The African-American Church Experience

Last Sunday night at our church, Eric Washington, Assistant Professor of African-American and African History at Calvin College, spoke to our congregation on “The African-American Church Experience”. Eric and his family live in our area and attend our church often on Sunday evenings. They will be moving to Grand Rapids soon, so I asked if he would teach at our church before he left. I learned a lot from him on Sunday night. The lecture is definitely worth listening to (this new link really should work).

Eric framed the discussion around the doctrine of providence. Without mitigating at all the discrimination and oppression African-Americans have endured at the hands of whites in this country, Eric nevertheless claimed that the story of the African-American church is the story of God’s providence. To that end, he began his talk with a quotation from Absalom Jones, the first African-American priest in the Episcopal Church. Jones, who pastored the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, had this to say during a sermon on January 1, 1808, the day that marked the end of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade in the United States:

There’s always been a mystery why the impartial Father of the human race should have permitted the transportation of so many millions of our fellow creatures to this country to endure all of the miseries of slavery. Perhaps his design was that a knowledge of the gospel might be acquired by some of their descendants in order that they might become qualified to be messengers of it to the land of their fathers.

Eric probes these themes of providence and suffering in more detail in his talk.

If my notes are correct, Eric’s outline looks like this:

I. Slavery and the Church
II. Independence Movements
III. Civil Rights Movement and Social Justice
IV. Concerns for the African-American church today
V. Signs of Hope in the African-American Church
VI. Lessons to be Learned

At the end of the Q/A, Eric mentioned several books for those who are interested in reading more about African-American Church History or reading good books by contemporary African-American Christians. I’ve read the last three books and highly recommend them. The first two books look interesting as well.

Albert Raboteau. African-American Religion.

Milton C. Sernett. African-American Religious History: A Documentary Witness.

Thabiti Anyabwile. The Decline of African American Theology: From Biblical Faith to Cultural Captivity.

Thabiti Anyabwile. The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three Pioneering African-American Pastors.

Anthony Carter. On Being Black and Reformed: A New Perspective on the African-American Christian Experience.

Listen to the whole talk. Eric is a good scholar, a committed evangelical, reformed Christian, and an all around nice guy.