The Black Church in the African American Experience

by Lincoln, C. Eric; Mamiya, Lawrence H.

• ISBN13: 9780822310730
• ISBN10: 0822310732
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1990-11-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Black churches in America have long been recognized as the most independent, stable, and dominant institutions in black communities. InThe Black Church in the African American Experience,based on a ten-year study, is the largest nongovernmental study of urban and rural churches ever undertaken and the first major field study on the subject since the 1930s. Drawing on interviews with more than 1,800 black clergy in both urban and rural settings, combined with a comprehensive historical overview of seven mainline black denominations, C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya present an analysis of the Black Church as it relates to the history of African Americans and to contemporary black culture. In examining both the internal structure of the Church and the reactions of the Church to external, societal changes, the authors provide important insights into the Churchrs"s relationship to politics, economics, women, youth, and music. Among other topics, Lincoln and Mamiya discuss the attitude of the clergy toward women pastors, the reaction of the Church to the civil rights movement, the attempts of the Church to involve young people, the impact of the black consciousness movement and Black Liberation Theology and clergy, and trends that will define the Black Church well into the next century. This study is complete with a comprehensive bibliography of literature on the black experience in religion. Funding for the ten-year survey was made possible by the Lilly Endowment and the Ford Foundation.

Table of Contents

Preface

The Religious Dimension: Toward a Sociology of Black Churches

The Black Baptists: The First Black Churches in America

The Black Methodists: The Institutionalization of Black Religious Independence

The Black Pentecostals: The Spiritual Legacy with a Black Beginning

In the Receding Shadow of the Plantation: A Profile of Rural Clergy and Churches in the Black Belt

In the Streets of the Black Metropolis: A Profile of Black Urban Clergy and Churches

The New Black Revolution: The Black Consciousness Movement and the Black Church

"Now Is the Time!" The Black Church, Politics, and Civil Rights Militancy

The American Dream and the American Dilemma: The Black Church and Economics

the Pulpit and the Pew: The Black Church and Women

"In My Mother's House": The Black Church and Young People

The Performed Word: Music and the Black Church

The Black Church and the Twenty-First Century: Challenges to the Black Church

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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