The Black Church in the African American Experience

Pages: 536
Size: 6" x 9"
ISBN: 0822310732
Publish Date: 1990
Publisher: DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Black Church in America has long been recognized as the most independent, stable, and dominant institution in black communities. Based on a ten-year study, The Black Church in the African American Experience is the largest non-governmental survey of urban and rural churches ever undertaken and was the first major field study since the thirties.
Drawing on interviews with more than 1,1000 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 challenges, the authors provide important insights into the Churchs relationship to politics, economics, women, youth, and music, 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 survey was made possible by the Lilly Endowment and the Ford Foundation.