Religion and Black Racial Identity in Du Bois’s Sociology

Abstract

This article focuses on W.E.B. Du Bois’s ambivalent reception of Protestantism, and of religion in general. It argues that he rejected institutional Protestantism as characterized by cold formalism, but thought that the teaching and practices of this religion as taking place the Negro Churches were still relevant to most American Blacks. As pointed out by some secondary literature, Du Bois maintained that religious institutions gave comfort, social cohesion and a collective identity of their own to Blacks, who were an oppressed minority; however, only the Blacks’ racial consciousness could improve their social and political position. Institutional religion was then an important identity source for Blacks in general. It was not, however, for Du Bois himself. Du Bois had experienced racial discrimination and abuse based on the color line, and had therefore formed his social identity as a member of the Black race in the United States. This identity was the most salient to him and elicited his greatest commitment.

The Sociological Spirituality of W. E. B. Du Bois's Prayers for Dark People

“…Overall, Du Bois experienced “a lover's quarrel with the black church” (Dorrien 2015:22) and an uneasy entanglement with religion. Suffering from “divine discontent with the imperfect” (Du Bois 1982:9; Kahn 2009:4–5), Du Bois wrestled with the “terrible, frightening beauty” of religion (Griffin 2003:xxiii) against the backdrop of racialist depictions of faith traditions during Black American migration and urbanization (Blum 2007; Evans, 2007, 2008; Johnson 2012; Kahn 2009; Segre 2021; Wortham 2009).…”

“…Given this ambivalence, debate about Du Bois's personal beliefs on religion and science now flourish (e.g., Blum 2007; Hughey 2022; Johnson 2012; Kahn 2009; Pinn 2014; Segre 2021; Sinitiere 2021; Stewart 2020; Tuck 2020; Williams 2012; Wortham 2009). Scholars’ attempts to unravel this knotted dilemma focus on Du Bois's evaluations of, and lived experiences with, an array of religious traditions: from the African Methodist Episcopal church and Hinduism to Islam and the Bahá’í Faith (Buck 2012; Goyal 2019; Lahiri 2010; Mount 2013; Mullen and Watson 2005).…”

“…Social scientific research, particularly within the “sociology of religion,” has just begun to explore Du Bois's spirituality (e.g., Barnes 2014; Maryl 2022; Segre 2021; Stallworth 2019; Stewart 2020), much less reconnoiter its intersection with Du Bois's scientism. Prayers stands as a crucial text ripe for exegesis of Du Bois's “sociological spirituality.” Following theologian Thurman's claim that the African American prayer tradition is a “restless yearning for answers to the larger question of meaning , the why of the black experience” (1961:13), Du Bois's Prayers provides answers to the sociological problem of action and order (i.e., what motivates and sustains social behavior) through a merger of sociological empiricism and theorization with moral realism (morality as independent of social beliefs about it); stoicism (the practice and increase of virtuous behavior and capacity as humanity's purpose); hypostasis (humanity as intrinsically sacred or divine); and metaphysics (the existence of otherworldly realities or dimensions).…”

“…Nearly three decades after its publication, Prayers received cursory mention in a handful of other texts. (Hughey 2022:648) Social scientific research, particularly within the "sociology of religion," has just begun to explore Du Bois's spirituality (e.g., Barnes 2014;Maryl 2022;Segre 2021;Stallworth 2019;3 By "spirituality" I draw from its origin in the "Pauline neologism 'spiritual' (pneu-matikos), the adjectival form derived from the Greek word for the Holy Spirit of God (pneuma)" (Schneiders 1989:680-81) to describe beliefs in, and appeals to, morality, virtues, divinity, and otherworldly realities as autonomous of social life and as existent beyond the material or accidental. This is meant neither as the phenomenological "interior life" of the individual nor an abstract opposition to ecclesiastical jurisdiction.…”

“…The original "Souls" essay was composed over April and May of 1910(cf. Hughey, 2020, 2021)-the same period in which Du Bois finished writing Prayers (Du Bois 1980:v). This temporal overlap suggests Du Bois's concentration on the interplay of the sociology of knowledge and metaphysics that come to bear on understanding the color-line.…”