African American Atheists and Political Liberation: A Study of the Sociocultural Dynamics of Faith

Index

Index Achebe, Chinua: Things Fall Apart, 137 Africa, 9, 111, 134, 137; colonization of, 153n9; exploitation of, 138. See also Congo African Americans, 15, 34, 87, 98, 100, 115, 148; liberation of, 37, misrepresentation of, 86; oppression of, 99, 102; violation of, 84–85, 90. See also African American atheists; atheism; community African American atheists, 1–4, 8, 11; god concept 1–4, 6–8, 11, 14, 16, 128, 139, 142–43; hope, 1–16; identification with Christ, 99–100; liberation , 142–50; touchstone narratives, 117–40; tradition of, 8–9, 11, 15. See also atheism; god concept Africans, 12, 33, 69, 110–12 After Strange Gods (Eliot), 33 Agency, 37, 41, 60, 71; comprehensive, 37; intellectual , 36; personal, 143; political, 143 Agnostics Apology: Poisonous Opinions, in Selected Writings in British Intellectual History, An (Stephen), 152n3 Agnosticism, 152n3, 155n3 Algeria, 19 Alienation, 109, 111–12, 114, 116 Allen, Norm, 5 Althusser, Louis, 9 Anarchy, 55–56 Anthropomorphism, 19 Anti-Christ (Nietzsche), 152n3 Anticonversion narrative, 155n1 Antigone (Sophocles), 103, 113 Antihumanism, 44, 45, 71 Apostasy, 121. See also community Apostle Paul. See Paul (apostle) Aristotle, 22 Arnold, Matthew, 1–2; Dover Beach, 1 Arrogance of Faith (Wood), 6 Art, 59 Asia, 134 Atheism, 2, 6–8, 143–45, 150; communal empowerment , 147, 150; critique of faith, 9, 14, genuine, 49–50, 52, 59–60, 63, 71; liberation, 38, 93,141, 147; melancholy, 2, 151n1; orientation toward knowledge, 3, 6, 13, 30, 37–38, 41, 52, 58–60, 120, 144, 145. See also humanism; knowledge —in works: Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, 3, 20, 38–40; Hughes’s “Father and Son,” 99–100, 102; Hughes’s “Gods,” 97; Hughes’s “Professor,” 100–102; Hughes’s “Trouble with the Angels,” 97–98, 102–9, 115–16; Hughes’s “The Young Glory of Him,” 109; Hurston’s Dust Tracks on a Road, 128, 136; Larsen’s Quicksand, 14, 84, 86, 88, 90–95; Redding’s On Being Negro in America, 18–19, 27, 145–46; Wright’s The Outsider, 3, 8, 13, 43, 49, 51, 59–60, 66, 70–71 “Atheism and Sadism: Nietzsche and Woolf on Post-God Discourse” (Lackey), 155n2 Anticonversion: 155n1. See also conversion; touchstone narratives Atta, Mohammed, 147 Augustine, Saint: City of God, 103 Automony. See agency Baldwin, James, 11, 34, 53, 131, 135, 147; The Fire Next Time, 11, 27, 53, 75, 94 Barnett, Pamela, 86 Baron d’Holbach. See d’Holbach Beauvoir, Simone de, 43 Being and Nothingness (Sartre), 8 Belgium, 111. See also Leopold II Belief, 152n3,155n2. See also faith; god concept; religion 166 / Index Believer. See theism Berman, David: A History of Atheism in Britain: From Hobbes to Russell, 152n5 Bhabha, Homi, 88 Bible. See Holy Bible Big Sea, The (Hughes), 122–23 Black Atheists. See African American atheists Black liberation: antitheology, 142–50; theology, 37. See also atheism; liberation Black Skin, White Masks (Fanon), 37, 153n8, 153n10 Black Theology of Liberation, A (Cone), 148–49 “Black Writing as Immanent Humanism” (Taylor ), 154n11 Bloom, Harold, 73–74; Ruin the Sacred Truths: Poetry and Belief from the Bible to the Present, 154n1 Bluest Eye, The (Morrison), 11 Bourgeois, 60 British colonialism. See colonialism Browning, Robert, 2 Bush, George W. (president), 147 Butler, Judith, 9 By These Hands: A Documentary History of African American Humanism (Pinn), 5 Byatt, A. S., 77; Morpho Eugenia, 77–78, 84 Camus, Albert: The Stranger, 43 Canaan Land (Raboteau), 5 Canaanites. See Holy Bible Capitalism, 7, 44 Carby, Hazel V., 85–87 Carroll, Charles, 28, 34, 36; Negro a Beast, 28–32 Carroll, James: Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History, 154n9 Caruth, Cathy: Trauma: Explorations in Memory, 154n2 Case of Wagner, The (Nietzsche), 10 Catholic Church, 55 Celan, Paul, 153n10 Césaire, Aimé, 7, 43, 131; critique of humanism, 47, 66, 69, 154n7; Discourse on Colonialism, 47; Presence Africaine, 47; views on Hitler, 47–48, 54, 57, 134, 153n10 Chambers, Iain: Culture after Humanism: History, Culture, Subjectivity, 154n12 Christ (Jesus), 7, 30, 57, 99–100, 112, 121–22, 126, 140, 145; golden rule, 22, 23, 120 Christianity, 5, 6, 56, 65, 99, 100, 119–20, 123, 125, 130, 145; American, 6; as a weapon, 137, and Judeo tradition, 12; Leopold II and, 137; Hitler’s allegiance, 47, 54–58; oppression, 5–6; slavery, 5, 119–20; United States, 5–6. See also Christ; Hitler, Adolf; Leopold II City of God (Saint Augustine), 103 Cogito. See Descartes Colonialism: British, 132–33; of Canaanites, 132–33; theological basis...