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The Shape of Zion is a practical and functional resource that provides a public profile of the organizational backbone of black congregations within the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA), and historically black congregations including: African Methodist Episcopal African Methodist Episcopal Zion Christian Methodist Episcopal Church of God in Christ National Baptist Convention of America National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. Progressive National Baptist Convention Research for this resource was initiated to enhance the capability of religious denominations in the use of congregational studies. It will provide pastoral leadership with principles and guidance, allowing congregations to compare themselves to other faith groups and congregations. Questions for reflection, decision, and action are also included.
The dynamic witness of the Black church is an essential part of Christian history. In this groundbreaking two-volume work, Walter R. Strickland II presents a theological-intellectual history of African American Christianity. Volume 1, a narrative history, explores five theological anchors of Black Christianity from the 1600s to the present.
This volume deals with the varied forms of shame reflected in biblical, theological, psychological and anthropological sources. Although traditional theology and church practice concentrate on providing forgiveness for shameful behavior, recent scholarship has discovered the crucial relevance of social shame evoked by mental status, adversity, slavery, abuse, illness, grief and defeat. Anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists have discovered that unresolved social shame is related to racial and social prejudice, to bullying, crime, genocide, narcissism, post-traumatic stress and other forms of toxic behavior. Eleven leaders in this research participated in a conference on The Shame Factor, sponsored by St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Lincoln, NE in October 2010. Their essays explore the impact and the transformation of shame in a variety of arenas, comprising in this volume a unique and innovative resource for contemporary religion, therapy, ethics, and social analysis.
""Wimberly's latest work presents pastors, church lay leaders and scholars with a new lens to think critically and joyously about how Christian education undergirds and supports the worship experience in nurturing faith and hope in black parishioners."" --David L. Wallace, Sr., Dean, Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary The Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta, Georgia ""This highly recommended work provides a thoughtful yet comprehensive framework of the black Christian worshipping community as the context where faith and hope are nurtured."" --Marsha Snulligan Haney, Associate Professor of Missiology and Religions of the World, The Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlant...
What is the nature and purpose of the Black Church? What is the relationship of the scholar of religion to the Black Church? While black churches have been a major component of the religious landscape of African American communities for centuries, little critical attention has been given to these questions outside an apologetic stance. This book seeks to correct this trend by examining some of the major issues facing black churches in the twenty-first century. From a challenge to traditional ways of addressing sexism within black churches to African American Christianity's relationship to popular culture, this set of reflections seeks to offer new perspectives on what it might mean to be Black and Christian in the United States.
This book examines the relationship between race, religion, and economics within the black church. The book features unheard voices of individuals experiencing economic deprivation and the faith communities who serve as their refuge. Thus, this project examines the economic ethics of black churches in the rural South whose congregants and broader communities have long struggled amidst persistent poverty. Through a case study of communities in Alabama's Black Belt, this book argues that if the economic ethic of the Black Church remains accommodationist, it will continue to become increasingly irrelevant to communities that experience persistent poverty. Despite its historic role in combatting racial oppression and social injustice, the Church has also perpetuated ideologies that uncritically justify unjust social structures. Wilson shows how the Church can shift the conversation and reality of poverty by moving from a legacy of accommodationism and toward a legacy of empowering liberating economic ethics.
One of the unique aspects of the religious profession is the high percentage of those who claim to be “called by God” to do their work. This call is particularly important within African American Christian traditions. Divine Callings offers a rare sociological examination of this markedly understudied phenomenon within black ministry. Richard N. Pitt draws on over 100 in-depth interviews with Black Pentecostal ministers in the Church of God in Christ—both those ordained and licensed and those aspiring—to examine how these men and women experience and pursue “the call.” Viewing divine calling as much as a social process as it is a spiritual one, Pitt delves into the personal stori...
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