"Take Back What the Devil Stole examines the lived religion of an extraordinary African American woman (Ms. Donna Haskins) as she struggles to survive the streets of inner-city Boston through the use of astral flight, telepathy, speaking in tongues, fasting, and spirit possession. Drawing from a mixture of Christian and Afro-Caribbean indigenous sources, Donna transforms her one-bedroom apartment and Boston's violent street corners into portals to other dimensions of reality, which she believes exist outside the bounds of wealthy white male power structures and established religious institutions. While historians of religion have often dismissed such paranormal phenomena as astral flying and telepathy as insignificant for the study of religion, Woodbine argues that these phenomena are essential to understanding religion, especially as it is lived among marginalized communities of African descent. In particular, practitioners of African and Afro-Caribbean indigenous traditions often find no contradiction between their Christian beliefs and the manipulation of energy and spirits that often exists in African-based spiritual practices. In order to fully understand Donna's lived religion and the spiritual lives of many black women in the United States, exploring these overlooked paranormal phenomena is both essential and a novel contribution to religious studies. To that end, the book combines ethnography, social science, theology, and personal narrative in order to capture the "felt sense" of Donna's lived religion in a compelling way that will enable readers to understand how women, particularly black women, live their faith in ways that upend the racist and sexist narratives and institutions of the dominant culture"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.