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Abstract

Rev. Edward Wilmot Blyden was born in the Virgin Islands, was ordained a Presbyterian minister, and became a leader in the Pan- Africanism movement. This paper argues that Rev. Blyden is an important figure within contemporary Black Church Studies because of his sui generis posture towards Islam, Pan-Africanism, and Black Nationalism. The felicitous Pan-African accolades attributed to Rev. Blyden by the Black Church are a result of his novel Afro-centric and inclusive interfaith hermeneutical posture and writings from the period of Reconstruction through the Progressive Era. Rev. Blyden’s acceptance of non-Christian faith traditions within a Pan-African context supported and, more importantly, advanced an Afro-centric narrative promulgating non-Christian religions as viable Black religious identity alternatives.

Comments

In 2023, all issues of the Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium became available electronically on this site with the permission of the original publisher, Fortuity Press/Hamilton Publishing. All articles now carry the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives License (CC-BY-NC-ND).

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