The Historical Contours of African American Humanist Principles: Part One

Abstract

While many argue that the United States of America is founded upon overtly religious ideals and desires, a legacy of theological and religious contradiction, combined with frustrated movements toward democracy in the face of modernity, made the United States ripe for humanist’ s possibilities. From the Pilgrims onward the common nation-story revolved around religious freedom and the creation of a “new promised land.” There may be some truth to this, but it is the case that less than thirty percent of the colonists who populated this land in its early years were actively involved in organized religion. The land fostered individualism and frontier life, and this made it difficult to provide sufficient missionaries to spread the gospel.“Spiritual” concerns, when present, took a back seat to economic challenges fostered by an unfamiliar and unforgiving terrain.

This essay reframes arguments found in: Anthony B. Pinn, “Anybody There?: Reflections on African American Humanism,” Religious Humanism, Volume XXXI, Nos. 3 and 4 (Summer/Fall: 1997): 61–78 and “Introduction,” By These Hands: A Documentary History of African American Humanism (New York: New York University Press, 2001). It draws more heavily from Anthony B. Pinn, Varieties of African American Religious Experience (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 157–167.