New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity During the Great Migration by Dr. Judith Weisenfeld

Introduction

The book has been authored by Dr. Judith Weisenfeld. It is made up of three parts with a total of seven chapters. The book has addressed the issue of racial discrimination in religion. The author has used the story of a man by the name Alec Brown to communicate on problems faced by black people in society. It is worth noting that racial discrimination in the United States of America has been a problem for a relatively long period. The government form that Brown Bey showed that he was a negro and there was a fight within himself of the want of the structure representing his prior religion of a Muslim. Bey was very committed to his faith. The book has succeeded in presenting the various issues that religious people faced during the early time in America.

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Chapter 1: Geographies of Race and Religion

This specific chapter shows how the immigrants were carrying out their religious activities. The section discloses how the black Harmeites were being persuaded that they were Hebrews. The persuasion was being done during spiritual study sessions. It is in this chapter, the geographies are explained. Ethiopia, which is an African has been mentioned several time as it had a particular religious import for black Christians (Weisenfeld, 2016). This is the main reason why Ethiopia has been mentioned in the Bible. The chapter has succeeded in affirming that African and black people are Hebrews. The narrative on Ethiopia was a compelling fact that made many to join the various communities in Northern cities those times.

Chapter 2: Sacred time and Divine Histories

The section has much information on the connection of the in between the Ethiopian Hebrew Congregations. Mecca and Arabia have been discussed in details. The power of combined geographic and temporal context for identity formation has been explained. Accounts of a man by the name W.D. Fard characterizes the chapter. The man provided insight that was a source of motivation in preaching his stand out the religio-racial narrative to African that was living in Detroit by then.

Chapter 3: Religio-racial self-fashioning

The section presents a conflict of five members with the city health officials in their attempt to operating a restaurant that was to serve Divinities together with residents. The members of the Ethiopian Hebrews did not embrace changing names to represent their identities, but all other practices were carried in a way that showed they were Ethiopian Hebrews (Weisenfeld, 2016). Also, those who change their names used biblical ones such as Simon Peter, Joshua and many other forms of biblical names.

Chapter 4: Maintaining the Religio-racial body

The episode is mainly focused on efforts that of maintaining the religio-racial body that consisted of Negroes from America and Muslims from Asia. Diet for the divinities has been explained in detail. The overall purpose is to establish a dietary regulation in various religious contexts. It's worth noting that food practices have the capability of producing and enforcing ideas about the relationship that existed among the believers (Weisenfeld, 2016). It is through the food practices that the believers showed their understanding of profaning and sacred traditions. The food practice helped in the establishment of a clean nation.

Chapter 5: Making the Religio-Racial family

The episode touches on the idea that religious commitments have an effect of reshaping the social unit of the family. The relationship between a man and a woman is reconfigured to a great extent (Weisenfeld, 2016). In addition to this, the chapter has also revealed how the religio-racial movements promoted a heterosexual nuclear family as the basic social unit.

Chapter 6: The Religio-Racial politics of space and place

In this chapter, the author of the book tries to show the relationship or the connection that existed in between the religio-racial and politics as well as space. The section has numerous accounts on instances of where the religion conflicted with political figures. The members of faith failed to take part in politics, and they contributed very little in the shaping of the urban to accommodate the religio-racial identity.

Chapter 7: Community., Conflict, and the Boundaries of Black Religion

This is the last chapter of the book, and it has discussed various conflicts and the restrictions that the black faith faced. There is a note that death and political life were the most tragic and dramatic events in the history of competition among religious personalities as well as leaders (Weisenfeld, 2016). There is also an account of conflicts on new prophets as well as the hopeful messiahs. Black journalists and black protestants clergy affected the development of black people. The chapter has also described the religious was that erupted that time as Pentecostal and Holiness churches were becoming popular.

Conclusion

The conclusion of the book is founded on the death of the death certificate of Drew Ali that was filed with the Department of Health of Cook County. The record lacks vital statistics. The conclusion section also has offered an insight into how religio-racial theologies were shaping collective and individual identities while assisting in the building of character as well as practices. The author has also mentioned in the conclusion that the religio-racial movements were profoundly affected by social, political, as well as the religious landscape of how the second world way was like. The book has communicated how the religio- national movements took part in the work of racial construction in early time of America.

References

Weisenfeld, J. (2016). New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration. NYU Press.