LAUSR

cism as black. ‘[I]t does not suffice to simply dismiss missionaries as cultural imperialists or colonial agents,’ Cressler writes (34). This argument is particularly compelling coupled as it is by Cressler with such case studies as, on the one hand, the development of black Catholic devotional practices that publicly (for crowds of ‘white pilgrims’) reframe the bodies of black people not as primitive or emotional but disciplined; and, on the other hand, the creation of and engagement in devotional practices such as the version of catechistic recitation that every morning asked black Catholic school students about doctrine and black history by pairing questions such as ‘“Who is Angela Davis?” and “What is a Sacrament?”; “Who was Mahalia Jackson?” and “What is the Trinity?”’ (102, 182). Cressler’s deft handling of such complex history owes much to his acceptance – even his insistence – on recognition of and refusal to reduce or simplify such complexity. As he puts it, ‘if we hope to understand what it means to be Black and religious – or, to put it more simply, what it means to be human – we need to be willing to wrestle with the contradictions and complexities of life as it is lived’ (199). Similarly, Cressler remains aware – and seeks to make his readers aware – of the complex interrelations between knowledge and practice, between conscious thought and routine behavior. As he says of black conversion to Catholicism,