In Search of Soul explores the meaning of “soul” in sacred and profane incarnations, from its biblical origins to its central place in the rich traditions of black and Latin history. Surveying the work of writers, artists, poets, musicians, philosophers and theologians, Alejandro Nava shows how their understandings of the “soul” revolve around narratives of justice, liberation, and spiritual redemption.  He contends that biblical traditions and hip-hop emerged out of experiences of dispossession and oppression. Whether born in the ghettos of America or of the Roman Empire, hip-hop and Christianity have endured by giving voice to the persecuted. This book offers a view of soul in living color, as a breathing, suffering, dreaming thing. "Nava has produced an interpretive angle on the study of hip-hop not seen before. It provides a perspective that challenges the notion that hip-hop music has never been religious." ― America "This is a thoroughly insightful and informative volume on the meaning of “soul” through the lens of literary analysis, music, and religion." ― Horizons in Biblical Theology Published On: 2019-05-02 “Alejandro Nava’s  In Search of Soul  is a learned and personal book. It excavates the vast territory of soul as a concept both in theology and in culture, spanning sacred and profane expressions in literature and music. Nava writes with easy erudition, equally at home in the pages of Nietzsche as in the phrases of Nas.”—Adam Bradley, author of  The Poetry of Pop   “When asked to offer an example of ambitious, thought-provoking, rigorous scholarship, I submit this book as Exhibit A. Nava studies what he calls ‘the grammar of the soul’ through a variety of cultural artifacts, from the Bible to slave worldviews in Judaism and Christianity, to the work of Federico García Lorca and Ralph Ellison, and to the music, particularly the Black and Latin American traditions that are his passion and true schooling, of rap and hip-hop. He does all this with assurance and acumen, which allows him to achieve his goals handsomely. Frankly, I am not only grateful but jealous—I wish I had written it myself.”—Ilan Stavans, author of  Quixote: The Novel and the  World and editor of  The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature “Alejandro Nava’s  In Search of Soul  is a learned and personal book. It excavates the vast territory of soul as a concept both in theology and in culture, spanning sacred and profane expressions in literature and music. Nava writes with easy erudition, equally at home in the pages of Nietzsche as in the phrases of Nas.”—Adam Bradley, author of  The Poetry of Pop   “When asked to offer an example of ambitious, thought-provoking, rigorous scholarship, I submit this book as Exhibit A. Nava studies what he calls ‘the grammar of the soul’ through a variety of cultural artifacts, from the Bible to slave worldviews in Judaism and Christianity, to the work of Federico García Lorca and Ralph Ellison, and to the music, particularly the Black and Latin American traditions that are his passion and true schooling, of rap and hip-hop. He does all this with assurance and acumen, which allows him to achieve his goals handsomely. Frankly, I am not only grateful but jealous—I wish I had written it myself.”—Ilan Stavans, author of  Quixote: The Novel and the  World and editor of  The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature Alejandro Nava is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Arizona and author of  Wonder and Exile in the New World  and  The Mystical and Prophetic Thought of Simone Weil and Gustavo Gutierrez . In Search of Soul Hip-Hop, Literature, and Religion By Alejandro Nava UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Copyright © 2017 Alejandro Nava All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-520-29354-0 Contents Acknowledgments, Abbreviations, Introduction, PART ONE: SACRED HISTORIES OF THE SOUL, 1 In Search of Soul, 2 On Hebrew Soul: De Eloquentia Vulgaria, 3 Christian Soul and the Revolt of the Slave, PART TWO: PROFANE ACCENTS OF SOUL, 4 In Search of Duende: Lorca on Spanish Soul, 5 The Souls of Black Folk: Ralph Ellison's Tragicomic Portrait, 6 From Soul to Hip-Hop: The Rise of the Apocalypse, 7 Afro-Latin Soul and Hip-Hop, Notes, Index, CHAPTER 1 In Search of Soul Let us simmer over our incalculable cauldron, our enthralling confusion, our hotch-potch of impulses, our perpetual miracle — for the soul throws up wonders every second. — Virginia Woolf Fix every wandering thought upon that quarter where all thought is done; who can distinguish darkness from the soul? — W. B. Yeats Now, my darling Nora, I want you to read over and over all I've written to you. Some of it is ugly, obscene and bestial, some of it is pure and holy and spiritual: all of it is myself. — James Joyce THE LOSS OF SOUL IN THE MODERN AGE As so many other ancient pieties are viewed in our times, the concepts of God and soul have increasingly become objects of suspicion, if not indiffere