Embracing What He Was "Taught to Shun": Tracing Richard Wright's Recommitment to His Grandmother's Seventh-Day Adventist Faith

This essay considers the theme of religion in the work of Richard Wright. Margaret Bolden Wilson, Richard Wright’s grandmother, was a fervent Seventh-day Adventist who ensured her grandchild followed the tenets of her faith for the many years he lived with her as a child and teenager. Though Wright...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Christianity & literature
Main Author: Brown, Donald (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Johns Hopkins University Press 2023
In: Christianity & literature
Year: 2023, Volume: 72, Issue: 4, Pages: 601-619
RelBib Classification:CD Christianity and Culture
CG Christianity and Politics
CH Christianity and Society
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KBQ North America
KDG Free church
ZB Sociology
Further subjects:B Richard Wright
B Communism
B Christianity
B Seventh-day Adventism
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Summary:This essay considers the theme of religion in the work of Richard Wright. Margaret Bolden Wilson, Richard Wright’s grandmother, was a fervent Seventh-day Adventist who ensured her grandchild followed the tenets of her faith for the many years he lived with her as a child and teenager. Though Wright left the faith once he left her house at seventeen years old, its influence on him remained for his entire life. While Wright is normally positioned as a secular humanist, this paper argues that his Seventh-day Adventist background complicates that categorization. His roots in the church inform his criticisms of the Communist Party and ultimately manifest consistently and prominently in his literary oeuvre.
ISSN:2056-5666
Contains:Enthalten in: Christianity & literature
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/chy.2023.a917890