Every Time I Feel the Spirit: Religious Experience and Ritual in an African American Church

Qualitative Studies in Religion Series

by Timothy J. Nelson

Dreams and visions, prophetic words from God about "dusty souls," speaking in tongues while "in the spirit"—narratives of these and similar events comprise the heart of Every Time I Feel the Spirit . This in-depth study of a Black congregation in Charleston, South Carolina provides a window into the tremendously important yet still largely overlooked world of African American religion as the faith is lived by ordinary believers.
For decades, scholars have been preoccupied with the relation between Black Christianity, civil rights, and social activism. Every Time I Feel the Spirit is about black religion as religion. It focuses on the everyday experience of religion in the church, congregants' relationships with God, and the role that God and Satan play in congregants' lives—not only as objects of belief but as actual agents. It explores the concepts of religious experience and religious ritual, while emphasizing the attributions that people make to the operation of spiritual forces and beings in their lives.
Through interviews and field work, Nelson uncovers what religious people themselves see as important about their faith while extending and refining sociological understandings of religious ritual and religious experience.

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Peyton Cottrell]

Overall, Nelson does a good job of evaluating the trends of worship within working-class, inner-city, Southern Black churches and what makes those trends stand out from other Christian organizations. However, he fails to go in-depth on the racial aspect of the worship, likely because he himself is not Black. I would be interested to see an updated study on this same subject from someone who explores more of the racial side of things.

[Kendra Mikols]

A good commentary on a world I don't have much experience with. Nelson's writing style was easy to follow.