A Critique of Impractical Reason: Toward Mature Dialogues about Black Religions

Black religions serve as proxies for protest publics that spur and deter progress. Illiberal critics assume insurgent politics are permanent, corrosive features of American public life. Critics who argue about such features view black religions as a cause for the depreciation of depoliticized friendships. This causal account presumes that argument requires friendship among equals. Although friends are often guilty of presuming what is good for conversation, this position is impractical. Disagreement can be generative. After describing black religions, the remaining sections describe the process by which Stanley Hauerwas identifies a method for embracing, not performing, disagreement. Interpreting Hauerwas’s reasons for feigning argument yields a method – ad hominem – few thought he would acknowledge. Through a description of his engagement with a peer, adversaries learn to appreciate how arguments about black religions depoliticize friendships and facilitate mature dialogue.