A Great Camp Meeting: Meditating on the Black Faiths of Our Children

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

An interesting expansion of current thought regarding children as philosophers/theologians, and the argument that we should consider them seriously is provocative.  My two primary concerns is that the author relies on fiction for some of the (Toni Morrison looms large) and there is little foregrounding that fictional representations will be used as evidence of a "real world" theory.  The combination of using other theorists alongside fiction as evidence without making those distinctions clear, undermines the argument a bit. Also, if the author is going to use examples from fiction as examples of conjure, authors such as James Baldwin, Henry Dumas, Jesmyn Ward and others should be brought into that conversation.

Secondly, there is a sense that the author asks many provocative questions  here and I would like to see the answers/conclusions to these questions given a bit more time and space.

Author Response

I welcome the suggestion that the article's argument could be strengthened by a more intentional naming of the use of literature as a source of method, and as theory itself. I have included some additional framing to this end in the revision. 

Secondly, I receive the comment that the provocative questions could be given more attention in terms of responses. While I do not necessarily believe that the posed questions have "answers," I have included an additional paragraph in the final section to offer a more substantive conclusion. 

Reviewer 2 Report

1. The article nuances the plight of black children and pleads for the recognition of black children as not merely the future of Black faith, or its far-distanced lineage, but its present and its gift. The article applies great intellectual rigor and scholarly responsibility in a sensitive and emotional matter of the legitimacy of the humanhood of Black children. 

2. I recommend that the article be published.

3. The in-text referencing style needs to be aligned to the journal's stipulated APA style.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

I appreciate the reviewer's affirmations of the article, and their suggestion that it be published. 

I receive their corrective note that the references/citations in the article need to align with the journal's APA standard, and the revision reflects this change.