Two prominent Black scholars, who made their mark on the academy and brought a cutting-edge approach to their scholarship, recently passed away.
Dr. Albert J. Raboteau, the renowned scholar of African and African American religion, died over the weekend. He was 78. The author of classics such as Slave Religion, Raboteau joined the faculty at Princeton University in 1983, and retired in 2013 as the Henry W. Putnam Professor of Religion Emeritus.
Dr. Charles Mills
Prior to his arrival at Princeton, Raboteau taught at Xavier University in New Orleans, Yale University and the University of California at Berkeley. At Princeton, he served as chair of the Department of Religion from 1987 to 1992 and was dean of the Graduate School from 1992 to 1993. He was instrumental in the development of Princeton’s Center for African American Studies, which is now the Department of African American Studies.
“Al loved teaching and was a beloved teacher, advisor, and mentor to undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Religion and many other departments and programs at Princeton, as well as other institutions where he served as visiting faculty,” the Department of Religion noted in a statement. “His courses at Princeton over the years demonstrated the broad breadth of his interests as well as the diverse sources and methods on which he drew to explore the role of religion in American society and culture.”
Dr. Cornel West, a professor at Union Theological Seminary, knew and worked with Raboteau for more than four decades.
“He was the Godfather of Afro-American Religious studies and the North Star of deep Christian political sensibilities,” said West. “I shall never forget him.”
