Religion and Hip Hop by Monica R. Miller

Author:Monica R. Miller [Miller, Monica R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Rap & Hip Hop, Theology, General, Religion, Music, Genres & Styles
ISBN: 9780415628570
Google: ramK5tnh_fQC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

THE TRACES OF WILLIAM JAMES AND CHARLES H. LONG

In form, Pinn gives articulation to the processes of religion-provoking circumstances by taking historical structures (as impinging) and black subjectivity (as oppressed yet not fully determined) into account. Furthermore, what makes CS give rise to the religious becomes dependent upon an inward turn of the subject—a rationale free of structuring structures grounded in full consciousness of subjects themselves. This inward turn is overtly evident; Pinn writes that CS is characterizable by “a common root impulse—a yearning or feeling for a new and complex subjectivity,”19 turning to psychology of religion by applying James’s work in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (1902) to the idea of conversion. James argues that in and through the mode of conversion the subject is made whole (psychological health). The wholeness of the subject necessitates an existence that Pinn articulates as meaningful, grounded in a consciousness understood to be liberative. Through conversion, black people, according to Pinn, are enabled to practice their subjectivity with increased agency through their own choosing, with the “real self” becoming the “center of consciousness.”20 Although Pinn makes clear that he rejects James’s “preoccupation with individuals and the importance of individuality,” he finds James’s understanding of conversion useful as a means by which to frame the “yearning for complex subjectivity as dominating one’s consciousness and energy.”21 Vis-à-vis James, Pinn articulates the awakening of consciousness through a theory of regeneration (conversion).

In James, Pinn finds a way to ground and “center” his articulation of CS by describing its “transformational” sensibilities through James’s articulation of conversion and regeneration. In the work of Long, Pinn finds a hermeneutical heuristic. With James and psychology of religion balanced on one hand, it’s in the work of Long that Pinn finds a way to articulate the “depth” of human experience and consciousness by a turn to his “hermeneutic of the ontological dimension.”22 This heuristic begins its explication with “the presupposition that the sacred—the referent for religion—is manifest in the context of history and gives depth to all modalities of human consciousness and experience” and further “interprets the social as experience and expression to promote clearer vision regarding the issues of meaning and purpose that plague humans.” With (Pinn’s use of) Long’s focus on the importance of both experience and the objects by which ideas of the sacred become interpreted in place, Pinn asserts that “the organization or structure of social reality is, in fact, an effort to communicate certain underlying impulses [and that] this hermeneutic probes cultural structures for what they say about their source,” while being attentive and more sensitive to historical context. Important to note, Long’s “hermeneutic of the ontological dimension” goes beyond the more obvious “structures of life” (e.g., churches, sports, etc.) towards that which Pinn calls “the elemental structure” (the impulse), that feeling which enables the desire for greater meaning and consciousness. Understood in this way, externalized practices and human activity reflect—in a causal manner—embedded intentional impulses and desires of subjects. Assuming full

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.