Description: "Citizenship is salvation," preached Noble Drew Ali, leader of the Moorish Science Temple of America in the early twentieth century. Ali's message was an aspirational call for black Americans to undertake a struggle for recognition from the state, one that would both ensure protection for all Americans through rights guaranteed by the law and correct the unjust implementation of law that prevailed in the racially segregated United States. Ali and his followers took on this mission of citizenship as a religious calling, working to carve out a place for themselves in American democracy and to bring about a society that lived up to what they considered the sacred purpose of the law.
In The Aliites, Spencer Dew traces the history and impact of Ali's radical fusion of law and faith. Dew uncovers the influence of Ali's teachings, including the many movements they inspired. As Dew shows, Ali's teachings demonstrate an implicit yet critical component of the American approach to law: that it should express our highest ideals for society, even if it is rarely perfect in practice. Examining this robustly creative yet largely overlooked lineage of African American religious thought, Dew provides a window onto religion, race, citizenship, and law in America.Brief description: Spencer Dew is Religion Teaching Fellow at Wittenberg University and affiliated faculty at The Ohio State University.
Review Quotes: "Dew's book provides much more than description on these Aliite groups. He takes us into the complex workings of their theologies, ideas about law and citizenship, arguments about race and identity, and how Aliites interact with other American citizens. As such the book will find its place on many bookshelves and syllabi, especially for scholars of African American religions, religion and law, and religion and social identity. Dew's interrogation of religion, race, and law is a model for scholars who study this intersection. Well-written, clearly argued, and full of original scholarship."-- "American Religion"