Editors R. Marie Griffith and Barbara Dianne Savage conceived the collection Women and Religion in the African Diaspora as part of a three-year collaborative research project about women and religion in the African Diaspora, which was featured at a public conference at Princeton University in 2004. Building upon work by scholars in women's studies, religious studies, and diaspora studies, this book aims to bring the three fields together in a deliberate manner, seeking the interactions that would occur when these subjects “intersect, influence, and reshape one another in particular locations” (x). This deliberate process has led to a collection of essays intended to address these interactions without necessarily coming to a final conclusion about their proper syntheses with one another.
The book is divided into three sections. The first section, titled “Diasporic Knowledge,” addresses issues of the history, tradition, and, most importantly, authenticity of religious practices derived from African spiritual...
