The Decline Of Traditional Religions In US - Research Paper Example

of Learning: The Decline Of Traditional Religions In US ‘The Parable of Sower’ by OctaviaButler is a novel on religion and how religion will function and look in the future, especially for the blacks in America. Butler looks at a cultural history reconstruction for blacks through looking at ‘Earthseed’ as a religion for slaves. Through her book, Butler criticizes the traditions of African American Baptist. Despite exposing issues with this particular religious tradition, Butler goes further to suggest issues that have come out as being inherent to all American religions over the years. Outline Introduction...........................................................................................................................3 Slave Religion........................................................................................................................3 Black Baptists Religion..........................................................................................................4 Earthseed...............................................................................................................................5 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................6 Work Cited............................................................................................................................7 Introduction ‘The Parable of Sower’ by Octavia Butler is staged in Los Angels with the City being portrayed as a post apocalyptic ravaged by poverty, war and disease. The story in the novel is about Lauren Olamina’s life together with her family living in Rodeblo, Los Angeles. All through the book, Lauren has been used by Butler to bring out the issue of ‘Earthseed’ which is a religious philosophy that consists of a system of truths which Lauren discovered while she was a young girl (Bailey 4). It entails rational thoughts as well as faith and emotion versus science. From the novel, it is evident that the ‘Earthseed’ is without a God but it has it that ‘God is Change’ hence the explanation for the decline of traditional religions in the United States (Bridges 89). This paper is going to look at the ‘Earthseed’ as a contemporary black religion rejection which has been impacted by the Baptists tradition. This will be achieved through making a comparison between Earthseed characteristics and the slave religion elements as well as the Baptists black religion in modern America. Slave Religion The message of the ‘Earthseed’ has been based on the life of the black Americans life in history. In relation to this, African American spirituality remains relevant even today as both the Earthseed and the African American have spirituality retained African cosmology aspects. Slave region is regarded as a “religious foundation and heritage of Africa” outgrowth according to Butler that has over the years transplanted, adjusted and later accommodated itself to a modern situational experience (Bridges 90).Butler argues that it is evident most African American religions aspects have been brought forward from Africa. This is seen in the large numbers of the Caribbean slaves whose religious culture had been retained from African cultural elements. Before slavery, African Christianity had been was not that dominant as it was suppressed by the wide spread European Christianity. However, the traits of African Christianity did not die away following the suppression; it was still practised and has been passed on over generations (Dubois 72). After slavery, several significant features have been characteristic of the African American religion with some of them still being recognizable in several black religion denominations today. The familiar features both historical and modern black religion include the mode of singing, ring shouts, dancing as well as folk belief which were common in slave religion. However, during this time, some of traits of the African religion that were not commonly practiced were lost on the way and didn’t not future in the modern Christian religion. Some of such traits include the way the Africans perceived the spirit of possession (Bailey 46). Looking at the modern Christian religion in America, most of the traditional African religion traits have been passed on. Such traits include; ring shouts, praise houses, hush harbours and music (Bailey 35). These traits are common in communal worship which was common in the slave religion. African religion has changed following the non-rigorous and post-modern religious inclusions that are being preached by the mainline Protestants. Modern religion is now used as a psychological comfort not like in the past where religion was taken seriously and was equivocally practised with laid down rules which did not change with time meet the changing society needs. Black Baptists Religion In the twentieth century, the most salient African American church life features include frenzy, preacher and music (Bailey 27). In modern America, African American religious life is identified by elements such as singing, praying, offering and testifying. These introductions have however not changed the service purpose. Very little changes have been witnessed over the years. In slave religion, religious services offered room for emotional catharsis as well as an outlet that was against the daily life frustrations. However, in the twentieth century, the black church together with the black preacher started to take a more central position in the black’s political life (Bailey 30). After the Civil War going to the twentieth century, black spirituals and black religion have changed to a very little extent. The modern ways of life including modern form of education introduced new aspects as the blacks learned about God, gods and creation changing their notions about they used to believe in. The modern religion is more spiritual following the Bible’s teaching that as Jesus ascended to heaven, left the Holy Spirit to guide mankind. In traditional black religion, the black preacher was the main link between man and God. The black preacher in modern America has remained idealistic and is being understood within the Christianity context thus the supremacy of Jesus Christ in the black preacher definition. The modern black preacher takes after the same definition in the creation of twentieth century as Jesus assumed a central role in his preaching. During the slavery time, the devotion of a preacher or on the other hand the lack of devotion towards Jesus held very little or no importance at all according to Butler (Bailey 35) Earthseed Butler looks at ‘Earthseed’ as being more endeavours compared to the slave religion implying that some of the religion characteristics have changed over the years. Despite such changes, Butler points out that there are several factors that have remained common. Among the common characteristics is the communal worship. According to Lauren statement “God is Change”, philosophy has been viewed in this book as having much in common with the slave’s worldview (Butler 98). Through Lauren’s travels, communal worship has been brought out as being common in slave religion, Earthseed and modern black Baptist. However, the gatherings in Earthseed come out as prayer meetings that were somehow hush harbors compared to what is witnessed in the formal church services. The slaves used their meeting for consolation as they gave them spatial feelings through the preaching, prayers and songs. This has been passed on to the modern religion and Lauren relates them to the modern gathering included funerals, weddings and holiday celebrations (Bailey 21). Earthseed has undergone some philosophy progressive as it stand out completely different from the African American religion mainstream in the twentieth century. However, it still functions like the rest of the religions which were greatly influenced by the slavery strictures. This led to Butler concluding that religion will retain similar black functions in the future just as it was witnessed during slavery in United States. She states that in America, the African religions are neither viewed as static “Africanisms” or as ancient ‘retentions’ (Bailey 25) Over the years several denominations have declined following the cultural and traditional influence on Christianity fading away and more Americans remain confused on which religion to follow as the more they continue to learn about religion, the more religion contradicts itself leaving most of the Americans to regard themselves as non-religious while those religious groups that were in the past described as minority increasing in their popularity meaning that the traditional forms of religion continue to be replaced by the modern and minority religious groups Conclusion In ‘The Parable of Sower’ through Lauren, Butler emphasizes that Earthseed is connected and is common to any other religion and goes further to ascertain that religion remains a vital point in the existence of people. According to her writing and through comparing the religious situation in slave religion, Black Baptists Religion and the Earthseed, Butler concludes that some of the characteristics that marked traditional religion in America have declined over the years and she demonstrates this by narrating to the readers the life of Lauren depicting how the black religion has changed over the years. Despite some main characteristics being passed on, the same characteristics have been changed in order to meet the modern society situation. Work Cited Bailey, Constance. “Give Me the Old Religion”: Reclaiming Slave Religion In Future. Columbia: University Of Missouri, 2007. 59 Bridges, Flora Wilson. Resurrection Song: African-American Spirituality. New York: Orbis, 2001. Print Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower. New York: Author Grand Central Publishing, 2000. Print Dubois, Web. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print Govan, Sandra. “The Insistent Presence of Black Folk in the Novels of Samuel R. Delany.” Black American Literature Forum 18.2 (2004): 43-48 Read More