Christopher Freeburg, "Soul: A Brief History of Black Cultural Life" (Yale UP, 2026)

Christopher Freeburg, "Soul: A Brief History of Black Cultural Life" (Yale UP, 2026)

Author: New Books Network September 11, 2026 Duration: 48:31
Today’s guest, Christopher Freeburg, is the author of Soul: A Brief History of Black Cultural Life (Yale University Press, 2026). This book explores the US history of black cultural life as a history of soul – a spiritual lived practice rooted in communally fostered music, religion, and politics. It makes the case that soul is forged through black community connections and that it’s sustained by moral principles, or pillars, which define how it is lived. The book’s four chapters are organized around four of these pillars: resonance, revelation, resilience, and transcendence. A number of black individuals are foregrounded in these discussions: they include Phillis Wheatley, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nina Simone, Jewel Thais-Williams, Barack Obama, and others. By telling their stories, and by honoring the weight of the trauma and violence that has long befallen the black community, Christopher Freeburg’s Soul invites its readers to commune with the soul power of people who brought about transformation in the face of seeming impossibility. Jane Hwang Degenhardt is Professor English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of Globalizing Fortune on the Early Modern Stage (Oxford UP, 2022) and Islamic Conversion and Christian Resistance on the Early Modern Stage (Edinburgh UP, 2012). She is also a co-editor of the academic journal English Literary Renaissance. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

For anyone curious about the ideas shaping contemporary faith and practice, New Books in Religion offers a direct line to the scholars doing the work. This podcast, part of the wider New Books Network, functions as an ongoing, accessible seminar where authors detail their latest publications in conversation with informed peers. Each episode delves into a specific text, moving beyond summary to explore the author's motivations, research challenges, and the broader implications of their findings for understanding spirituality, ritual, history, and belief. The discussions are substantive yet approachable, designed to illuminate complex topics without sacrificing depth. You'll encounter a diverse range of subjects, from historical analyses of ancient traditions to contemporary explorations of ethics, mysticism, and social justice within various religious contexts. It's an opportunity to eavesdrop on genuine academic exchange, discovering new authors and pressing questions at the intersection of faith and scholarship. The entire New Books Network library, with its impressive collection of interviews across more than one hundred fifty channels, supports this mission of public education. By focusing on the nuanced conversations behind each new book, this channel provides listeners with a rich, intellectual resource for engaging with the dynamic field of religious studies. Tune in to hear the thinkers defining the current discourse explain their work in their own words.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

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