Reclaiming Spirit in the Black Faith Tradition

Reclaiming Spirit in the Black Faith Tradition provides an interdisciplinary interpretation of the function of African American Christianity. In this study, Derek Hicks emphasizes everyday religious practices that engage culture in an effort to reclaim the human spirit fractured by physical, political, spiritual, and social degradation. Arguing for an intentional faith that seeks to recalibrate wounded humanity, the concept of curative recalibration sits at the heart of this active spirituality and informs black biblical interpretation. Giving attention to black faith as articulated during antebellum period America, Hicks asserts that restorative sensibilities—expressed in moral politics, protest documents, material culture, music, literature, and even aesthetic presentation—disclose a 'reclaiming spirit' that permeates all of black religious life and thought.