Search the full text of our books

Join Our Mailing List

Sign up and we'll keep you informed about new Press titles.

The American Literatures Initiative
The Clay Sanskrit Library
The Collected Works of Walt Whitman
NYU Press
838 Broadway, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10003
1-800-996-6987
Tel: 212-998-2575
Fax: 212-995-3833
African Immigrant Religions in America $23.00

Edited by Jacob Olupona and Regina Gemignani
ISBN 0814762123
368 pages
Paperback

Release Date: 2007/5/1

Also available in Cloth

A masterful study of the role African immigrants play in shaping religion in the United States and Canada. This significant publication should be required reading for all those interested in understanding the links between ethnicity, transnationalism, and religion.
—Tite Tienou, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois

A much needed scholarly study of first–generation African immigrants who have come voluntarily to America for the first time. In their search for better opportunities they have brought with them a wide diversity of religious and moral traditions as their legacy to the cultural life of this nation. This book will be a necessary resource for all who study contemporary religions in America.
—Peter J. Paris, Princeton Theological Seminary

An excellent collection of essays. . . . Highly recommended.—Choice

African immigration to North America has been rapidly increasing. Yet, little has been written about this significant group of immigrants and the particular religious traditions that they are transplanting on our shores, as scholars continue largely to focus instead on immigrants from Europe and Asia.

African Immigrant Religions in America focuses on new understandings and insights concerning the presence and relevance of African immigrant religious communities in the United States. It explores the profound significance of religion in the lives of immigrants and the relevance of these growing communities for U.S. social life. It describes key social and historical aspects of African immigrant religion in the U.S. and builds a conceptual framework for theory and analysis.

The volume broadens our understandings of the ways in which new immigration is changing the face of Christianity in the U.S. and adds needed breadth to the study of the black church, incorporating the experiences of African immigrant religious communities in America.


Jacob K. Olupona is Professor of African and African American studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Professor of African Religious Traditions, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University. His publications include African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society; African Spirituality: Forms, Meanings, and Expressions; and Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religions and Modernity.

Regina Gemignani is a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Davis.