The Black Church in the African American Experience

The Black Church in the African American Experience

Black churches in America have long been recognized as the most independent, stable, and dominant institutions in black communities. In The 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 Church'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.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars A comprehensive history of the black church
This is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the history and sociology of the black church. It is written from an academic perspective, but — refreshingly — is free of academic jargon, and is accessible to the journalist, church member or student. It was written in 1990, so its research is now a bit dated. Nevertheless, it is a comprehensive and thorough introduction to the the major black denominations: the National Baptists, African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Christian Methodist Episcopal, Church of God in Christ, etc. It includes such useful information as a denomination's policies on women, politics and church hierarchy. I would eagerly await a new, updated edition.

5 Stars great
outstanding work

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