Books by Valerie C . Cooper
Word, Like Fire: Maria Stewart, the Bible, and the Rhetoric of African American Rights
Maria Stewart is believed by many to have been the first American woman of any race to give publi... more Maria Stewart is believed by many to have been the first American woman of any race to give public political speeches. In Word, Like Fire, Valerie C. Cooper argues that the religious, political, and social threads of Maria Stewart's thought are tightly interwoven, such that focusing narrowly on any one aspect would be to misunderstand her rhetoric. Cooper demonstrates how a certain kind of biblical interpretation can be a Rosetta Stone for understanding various areas of African American life and thought that still resonate today.
The Test of Power: Racial Reconciliation in the Church
Papers by Valerie C . Cooper
Laying the Foundations for Azusa
Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture, 2011
“African Americans, Religion, and the 2008 Election”
“Between Revelation and Revolution: The Meaning of Scripture for African Americans,”
Valerie C. Cooper, “Archeological Evidence of Religious Syncretism In Thasos, Greece During the Early Christian Period,“
Talks by Valerie C . Cooper
“The People of God and the Spirit of Independence: Maria Stewart’s Theology of Human Rights”
Believed by many to have been the first American woman of any race to have given political speech... more Believed by many to have been the first American woman of any race to have given political speeches to audiences composed of both sexes and to have left copies of her texts to posterity, Maria Stewart was a protégée of the David Walker, author of the radical anti-slavery tract, Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World. Stewart modified Walker’s message slightly and presented it in Boston between 1831-1833 as a series of essays and speeches. Later, her writings were compiled in a book published in 1835, and republished in 1879. Although almost exclusively seen by scholars as a political thinker, Stewart’s work was also deeply theological.
Maria Stewart’s political thought was undergirded by her theology. She argued for the rights of blacks on the basis of a special relationship that she believed existed between God and people of African descent. From her reading of the Bible, Stewart saw independence not simply as a result of the contract between the government and the governed, but rather as a charism, or gift from God. Stewart saw God as the final arbiter of the rights of African Americans. Decades before it began, she predicted the fiery cataclysm that was the Civil War as the inevitable judgment of God upon the US for the sins of slavery. In Stewart’s words, we see precursors of later Black Nationalism and the rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement.
“Thinking about Racial Reconciliation and the Church”
“unReconstructed, unReconciled: Race, Politics, Church and Forgiveness After the Civil
“’Call Me A Child of God’: Spirit and Word in African American Christianity”
“Equality in an Age of Inequality”
Abstract:
In this essay, I will argue for a more expansive definition of piety to include mater... more Abstract:
In this essay, I will argue for a more expansive definition of piety to include material found in the writings of Jarena Lee, David Walker and Frederick Douglass. These nineteenth-century African American thinkers all argued that the way that whites treated blacks was the best evidence of whether or not the whites were truly Christian. In their writing, each examined instances of whites who had passed or failed such “equality tests.” In the context of racial reconciliation, I believe that equality tests still function in much of the black community and especially among Evangelical blacks today. In this essay I will identify equality tests in the writings of Lee, Walker, and Douglass, and argue that these tests constituted an important element of piety for nineteenth-century African American faith communities.
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Books by Valerie C . Cooper
Papers by Valerie C . Cooper
Talks by Valerie C . Cooper
Maria Stewart’s political thought was undergirded by her theology. She argued for the rights of blacks on the basis of a special relationship that she believed existed between God and people of African descent. From her reading of the Bible, Stewart saw independence not simply as a result of the contract between the government and the governed, but rather as a charism, or gift from God. Stewart saw God as the final arbiter of the rights of African Americans. Decades before it began, she predicted the fiery cataclysm that was the Civil War as the inevitable judgment of God upon the US for the sins of slavery. In Stewart’s words, we see precursors of later Black Nationalism and the rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement.
In this essay, I will argue for a more expansive definition of piety to include material found in the writings of Jarena Lee, David Walker and Frederick Douglass. These nineteenth-century African American thinkers all argued that the way that whites treated blacks was the best evidence of whether or not the whites were truly Christian. In their writing, each examined instances of whites who had passed or failed such “equality tests.” In the context of racial reconciliation, I believe that equality tests still function in much of the black community and especially among Evangelical blacks today. In this essay I will identify equality tests in the writings of Lee, Walker, and Douglass, and argue that these tests constituted an important element of piety for nineteenth-century African American faith communities.