To Rid the Italian Soul of One Dark Blot: Recognising Race in White Christian Religion
This article describes white Christian missionary uses of racial imagery for assimilating early twentieth-century immigrants into U.S. society. In early twentieth-century America, white Methodist missionaries sought to convert Italian immigrants from so-called pagans to one hundred percent Americ...
| Main Author: | |
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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: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2015]
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| In: |
Journal of religious history
Year: 2015, Volume: 39, Issue: 3, Pages: 370-385 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article describes white Christian missionary uses of racial imagery for assimilating early twentieth-century immigrants into U.S. society. In early twentieth-century America, white Methodist missionaries sought to convert Italian immigrants from so-called pagans to one hundred percent Americans by distancing them from racial darkness. In their attempt to convert the objects of their evangelism, Methodists syncretised secular marketing and metaphorical images and trained their audiences in a racial conversion narrative. In spite of their effort to combat the racial limitations of perceived Italian darkness, missionaries' use of darkness and light metaphors in conversion narratives reinscribed a racial Manichean dualism in their missionary practices and publications. |
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| ISSN: | 1467-9809 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious history
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/1467-9809.12161 |