Response to Reviews

What an honor it is to have the Journal of Southern Religion review my religious biography of W. E. B. Du Bois and to have three amazing scholars do so. Professors Rabaka, Martin, and Willis are fantastic scholars of race and religion in the United States (indeed, the world). To have them evaluating my work is a joy and pleasure.

I am grateful for their praise of the project and their insights about Du Bois on religion (and the problem of why so many who write on him dismiss religion in his life and times). I am delighted to see that feel we need more work, much more work, on religion and Du Bois in particular and race and religion in general. And I am intrigued by their critiques, from questions about the use of the word “prophet” to the importance of Africana philosophies and theories.

I think Professor Willis makes a brilliant point, for instance, when he suggests that the modernist Du Bois stood out in his nonfiction and the mystic Du Bois stood out in his fiction. Sure, this bifurcation does not work perfectly, but it’s not bad. What I found intriguing was when mysticism invaded Du Bois’s historical and sociological work. Consider Black Reconstruction. Out of the blue, Du Bois invokes the idea seeing God and Jesus as one walks the streets of New York City. I am fascinated by these vignettes of religious brilliance within even his most academic of works.

So let me take up some of their questions and challenges. First, the notion of the prophet and the prophetic concerns Professor Martin (as it does Professor Curtis Evans in another review). Martin is correct that the idea of a prophet is subjective. It is an ambiguous category. But it is also the theme that kept repeating itself throughout Du Bois’s life. From 1903 when he published The Souls of Black Folk to the 1950s when novelist Truman Nelson wrote about him, black and white Americans used the word prophet to respond to him. I also found it interesting that perhaps his most well known line – that the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line – could itself be considered a prophetic statement. There were other titles I considered. One was “the Saint,” since Du Bois invoked the idea of “Saint Orgne” in a commencement address. But saintly status seemed far too hagiographic. I considered the idea of a monk, since Du Bois often cloistered himself and adored Martin Luther. But that seemed outside of his African American religious heritage. The prophet, I believe still, is the best way to characterize him and the most enduring way he was seen by his contemporaries.

Second, Professor Rabaka believes that my work suffers from inattention to African Studies and African religious history. I dare acknowledge that he is correct. My personal reading in African history and African religious history is nowhere near as strong as my reading in United States history. I was already connecting with United States history, African American studies, critical race theory, religious studies, sociology, psychoanalysis, and literary criticism. Sadly, my interdisciplinary mind may have hit a limit. But Rabaka is right to make his criticism. To be blunt, I will never read as widely or as deeply as Professor Du Bois did in his lifetime. This is one of the difficulties about writing a book about a genius, when one is not a genius. I could never keep up with Du Bois. I invite, and look forward to seeing, further readings and evaluations of Du Bois’s religiosity within Africana frameworks. I hope those doing this will send me their chapters, articles, and books. I am eager to learn (and Professor Rabaka’s studies are a great place to start).

I do think that Professor Rabaka overstates my focus on Du Bois’s attention to “white” religious thinkers at the expense of African American leaders. I pay just as much attention, if not more, to Du Bois’s intellectual relationships with Richard Allen, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Nat Turner, Alexander Crummell, Langston Hughes, and even Malcolm X. Each chapter shows Du Bois as part of African American religious communities, whether in autobiographies, creative responses to lynchings, or approaches to Communism. I included his engagement with white figures to call for all historians and students of religion in the United States to attune to Du Bois (and not merely those interested in African American history). My experience is that the color line still exists too often in American history, and I follow Nell Painter’s advice to “write across the color line” at all times.

Third, these reviewers wonder if I fail to critique Du Bois enough. For instance, should a religious biography of Du Bois address his alleged marital infidelity? Should a moral study of him not pay greater attention to his convenient overlooking of Russian and Chinese atrocities? I think there is definitely a place to critique Du Bois’s religion and morality, but that seems to be asking too much of one book, especially a book that is fighting dozens of other readings of Du Bois. Moreover, it seems backward to criticize Du Bois for his religious failings before we see more clearly his religious insights and contributions. Perhaps we scholars have forgotten the importance of celebration amid our own culture of criticism.

Unlike David Levering Lewis, I did not have more than one thousand pages to probe the nuances of Du Bois’s life and times. There were so many other topics I wanted to include. I wanted to write more about his burial, about why there was a cross above his casket. I wanted to write more about his relationships with African American ministers, whom he published regularly in The Crisis. I wanted to write more about his family morality and his deeply spiritual love for his children. But that work will take place as our community of scholars pushes forward.

I am glad that the days of ignoring Du Bois as a critical figure in American religious history may be over. I am glad that this is merely the beginning, and not the ending, of our conversations about Du Bois. My hope for the future is that Du Bois’s religious insights will help us, historians and citizens, to think and see more clearly about issues of race, gender, sexuality, consumer culture, politics, citizenship, and human rights. That’s what prophets help us do.

Edward J. Blum

San Diego State University