The Golden Band
African American Spirituals and the Hermeneutics of World
- Theology
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Published: 2025
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Publisher's Description
An innovative reading of the Spirituals that synthesizes African American public and religious thought with musical aesthetics In The Golden Band: African American Spirituals and the Hermeneutics of World, author Asante Todd synthesizes African American public thought, religious thought, and musical aesthetics. Drawing on these rich resources, he develops an original theomusicology grounded in antebellum Spirituals. Through detailed analysis of the Spirituals’ musical and compositional features, he shows how they critique the cultural logic of sovereignty and open up possibilities for other ways of thinking and being in the world. Innovative and insightful, The Golden Band is a remarkable contribution to African American public theology.
Endorsements (2)
“This captivating study of the Spirituals enables Asante Todd to offer brilliant interpretations of Black religion and public theology in America. Todd deploys theology, theomusicology, ethics, and history to innovatively reposition, repurpose, and renew African American studies. This is an important book in religious thought and practice, bearing witness to new insights on the cultural logic of sovereignty and presenting a sophisticated perspective on political theory that social ethicists cannot afford to ignore.”
“In The Golden Band, Asante Todd has accomplished a remarkable feat: a fresh, multilayered theological treatment of the Spirituals, attentive to their logic of sovereignty that other interpretations have underemphasized. Splendidly researched, the book engages a wide range of conversation partners: Western political ethics, African traditional religions, Black and Womanist theology, contemporary political theology, and the Spirituals themselves. The result is the emergence of a perceptive new voice in theology and ethics as a whole.”
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