-
Introduction: What Is the Soul of Man?
- University of Georgia Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
1 When the pioneering gospel blues slide guitarist Blind Willie Johnson recorded “What Is the Soul of Man?” for Columbia records in the late 1920s, he challenged listeners to ponder a question central to the religious experience. The Texan used his growling voice to pose religious queries and challenges, as in “John the Revelator”: Who’s that writing? John the Revelator. Who’s that writing? John the Revelator. Who’s that writing? John the Revelator. Hey! Book of the Seventh Seal. Johnson’s evangelical self-examination, “Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” has been covered numerous times since. The gospel blues originating in the interwar years typically expressed optimistic verities about a Jesus who was real. Johnson’s grittier, sometimes apocalyptic songs rarely provide such assurance. “What Is the Soul of Man?” challenges the idea that man is only the physical material of the brain, for the resurrection of Jesus proves that “man is more than his mind.” Beyond that, the soul of man remains a mystery. This book tours some of the answers Protestants in the American South historically have given to the philosophical quandary posed by Blind Willie Johnson. How did southern Protestants, black and white, from the eighteenth century to the civil rights era, grapple A introduction B What Is the Soul of Man? Won’t somebody tell me, answer if you can! Want somebody tell me, what is the soul of a man I’m going to ask the question, answer if you can If anybody here can tell me, what is the soul of a man? I’ve traveled in different countries, I’ve traveled foreign lands I’ve found nobody to tell me, what is the soul of a man 2 Moses, Jesus, and the Trickster with the intractable religious and philosophical questions through religious expression and belief? How did they come to terms with questions about the soul of man? Most particularly, how did they do so through religious institutions, thought, and culture? How did they do so through theology, folklore, music, art, drama, and film? And why did their cultural expressions of religious faith characteristically take on an intensity and vivacity that continues to attract our attention today, giving the South its Bible Belt image? Based on three public lectures given at Mercer University in the fall of 2008, this short book examines Bible stories as they were transmitted in the South alongside historical understandings from Wilbur J. Cash forward, literary evocations of religion in the region (focusing especially on William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, and Edward P. Jones), musical expressions, film, and art. The aim is for a brief, evocative exploration of key expressions of religious culture in the South, one that engages both historical narrative and literary/ artistic/sonic expression. Ultimately, Moses, Jesus, and the Trickster explores further whether “southern evangelicalism” is capacious enough to capture the complex religious life of Christians in the region. When southerners have examined the soul of man, they have come up with a variety of answers belying the simple reliance on evangelical archetypes . In other words, when we move beyond formal theological statements, electoral maps, and data collection, we find a capacious religious experience belying simple stereotypes about southern religion . Answers to Blind Willie Johnson’s question may be gleaned by focusing on some of the central symbolic figures of southern religious history. To understand fully how southern believers have defined the soul of man, we must broaden our field of vision beyond the usual suspects in the study of southern religion. Here we will do so through an examination of four historical literary archetypes: Moses, Jesus, the Trickster, and Absalom. Moses and Jesus are familiar, Absalom and the Trickster less so, yet they too have been formative to creating the southern sacred. Southerners’ answers to questions about the soul of man suggest the power of evangelical Protestantism in [54.205.238.173] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 00:06 GMT) Introduction 3 southern history, as well as the ways in which that power consistently has been challenged and questioned. Skeptics have nibbled around the edges of the evangelical culture that came to cultural dominance after the Civil War. Literary figures, cultural archetypes, and musical explorations have added layers of cultural complexity to what otherwise might be seen as a solid South of evangelicalism. The first chapter surveys the major biblical, literary, and folkloric characters of Moses, Jesus, Absalom, and the Trickster as they have come down through the history of southern religious culture. If...