-Penner’s book is her topical format,which consistently ties seemingly disparate subjects andstories back into the personal narrative of Chief Hart. By theend of the book, I felt like I knew the man personally, as I wasso familiar with his life, and the lives of those who influencedhim directly and indirectly. This is a welcome change from astrictly chronological biographical format, and is much moreconsistent with a Native American worldview. My one wishfor this book would be an even deeper glimpse into theinternal negotiations Chief Hart made between his Cheyenneand his Mennonite beliefs. A more thorough investigationinto why he feels obligated to avoid participating fully in someCheyenne ceremonies, and how he incorporates his Chey-enne traditions into his Mennonite faith could make this bookan excellent contribution to academic literature.

Shelly NixonUniversity of Ottowa

AMERICAN CHRISTIANS AND ISLAM: EVANGELI-CAL CULTURE AND MUSLIMS FROM THE COLO-NIAL PERIOD TO THE AGE OF TERRORISM. ByThomas S. Kidd. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,2009. Pp. xi + 201. $29.95.

Drawing from a wide range of primary sources—mostnotably, works of popular eschatology and missionary

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writings—Kidd examines American evangelicals’ percep-tions of Islam. He begins with their historical roots, docu-menting how American Christians tended to think aboutIslam in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Readersmay be surprised by the plethora of references to Islam Kiddfinds in the writings of colonial and early national America.Kidd then turns to American evangelicals in the twentiethcentury, arguing that dispensational eschatology and mis-sionary work have shaped their perceptions of Islam inimportant, and often conflicting, ways. The prophesiedreturn of the Jews to Palestine played a central role in dis-pensational eschatology, leading many twentieth-centuryevangelicals to believe the state of Israel divinely willed. YetKidd finds that Muslims remained largely absent from evan-gelical eschatological writings well into the 1960s. He showsthat political developments—among them, the OPEC oilembargo and the rise of Islamicism in the 1970s—prompted anew wave of popular eschatology, which increasingly por-trayed Muslims as prophesied enemies of the last days. Theattacks of September 11 greatly intensified this trend. Kiddalso finds critics of these eschatological narratives amongthe evangelical ranks. They feature most prominently in hisaccount of evangelical missions to Muslims. Kidd shows thatmany evangelical missionaries have found their eschatologya hindrance to evangelism, leading some to question itsplace in the gospel. Kidd’s work is essential reading foranyone interested in evangelical Christianity or Christian/Muslim relations in America.

James BroucekFlorida State University

GOD AND RACE IN AMERICAN POLITICS: ASHORT HISTORY. By Mark A. Noll. Princeton, NJ: Princ-eton University Press, 2008. Pp. xii + 209. $22.95.

The doyen of American religious history has done itagain, this time providing a panoramic overview of the storyof race in American politics via a masterful interweaving ofprimary and secondary sources. The five chapters begin withthe abolition movement that culminated in the civil war,then proceeds to discuss the Postbellum origins of African-American religious agency, the counter-movement to“redeem” the south by restoring white power, the civil rightsmovement of the 1960s, and the after-effects of that move-ment in the last generation, and concludes with a modesttheological reflection. Some might think that Noll attemptsto argue too much in terms of the thesis that race has beenone of the major factors in the last almost 200 years ofAmerican politics, and that linking almost every majorpolitical issue and event to race makes more of race than canbe plausibly believed. On the other hand, part of the mostinsightful portions of the book reveal how the restoration ofwhite power to the Confederate states—which took backalmost all that was gained during the Great War—rode handin hand with the retrenchment of “big” government duringthe era of reconstruction and how only the “big” governmentof the New Deal period and its aftermath was finally able to

realize the promise of the Civil War in terms of securing thecivil rights of the African American citizens of the nation.One wonders, what will come next from the prolific keyboardof Mark Noll?

Amos YongRegent University School of Divinity

South AsiaMAKE ME A MAN! MASCULINITY, HINDUISM,AND NATIONALISM IN INDIA. By Sikata Banerjee.Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. Pp. 181.Hardcover, $71.00; paper, $23.95.

In tracing the historical development of a masculineHindu identity, Banerjee analyzes the images of the idealHindu woman the nationalist discourse projects and thelimited roles those images open up. Banerjee’s openingchapter examines the British imperial portrait of Christianmanliness as the dialectical counterpoint to emergent Hindunationalism as it sought to shape a masculine Hinduism thatcould not only effectively resist the British, whose martialprowess it admired, but also confront the internal MuslimOther, which it saw as a persistent threat and contaminant tothe Hindu nation. Subsequent chapters trace the articulationof Hindutva’s two ideal bearers of a masculine Hindu iden-tity: the Hindu soldier and the warrior monk. Banerjeefeatures the leaders and organizations one would expect(Vivekananda and Savarkar; the RSS, VHP, and BJP), but heranalysis is important for the ways it examines the contribu-tion Hindu women have made to this ideological constructand the roles it makes available to them. From SisterNivedita to the leadership of contemporary women’s affili-ates of major Hindutva organizations (such as the RSS’sRashtriya Sevika Samiti), Banerjee’s sources demonstratethat Hindu nationalism has always welcomed female activ-ism, but that the cost of the meaning and comfort of belong-ing that such activism provides is significant: the acceptanceof a severely circumscribed range of models for the Indianwoman (heroic mother, chaste wife, celibate warrior) and theviolence against the enemy Other and the Indian womanherself that these models imply. Much of the source materialand historical analysis have appeared elsewhere, but Baner-jee also includes data from fieldwork interviews that offer acontemporary human angle, and in any event, this is a verygood primer.

Brian K. PenningtonMaryville College

AGHOR MEDICINE: POLLUTION, DEATH, ANDHEALING IN NORTHERN INDIA. By Ron Barrett. Fore-word by Jonathan Parry. Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 2008. Pp. xxii + 216. Cloth, $40.15; paper, $21.95.

Having long captivated observers because of allegedantinomian practices, such as meditating on corpses and

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