Faithful Vision: Treatments of the Sacred, Spiritual, and Supernatural in Twentieth-century African American Fiction

How religious faith as portrayed in black novels underscores its importance in African American culture In Faithful Vision, James W. Coleman places under his critical lens a wide array of African American novels written during the last half of the twentieth century. In doing so, he demonstrates that religious vision not only informs black literature but also serves as a foundation for black culture generally. The Judeo-Christian tradition, according to Coleman, is the primary component of the African American spiritual perspective, though its syncretism with voodoo/hoodoo - a religion transported from West Africa through the West Indies and New Orleans to the rest of black America - also figures largely.