The Golden Band: African American Spirituals and the Hermeneutics of World

by Asante U. Todd

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2025

Overview

An innovative reading of the Spirituals that synthesizes African American public and religious thought with musical aesthetics

In The Golden Band: African American Spirituals and the Hermeneutics of World, author Asante Todd synthesizes African American public thought, religious thought, and musical aesthetics. Drawing on these rich resources, he develops an original theomusicology grounded in antebellum Spirituals. Through detailed analysis of the Spirituals’ musical and compositional features, he shows how they critique the cultural logic of sovereignty and open up possibilities for other ways of thinking and being in the world. Innovative and insightful, The Golden Band is a remarkable contribution to African American public theology.

Key Features

• Develops an original theomusicology grounded in antebellum Spirituals.
• Shows how they critique the cultural logic of sovereignty.
• Opens up possibilities for other ways of thinking.

Contents

Table of Contents

Preface: On the Spirituals, Prophecy, and Theomusicology

Part One: The Cultural Logic of Sovereignty and the Theological Hermeneutics of World

1. African American Religious and Cultural Criticism

2. The Global Leviathan Appears

3. The Sense of Another World

Part Two: African American Religious Thought

4. Mind, Body, and Spirit

5. Covenant, Law, and the Sound of Jazz

Part Three: The Spirituals

6. Ring Shout to Heaven, Call and Response

7. Nature, Spirit, and Song

8. De Lord Is Per-Wide, Rock O’ My Soul, and Holy-Ghost the Pilot

9. Roll, Jordan, Roll

Index of Authors

Index of Subjects

Product Details

• Title: The Golden Band: African American Spirituals and the Hermeneutics of World
• Author: Asante U. Todd
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2025
• Logos Release Date: 2025
• Pages: 240
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: African Americans; Spiritual; Hermeneutics
• ISBNs: 9781467469562, 1467469564
• Resource ID: LLS:GLDNFCNSPTLSHRNTCSWLD
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-11-26T02:40:23Z

About Asante U. Todd

Asante U. Todd is an independent scholar who taught for eleven years at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. His research focuses on public theology, African American religion, US religion and politics, and philosophical aesthetics.