“…as soon as we deal with private and personal phenomena as such, we deal with realities in the completest sense of the term.” – William James
This database documentary attempts to present the “private and personal religious phenomena” of The Peace Mission Movement . By allowing Mother Divine and Peace Mission followers to articulate their own belief system, framed by the historical contexts and insights provided by humanities scholars, archival images and recordings, the viewer will be both informed and challenged to make their own critical evaluations.
There is an inherent difficulty when representing a religious tradition, in any medium, especially when that tradition is a living religious community. The goal of the humanities scholar/ethnographer is to both respect private religious sensibilities and remain objective about the subject under observation, study, and analysis. In the case of the Peace Mission, there is the enormous sensitivity on the part of the membership concerning how Father Divine and the Movement has been portrayed throughout the last seventy years by American religious historians and sociologists, as well as the public media. The goal of our interactive documentary is to respectfully explore the complexities of personal religious belief of this community of individuals as an evocation of the past and as it exists in the present.
Due to the advancing age and celibacy of the Peace Mission followers, the timing of this project is crucial. Each living member embodies a dramatic story that reveals a hidden history of race and religion in America.
For more information about The Father Divine Project, please contact Will Luers or Dr. Leonard Norman Primiano
Please contact Will Luers if you:
- would like to support The Father Divine Project financially or in other ways
- have a story or artifact of your own that you would like to share on this site
Will,
Hi, Ellen Reynolds here, from Philadelphia. I was looking for your article “The Cult of Naturalism” (you wrote it, right? I can’t find it and I neglected to save it when first I read – and was impressed by – it). and stumbled upon this. Rashidii’s parents (already in their 70’s when I met them) were followers of Father Divine, and had interesting stories to tell of the crowds that followed and cheered him. I used to love to eat at the Divine Tracy restaurant on 36th St. So – if you need any shooting done for this, I’m here and would be more than delighted.
Hope you’re well. I’m designing an Interactive/Emerging Tech class for next semester here at Penn’s School of Design, your blog/vlog is a great resource for me as I think my way through the planning stages!
Peace,
I had the priviledge of being a student of Dr. Primiano as a Religious Studies major while at Cabrini. Through his teachings I was blessed to learn about Father, Mother, and the Peace Mission Movement as well as attend numerous banquets. The Peace Mission Movement has touched my life in numerous ways. I will sit with my husband and talk about the Mission and Father and Mother.
Congratulations on this project and this amazing website. I look forward to spending more time navigating through all of the pages!
Peace,
Jessica
Great work – I was thrilled to come across your site while researching Father Divine. I love the video blog format. I’m researching Jim Jones visits to Father Divine and attempts to takeover his church. (I am writing a history of Jonestown for Simon & Schuster).
Thanks again, Julia