Encountering Elijah: Presence as Epistemology at the Messenger's Residence

As scholars engage sites of religious life, how should we understand unexpected moments of encounter that arise as we move through religious or sacred spaces? This paper explores the relationship between research and the archive in the process of discovery. Centering the residence of Elijah Muhammad as a site of lived religion and “living presence,” the paper considers not only the possibility of encounter within the archive but also advances a theory of presence; indeed, encounter as epistemology. In this construction, encounters within sacred archives reveal forms of knowledge about religious communities and illuminate how adherents articulate and perform their religious identities. Finally, the paper interrogates the notion of initiation as a form of permission to enter the archive and to experience the religious world it contains.