Paradoxical as it may seem, in religion the Negro's emotions constitute
his strongest as well as his weakest point. The fact that he is largely
developed in the emotional side of his nature would, other things being
equal, give him a vantage ground in matters of religion. His defect is
not that he is emotional, but that he is excessively so. Like other
races in their childhood, he is a bundle of feelings. He does not think
after God, he does not will after God, but he feels after God. He is not
driven to action because he is impelled by a moral imperative, the law
of duty, but he is controlled by his nerves which are his thermometer.
With the nerves as his guide it is impossible to tell where he stands on
many moral questions. Neurotic environments appeal quickly to him, and
are fostered by the church in sermons which appeal largely to the
imagination, in weird pictures of the unseen, in apocalyptic sermons,
and by mystic preachers known as mourners, shouters and visioners. As a
subject of experimentation in physco-physics, the most fitting time is
in seasons of revival in religion when his emotion is keyed to the
highest point.
The following stages may be noticed:
(1) Violent physical commotion followed by physical exhaustion.
(2) Loss of physical control.
(3) Loss of moral control. At this stage there is a feeling of abandon
leading often to unchaste exposure of the person, wild cries as if
demented, and all kinds of extravagances.
(4) Mental infection as well as emotional panic. At this stage there is
pandemonium. Many obtain religion by the process of infection.
(5) A lowered physical as well as moral vitality. At the last meeting of
the British Association for the Advancement of Science, a thoughtful
paper by Dr. Graham of Ireland showed that there was less insanity among
Roman Catholics than Protestants in Ireland, due to difference in type
of religion, Protestants of Ireland being intensely morbid and ascetic
in their Calvinism. (Congregationalist, Nov. 29, 1902, p. 781.) I
should not be surprised, if investigation was made, that similar results
would be seen in America not only between Protestants and Roman
Catholics, but among Protestants themselves. I should not be surprised
that there were fewer maniacs among Presbyterians and Congregationalists
than among Baptists and Methodists. May not students of physco-physics
make this a study for the benefit of religion? To the use of emotions in
religion the writer has no objections, he is heartily in favor, but he
seriously objects to excessive emotionalism for the following reasons:
(1) It fails to recognize the moral and ethical judgment.
(2) It fails to recognize the volitional side of human nature. "With a
man's will-power dormant, undeveloped, unknown, all attempt at really
training and moulding the character is foolish because impossible. Man
sometimes attempts it; God never does. He calls into activity first of
all a man's will. He seeks to know what a man's own free choice is. Then
he knows what course to follow in his schooling of the soul."[1]
(3) It fails to recognize the rational side of human nature.
(4) It is at variance with our concrete experience of life. In our daily
experience we think, feel and will for action.
(5) It is sickly feminine and appeals to neurotics.
There are some general facts in connection with the philosophy of
religion which are often overlooked in the study of the Negro religion.
Two stages may be noticed in the history of the religious development of
peoples, the primitive and the rational. The primitive stage is poetical
and imaginative, in fact religion is then in its barbaric state. In its
rational stage we see the religious man under a developed rule of
conduct. He still feels but his feelings are controlled by reason. There
is nothing new in the religion of the Negro. He is by no means a
peculiar man from a religious standpoint. The physical contortions and
gyrations noticed in his Christian worship are as old as the history of
religion itself, if not older than it. In his worship we may see things
which are found in the heathen rites of the native African, in the
Bacchanalia of the Greeks, among the Sali or dancing priests of the
Romans, and among the Corybantes. The same effect which is produced on
the feelings of the Negro has been produced on the feelings of the
American Indian, as well as on the ancient bards of Scotland, Ireland,
Wales, and Germany. Lord Macaulay, describing the Puritan, says: "In his
devotional retirement he prayed with convulsions, and groans, and tears.
He was half maddened by glorious or terrible illusions. He heard the
lyres of angels or the tempting whispers of friends. He caught a gleam
of the Beautific Vision, or woke screaming from dreams of everlasting
fire." In the girlhood days of the late Elizabeth Cady Stanton her
sensitive mind was nearly overbalanced, and she suffered terribly from
the too vivid description of future punishment by the emotional Finney.
The imagery of the Book of Revelation has a peculiar effect on the
feelings of the Negro. Its mysticism acts like a spell over him. Says
Macaulay, "The Greek Rhapsodists, according to Plato, could not recite
Homer without almost falling into convulsions." The Mohawk hardly feels
the scalping knife while he shouts his death song. The Dijazerti in the
region of the Sahara believe that communication with Allah is only
possible in a state of trance, and accordingly they work themselves into
a religious frenzy, while the ignorant among them repeat the name of
Allah many thousand times till they fall into a state of unconsciousness.
We do not wonder, considering the primitive state of religion, why men
were spell-bound under its influence. It is all the more conspicuous in
tropical natures, for there youth is exuberant. In all primitive states
of religion we notice the same abandonment, the same illusions produced
on the imagination, the contortions of the body, the child-like
credulity, the superstition, the depression, and exaltations of the
feelings, "the agony, the ecstasy, the plentitude of belief." They are
the complement of barbaric faith, and not a peculiarity of the Negro. If
in these primitive conditions we see the Negro tickled by a straw, or
frightened by a ghost, or in moments of ecstasy spreading out his hands
in an attempt to fly up to heaven without dying, these are the natural
concomitants of such conditions. We pity, rather than censure him, more
especially when we remember that for two hundred years in the house of
bondage, his wild, primitive nature was left untrained.
What is needed for the proper religious development of the Negro is
education, not repression or subjugation of his feelings. We cannot
emphasize this fact too much. There is the danger, in the zeal of
preserving the holy ark, of defiling it by unholy contact. The Negro
needs more thought in his religion, but religion is not all thought. To
have a proper balance in religion as in every-day life, the faculties of
thought, feeling, and volition must be present, distributed in fair
proportions. When reason is overfed in the exercise of religion, the
result is a dry and barren rationalism. When the emotions are overfed
the result is a wild and sickly sentimentalism, a neurotic religion.
Footnote:
[1] The divine method of Inquiry. Biblical World. Dec. 1902, p. 450.
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_.
The misprint "soons" has been corrected to "soon" (page 4).