The African American Church
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Transcript of The African American Church
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