The African American ChurchThe Many Dimensions of the African American Religious Experience

The DimensionsThe Religious Dimensions: The Black Sacred Cosmos. The religious worldview of the Black

Church involves the African heritage and the conversion (or response) to Christianity.

Central Institutional Sector and Partial Differentiation. The Black Church is the center of the

Black community. It is the only stable institution that has existed since slavery. There was no complete separation between

the secular and the sacred. Clergy had impact on political and social

organization that was desired and expected.

The following is from the Black Church in the Sixties by Hart Nelson and Anne Kusener Nelsen; it is on pages 10-15.

Interpretive ModelsThe Assimilation Model The Black Church is a “stumbling block to

assimilation in the American mainstream.”

The Isolation Model The Black Church isolates itself from the

community because of racism. Religion is for lower class people not for middle or upper class. [There they are . . . Too bad]

InterpretiveThe Compensatory Model The main attraction of the church is

to provide a place for the masses of Blacks to have control over their own institutions.

Ethnic Community-Prophetic Provides a community support as well

as a prophetic function.

The Dialectical Model of the Black Church

There are 6 dialectic models of the Black Church. Although they are “polar opposites” the churches’ actual practice is somewhere within the continuum. Furthermore, a church may practice more than one model at a time and there may be other models. These models are just frameworks.

The dialectic between Priestly and prophetic functions Worship versus

community activities

http://umcna.bsc.edu/images/voice/03.02.cvr.jpg

Father Augustt Tolto- the 1st universally recognized priest in the US http://www.holyangels.com/images/Father%20Augustus%20Tolton2.gif

The dialectic betweenOther-worldly versus this-worldly Concerns of

heaven and the afterlife versus the here and now.

http://www.someonespecial.com/cgi-bin/someone/19D6148431.html

http://www.albrightknox.org/acquisitions/acq_2000/Colescott.html

The dialectic betweenUniversalism versus particularism The universality of

the Christian message versus the particularity of the African American lived experience—Black consciousness.

http://members.tripod.com/zaggyworld/images/YRoseAlosblnk4.jpg

http://www.denverblackchurch.org/newimages/reading.jpg

The dialectic betweenThe communal and the privatistic. The churches’

involvement in all aspects of communal life versus withdrawing and seeing after the needs of its adherents.

http://www.monticello.org/gettingword/reunion.jpg

http://www.chevrontexaco.com/social_responsibility/community/images/music_competition.jpg

The dialectic betweenCharismatic versus bureaucratic. The organizational

style of the church tends to move toward charismatic (a person centered) as opposed to a bureaucratic which seems to rely on a “system” to insure functionality.

http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/usa/book268br-a.jpg

http://www.artsofcitizenship.umich.edu/sos/topics/images/2baptch.jpg

The dialectic betweenResistance and accommodation The church has

been the leader for change and compromised.

http://www.earthstation1.com/Civil_Rights/MLK/Pics/MLK55-WithAbernathyAndRosaParks.jpg

http://www.library.arizona.edu/images/afamer/dunbar/churpr2_400.jpg