Freshly Printed - allow 7 days lead
Couldn't load pickup availability
The Black Church in America
African American Christian Spirtuality
Michael Battle (Author)
9781405118927, Wiley
Paperback / softback, published 14 June 2006
256 pages
23 x 15.3 x 1.4 cm, 0.354 kg
"Michael Battle's book is a wise and bold treatment of the most complex phenomenon in Afro-American life: The Black Church. We need to listen to his words." Cornel West, Princeton University "The key to understanding Battle's fine study of the black church is found in his background as an African American Episcopal priest. His major thesis is that a strong sense of community pervades African American spirituality, which comes from communal African religious traditions and the survival needs of enslaved Africans in a hostile American environment. Although Battle's treatment of the historical material is not new, his emphasis on the communal worship and spirituality of African American Christianity is an important theological direction. Deeply influenced by the theology of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who ordained him, Battle (Virginia Theological Seminary) argues that the communal spirituality of African Americans should be inclusive, eventually "inviting others to be black." He pushes this theme of community and reconciliation with a chapter that elaborates on Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of "the Beloved Community," indicating that the black church can be the fulfillment of that view. He concludes the study with two challenges: a "Churchless Black Church" and a "Womanless Black Church." The book includes a historical time line and a bibliography. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and specialists in the field." Choice "The African American churches need less absolutizing in order to undertake their great task of addressing the still rampant inequality and structural racism that criminalizes so many of their young males and reduces others to passivity. A radical gospel is needed more than ever, and it is to be hoped that this book will stimulate research to galvanize the churches into reflective action." "An intriguing attempt at building a case for an African American Spirituality that is communal and relational in nature."
Theological Book Review
Expository Times
This book gives readers a broad understanding of the Black Church in America and a sense of its uniqueness in the wider world.
Acknowledgements ix Introduction: An Amphibious Worldview xi 1 Emergence of What is African 1 African Warnings 1 What is African? 12 2 The Particularity of African American Spirituality 23 3 The Black Church in the Shadow of Slavery 43 The Scourge of Slavery 46 The Survival of Africanism 57 The Emergence of Black Denominations 60 4 Communal Worship 66 The Controversy of Emotionalism 70 “Spiritual Song” and the Emergence of Black Denominations 72 African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church 77 Christian Methodist Episcopal Church 77 African American Baptists Churches 78 National Baptist Convention, USA 85 African American Pentecostalism 86 Black Worship 88 5 Inviting Others to Be Black 98 African vs. Black: Dialectic Tension 103 James Cone and Desmond Tutu 106 African and Black: Communal Synthesis 115 6 The Black Church as the Beloved Community 127 King’s View: Prophecy and Nonviolence 133 African American Responses to King 144 King’s Dream of the Beloved Community 152 Communal Antithesis for King 154 7 Embodying African American Spirituality 163 A Churchless Black Church 165 A Womanless Black Church 169 The Full Embodiment of the Black Church 176 Timeline of the Black Church 183 Websites for Historic Black Denominations 203 Bibliography 204 Index 216
Subject Areas: Religion & beliefs [HR]
