The Church of St. Benedict the Moor: Propagating and contesting Black Catholicism in New York City, 1883-1920 | Posted on:2015-01-31 | Degree:M.A | Type:Thesis | University:The Florida State University | Candidate:Wheatley, Jeffrey | Full Text:PDF | GTID:2475390017490568 | Subject:religion | Abstract/Summary: | | This thesis examines the Church of St. Benedict the Moor from 1883 to 1920. St. Benedict's was the first black Catholic church in the North. I argue that supporters of the Catholic mission to African Americans sought to incorporate the assumptions of black religiosity in order to render Catholicism as a legitimately black religion. The institutional history of St. Benedict's demonstrates the difficulties that the Catholic Church faced in attempting to overcome African American suspicion. A key contribution of this thesis is its approach to black Catholicism as a contested and propagated identity. Prompted by St. Benedict's creation in New York, black Catholics, Irish priests, freethinking radicals, and Protestants all participated in a dialogue over the nature and function of black religion vis-a-vis Catholicism. | Keywords/Search Tags: | Black, Church, Catholicism | | Related items |
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