The Religious Philosophy of Jean Price-Mars

Jean Price-Mars was a towering figure in the discipline of Africana studies and a passionate proponent of the revalorization of African retentions in the Black diaspora, especially on Haitian soil. Scholars have identified him as the Francophone counterpart of W. E. B. Du Bois for his activism, scholarly rigor, leadership efficiency, and efforts in the rehabilitation of the Black race. In Haitian thought, he is regarded as the most important Haitian intellectual in the 20th century, having exercised an enduring intellectual influence on the generation of the American occupation in Haiti (1915-1934) and the postoccupation culture from the 1930s to 1970s. While students of Haitian studies and scholars of religion have praised him for his scientific study of the Vodou faith and his intelligent argument for the viability of Vodou as religion, few critics have analyzed the complexity of his religious imagination and ideas. The goal of this essay is to analyze Price-Mars’s engagements with religion beyond the religion of Vodou. Particularly, it will focus on his philosophy of religion and his thought on the nature of belief. The author contends that Price-Mars’s support of cultural relativism theory had shaped his view on religious métissage and religious diversity. The author draws primarily from the religious rhetoric of So Spoke the Uncle and his other works. The author argues to view Price-Mars as a postmodernist religious thinker and a religious syncretist. This essay will show what and how Price-Mars contributed to the disciplines of religion, religious pluralism, and cultural studies and his promotion of religious tolerance.