1. Black Faith, Communal Worship
4.6.17

2. Michael Battle: Communal Worship
Emergence of Black Denominations
African Methodist Episcopal Church
African American Baptist Church
African American Pentecostalism

3. Battle: Communal worship
African American denominations do not represent schism and fracture
commonalities:
love for all
political and social mobilization
message of deliverance and redemption
style of worship — emotionalism

4. Battle: Communal Worship
Black worship
Allen vs Payne
tensions between emotionalism and formalism
King’s third option of Affirmation
ministry of social healing and empowerment
Spirituals and Blues
framed by black theodicy: “is God a white racist?”
distinction of blues = “not yet” of plantation life and work songs, rather than otherworldly “already” of worship gatherings
false opposites of sacred / profane; mourn / dance

5. Black Faith: Continuity within change
In face of social and political change, black faith communities served as source of stability as well as vehicle for change
acted to solve problems of community organization, education, economic development, and employment
Albert Raboteau
“The centrality the church in the African American’s search for identity and meaning has demonstrated its ongoing adaptability and stability during a period of rapid and unsettling change…For many, religion offered a source of courage, strength, and hope in the midst of times so bleak that repair seemed the only response.”

6. DR Martin Luther King, JR & Black Liberation theology

7. Dr Martin Luther King, JR
Biography: Born in Atlanta. Morehouse graduate. PhD at Boston University
Religious Background - father Baptist minister, MLK becomes Baptist minister
Influenced by Gandhi (non-violence disobedience) and Walter Rauschenbusch (social gospel)
Mountaintop Speech
April 3, 1968
Memphis Sanitation Strike
Last part of speech
Advocates trust in God and to avoid violence

8. James H. Cone Born 1938 in Arkansas
MA and PhD from Northwestern University
Currently teaches at Union Theological Seminar in NYC
Ordained minister in AME church
Influenced by Black Power Movement, Malcolm X, & MLK jr
Stressed the idea that theology is not universal, but rather is tied to social and historical contexts

9. Black Liberation Theology
Connection to slavery in America
Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, MLK Jr
Reads Bible through experience of people who have suffered
Contends that dominant cultures have corrupted Christianity
Result is a mainstream faith-based empire that serves its own interests, not God’s
Asks whose side should God be one — the side of the oppressed or the oppressors?
Belief in alternative and true God who desires the empowerment of the oppressed through self-definition, self-affirmation, and self-determination
Cone interview
Black Liberation Theology, Jeremiah Wright

10. Religion, Race and Identity

11. MLK Jr, Black Theology and Black Church — article
What is Cone’s argument about the relationship between King, the black church, and scholarship?
King Interview (6 min)
Who is King’s audience in this video? How do his answers reflect that? (411)
How does Cone argue that King’s actions demonstrate his connections to the black church?
SCLC & Ebenezer Baptist (412)
Critique of Civil Rights Movement and Southern white ministers (415)
Cone’s argument about oppression: “Freedom is not a gift but must be taken” (416)

12. Cone, King & Black Theology
Cone differs from King in the following ways:
Believes that any mean, not just non-violence, should be used to achieve freedom
Believes that “the people who benefit from the unjust social, political, and economic order are not likely to be the ones who will change it radically (416)
“…groups seldom, if ever, can transcend their interests for the sake of another” (416)
Contends that differences between he and King are understood better within the context of the Black Church

13. freedom and hope
Significance of the “eschatological hopes freedom” found in King’s diction (417)
Cosmic peace?
Who does this appeal to?
How does this relate to King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” sermon?
Key to understanding King’s theology is understanding the relationship between style and meaning (417)
Meaning is found in the way the word is spoke, as well as the effect upon those who hear it
Style is reflected in sermon oration