Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith (George Gund Foundation Book in African American Studies) [Paperback]

Marla F. Frederick (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520233948 | ISBN-13: 978-0520233942 | Publication Date: November 20, 2003 | Edition: 1

To be a black woman of faith in the American South is to understand and experience spirituality in a particular way. How this understanding expresses itself in everyday practices of faith is the subject of Between Sundays, an innovative work that takes readers beyond common misconceptions and narrow assumptions about black religion and into the actual complexities of African American women's spiritual lives.
Gracefully combining narrative, interviews, and analysis, this book explores the personal, political, and spiritual commitments of a group of Baptist women whose experiences have been informed by the realities of life in a rural, southern community. In these lives, "spirituality" emerges as a space for creative agency, of vital importance to the ways in which these women interpret, inform, and reshape their social conditions--conditions often characterized by limited access to job opportunities, health care, and equitable schooling. In the words of these women, and in Marla F. Frederick's deft analysis, we see how spirituality--expressed as gratitude, empathy, or righteous discontent--operates as a transformative power in women's interactions with others, and in their own more intimate renegotiations of self.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"A wonderful ethnographic study of the role of religion in a southern rural community. Through a complex and fascinating array of African American women's voices, Marla Frederick speaks to the power of religious consciousness for social change today."--Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Professor of History and Afro-American Studies, Harvard University

"Every once in a great while, a work that is remarkable, original, and truly distinguished rises to the top of the pile of books glutting American bookstores-and this is that one. Between Sundays may just reshape the entire field, obliging scholars and educated readers to consider African American religion and gender in a new, fantastic light."--R. Marie Griffith, Princeton University, author of God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission

"Frederick has made an extremely significant contribution to the literature of African American women's religious histories and experience. A powerful and engaging portrait of a fascinating group of black Southern women. "--Judith Weisenfeld, Associate Professor of Religion, Vassar College, and author of African American Women and Christian Activism

About the Author

Marla F. Frederick is Assistant Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Harvard University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 275 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (November 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520233948
• ISBN-13: 978-0520233942
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Anthropology, November 10, 2003

By 

Brian M. Howell (Wheaton, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith (George Gund Foundation Book in African American Studies) (Paperback)

I had a chance to read an early copy of this book. (Full disclosure: I know Dr. Frederick personally.) As an anthropologist of religion, I very much appreciated her careful ethnographic work in understanding the subject of African-American spirituality. As she points out, the Black Church in the U.S. is generally understood in political and institutional terms; individual experiences of faith get elided into the overarching category of "The Black Church." Thus whether people see this church as a good thing (progressive social institution, empowering ideology) or a bad thing (patriarchal institution of control) they do not necessarily see the nuanced understandings that individuals can hold. Frederick's book is a wonderful companion to those focusing on the history of the black church as an institution or political agent by bringing in the ethnographcially rich element of faith, interpretation and agency from the 'ground up.' Her own perspective as an anthropologist trained at Duke, now a faculty member at Harvard, an African-American woman from the South and a practicing Christian provides a richness to her analysis and relationship with her subject that is often absent from these sorts of works. Well written, interesting, and fun to read.