Tag: Religion

Unearthing the Sacred

Unearthing the Sacred

Antonio José Martínez y Miera, Theresa J. Córdova, and Karen R. Roybal, introduced by Annette M. Rodríguez

Padre Luís Jaramillo was a Catholic Diocesan priest who, for over years 60, served numerous communities and was pastor to the Chicano movement in New Mexico as it converged between southern California and Texas. Committed to Chicano self-determination and social justice, Jaramillo was a member of the Black Berets and a founding member of La Academia de La Nueva Raza (1968-1978), a group of scholars, community members, and activists who developed an educational model that responded to the needs of Chicana/o communities through Chicana/o-centered historiography and lived experience. This essay introduces Jaramillo's newly accessioned archive to elucidate how, in the 1970s, he enacted the principles and pedagogy of La Academia through a form of resolana with his parishioners at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Taos, NM, an important place of sanctuary. The digitization of Jaramillo's underscores the significance of recording Indo-Hispano practices of shaping collective memory and knowledge production through lived experience.

A Felt Need

A Felt Need

Jajuan S. Johnson

The photo essay offers a first-hand account of the mysterious burning of Roanoke Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on December 22, 1963, told Mr. Elmer Beard, the church deacon. Chronicling the church's rise from a clandestine gathering before the Civil War to an influential activist institution during the 1960s civil rights movement, Beard offers insight into Roanoke's prophetic mission encompassing a commitment to justice despite reprisals. The essay brings forth the narrative of the Hot Springs NAACP chapter and its leaders, such as Reverend James Donald Rice, the pastor of Roanoke, during the time of the fire. The dynamics of Black placemaking, labor, and kinship are discussed. Beard's story describes the power of Black imagination in the context of a southern Black church. Roanoke's persistent presence is grounded in the audaciousness of formerly enslaved people who dared to create sanctuary affirming their humanity and divinity as well as future generations.

Snapshot: The Revival

Snapshot: The Revival

Rox Campbell
Reckoning with Southern Baptist Histories

Reckoning with Southern Baptist Histories

Alison Collis Greene
Almost Heaven

Almost Heaven

Aaron Blum

The New Vrindaban is a Krishna community in the hills of Appalachia, the vision of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder and spiritual leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The New Vrindaban in West Virginia is the realization of Prabhupada's dream to establish a holy pilgrimage site in North America. It was conceived to echo Vrindavan, India, which is where, according to many Hindu religions, Krishna took human form. The devotees of the Krishna faith understand it to be the equivalent of Heaven on Earth.

Where Everything New Is Old Again: Southern Gospel Singing Schools

Where Everything New Is Old Again: Southern Gospel Singing Schools

Brooks Blevins
Southern Baptists Observed: Multiple Perspectives on a Changing Denomination (Review)

Southern Baptists Observed: Multiple Perspectives on a Changing Denomination (Review)

Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp
Superstar Reverend J. M. Gates and Working Class Black Uplift

Superstar Reverend J. M. Gates and Working Class Black Uplift

Marko Maunula
“Make Heaven’s Portals Ring”: Shape-Note Singing

“Make Heaven’s Portals Ring”: Shape-Note Singing

Gavin James Campbell
Olmsted’s Cracker Preacher

Olmsted’s Cracker Preacher

Eugene D. Genovese
Benjamin Lloyd’s Hymnbook, and: The Pleasant Hill Singers Songs of the Shaker West (Music Review)

Benjamin Lloyd’s Hymnbook, and: The Pleasant Hill Singers Songs of the Shaker West (Music Review)

Gavin James Campbell
The Root of All Evil The Protestant Clergy and the Economic Mind of the Old South by Kenneth Moore Startup (Review)

The Root of All Evil The Protestant Clergy and the Economic Mind of the Old South by Kenneth Moore Startup (Review)

Robert M. Calhoon