Manifesting the Primal Imagination

Manifesting the Primal Imagination explores a little known but important aspect of Black American Christianity--the primal spirituality of the Black Pentecostal and spiritual church. Set against the backdrop of a Christianity believed by many to be synonymous with White Western culture Manifesting the Primal Imagination demonstrates how this image of Christianity came to be and how it is false through a historical and scriptural examination of Christianity itself. At a time in which the nature of Christian faith is hotly contested with many rejecting Christianity on the basis of its historical association with White supremacist claims Settles advocates for a rereading of the history of Black American faith in a way that recognizes the importance of the primal imagination to Christianity itself.