"Not Only to the Gentiles, but Also to the African": Samuel Chambers and Scripture
Around a hundred Black people joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church) in the nineteenth century. From 1873 to 1876, a clerk created one of the most extensive records of an early Black Latter-day Saint when he wrote down Samuel Chambers's religious testimonies giv...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
2023
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| In: |
Church history
Year: 2023, Volume: 92, Issue: 2, Pages: 357-381 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Around a hundred Black people joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church) in the nineteenth century. From 1873 to 1876, a clerk created one of the most extensive records of an early Black Latter-day Saint when he wrote down Samuel Chambers's religious testimonies given in deacons quorum meetings. Though these records have been known to the academic community for decades, this article represents the first scholarly analysis of them. We argue that Chambers used LDS scriptural language and the authority of his own experience to clear a place rhetorically for himself in the deacons quorum and for Black people in the LDS Church more broadly. Chambers implicitly illustrated his fitness for holding the LDS priesthood and participating in LDS temple rituals, aspects of LDS practice from which Chambers was excluded because he was Black. This article adds depth and richness to our understanding of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century African American Mormon experience and provides a case study in some of the ways written scripture and spoken language intersect and function for members of a religious community with varying levels of literacy among members. |
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| ISSN: | 1755-2613 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Church history
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0009640723001439 |