1. Understanding World Religions
Chapter 2
A Biased Canon
© 2011 Irving Hexham
© 2011 Irving Hexham

2. A Biased Canon
Take a careful look at this chart showing the religious situation in On it African religions are identified as a major religious tradition. Yet African religions were hardly mentioned in the textbooks of the time and not taken seriously. Why?
Diagram by Irving Hexham. © 2011 Irving Hexham

3. A Biased Canon
For example the massive commemorative volume produced after the Chicago World Congress of Religions held in 1893 makes no mention of African religious traditions. Nor, until quite recently, do most texts on “world religions.”
© 2011 Irving Hexham 3

4. A Biased Canon
Today most world religions textbooks praise practices found in India while disparaging similar ones found in Africa. For example, Ninian Smart says “sacrifice” is a “central ritual” in Indian religions. But, dismisses African sacrifices as similar to those found “elsewhere in the world.”
Sacrifice
Africa --- India
Photo by Irving Hexham and public domain source. © 2011 Irving Hexham
Various other examples of this type of bias are given in the textbook pp 4

5. A Biased Canon
This neglect of things African was not always the case. Take a close look at this sculpture from Magdeburg Cathedral in German
The figure is a Christian crusader who is obviously a Black African. It is also clear that he was a member of the upper classes socially.
Photo by Irving Hexham. © 2011 Irving Hexham

6. A Biased Canon
Photo by from public domain. © 2011 Irving Hexham
This neglect of things African was not always the case. The above painting of St Maurice, by Matthias Grünewald, (1523) shows a Black knight, who is obviously of high rank, talking with the Bishop St. Elmo (also known as Erasmus)..

7. A Biased Canon
Similarly, the picture below is of the monument in Halle, Germany, to Dr. Anton Wilhelm Amo (1703 – 1759) who was born in what is now Ghana. He obtained his doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Wittenberg in 1734 and taught at the University of Halle until he returned to Africa where he died.
Source: used with permission. © 2011 Irving Hexham 7

8. A Biased Canon
With the dawn of the Enlightenment Africa, Africans, and African religions were systematically downgraded by many leading figures from Voltaire to Hume, to Kant and Hegel. See pp of the textbook
Jean –Jacques Rousseau ( ) made numerous racist comments on Africans including the statement that “Their children are slowly and with difficulty taught to walk.” Similar statements were made by many European philosophers. See pp of the textbook.
Photo of Rousseau in the public domain from Wiki Commons:
© 2011 Irving Hexham 8

9. A Biased Canon
In Religious Studies the problem was compounded by the publication of The Sacred Books of the East ( ). These were edited by the German born Oxford scholar Max Müller ( ). This work created a canon of books on religion that were relatively easy to access. In the process African religious traditions were left out of the picture.
Photo by Irving Hexham. © 2011 Irving Hexham 9

10. Max Müller in his Oxford Study
A Biased Canon
The irony is that Max Müller was fascinated by African religions and often mentions them in his theoretical works.
Photo in the public domain. From The Life and Letters of Max Müller, London, Longmans, Green, © 2011 Irving Hexham
Max Müller in his Oxford Study
( ). 10

11. A Biased Canon
The photo below is of the Rt. Rev. Londa Shembe ( ). He was the leader of the Ekuphakameni branch of the South African (Zulu) amaNazarites. A successful lawyer he dispels the idea that African religious leaders are unsophisticated.
Photo by Irving Hexham. © 2011 Irving Hexham 11

12. A Biased Canon
Another example of African religious sophistication is the icon on the right which came from upper Egypt. It is similar in style to many Ethiopian icons. Once again this is not the sort of thing most people think about when someone mentions African religion.
Photo by Irving Hexham. © 2011 Irving Hexham