The Black Church in America African American Christian Spirtuality

by Battle, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781405118927
• ISBN10: 140511892X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-09
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This book gives readers a broad understanding of the Black Church in America and a sense of its uniqueness in the wider world. Explores the history of the Black Church in America, its African roots, beliefs, practices, politics, and contemporary moral dilemmas Argues that in the Black Church, individual and communal destiny are bound together The author is a Priest in the Episcopal Church and teaches spirituality and Black Church studies at Duke University.

Author Biography

Michael Battle served as Assistant Professor of Spirituality and Black Church Studies at Duke University and Rector of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Raleigh, North Carolina before moving to Virginia Theological Seminary. He was also Vice Chairman of the board of the Ghandi Institute. He is the author of The Church Enslaved: A Spirituality of Racial Reconciliation (2005), Reconciliation in a Violent World (2005) Blessed are the Peacemakers: A Christian Spirituality of Nonviolence (2004), The Wisdom of Desmond Tutu (1999) and Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu (1997).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: An Amphibious Worldview	xi
1 Emergence of What is African	1	(22)
African Warnings	1	(11)
What is African?	12	(11)
2 The Particularity of African American Spirituality	23	(20)
3 The Black Church in the Shadow of Slavery	43	(23)
The Scourge of Slavery	46	(11)
The Survival of Africanism	57	(3)
The Emergence of Black Denominations	60	(6)
4 Communal Worship	66	(32)
The Controversy of Emotionalism	70	(2)
"Spiritual Song" and the Emergence of Black Denominations	72	(5)
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church	77	(1)
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church	77	(1)
African American Baptist Churches	78	(7)
National Baptist Convention, USA	85	(1)
African American Pentecostalism	86	(2)
Black Worship	88	(10)
5 Inviting Others to Be Black	98	(29)
African vs. Black: Dialectic Tension	103	(3)
James Cone and Desmond Tutu	106	(9)
African and Black: Communal Synthesis	115	(12)
6 The Black Church as the Beloved Community	127	(36)
King's View: Prophecy and Nonviolence	133	(11)
African American Responses to King	144	(8)
King's Dream of the Beloved Community	152	(2)
Communal Antithesis for King	154	(9)
7 Embodying African American Spirituality	163	(20)
A Churchless Black Church	165	(4)
A Womanless Black Church	169	(7)
The Full Embodiment of the Black Church	176	(7)
Timeline of the Black Church	183	(20)
Websites for Historic Black Denominations	203	(1)
Bibliography	204	(12)
Index	216