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The Biblical Tradition of the Poor and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Get PDFFew persons conversant with history would challenge the statement that Martin Luther King, Jr., envisoned the Beloved Community as being inseparable from the alleviation of economic inequity and the achievement of economic justice. He focused our attention on social welfare (health care, quality education, housing, a guaranteed income); on social justice (challenging racism, materialism, militarism, and classism); and on the world society (speaking for peace and freedom for the whole community). He sought Community but realized that chaos was inevitable, given the neglect and abuse of the poor. The Beloved Community was symbolized by King as the promise land in which there is “economic and cultural stability.”1 Harvey Cox has perceptively observed that King made use of two traditional Biblical themes: the “holiness of the poor” and the “blessed community.”
Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, Front Matter, 1977
No full textThe JOURNAL OF THE INTERDENOMINATIONAL THEOLOGICAL CENTER is published semi-annually by The Faculty of The Interdenominational Theological Center, 671 Beckwith Street, SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30314
Oral Tradition and Spiritual Drama: The Cultural Mosaic for Black Preaching
Get PDFThe unique character of Black preaching may be viewed in the context of two interrelated cultural phenomena: the oral tradition and ritualdrama. Among the most insightful commentaries on Black preaching are works by James Weldon Johnson, William H. Pipes, and Henry H. Mitchell. In an effort to contribute to the dialogue on a style of worship which has been submerged in misunderstanding and misrepresentation, this article seeks to examine the meaning and function of these phenomena.
Afro-American Religion and Oracles: Santeria in Cuba
Get PDFDuring the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the island of Cuba underwent a surging economic expansion based on increased production of sugar. At the same time the Yoruba people of what is present-day Nigeria were waging a series of disastrous wars with their neighbors and among themselves. Prisoners of these wars were sold in huge numbers to European slave traders and hundreds of thousands of Yoruba were brought to Cuba to labor in the new sugar mills.1 Yet despite the atrocious conditions of the Middle Passage, and the disorientations of plantation slavery, the Yoruba were able to reconstitute their identity and equilibrium by means of their religious practices. The transplanted practices were gradually adapted to complement and reflect the Roman Catholicism of the Spanish colonies. The resulting tradition came to be known as santeria, the cult of the saints.2 In order to assess the role of African religion in the make-up of Afro-American religion it would be useful to develop a way to distinguish African from European religion. I think that the best way to do this is to examine the ritual side of a religion: what I am calling the ritual approach. A ritual approach is the way a people “go about’’ their religion, the way they put it into practice. To paraphrase Anthony Wallace, a ritual approach is what accomplishes what a religion setsout to do.3 This is a loose distinction, valuable, I think, because it is more useful and interesting than the traditional ways of dealing with the African religious inheritance in the Americas. If it is truly useful it should have applications to other Afro-American religious traditions. To begin to explore these possibilities we can begin with a very brief sketch of santeria. 
Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, Back Matter, 1980
No full textInterdenominational Theological Center An Ecumenical Professional Graduate School of Theolog
Recent Directions In Black Theological Education
Get PDFWhen the committee charged with the responsibility of selecting a speaker for this occasion of the inauguration of Dr. James Deotis Roberts as the fourth president of The Interdemoninational Theological Center, we were highly conscious of the seriousness of our task. We feel that in the selection of Andrew Young as the man for this occasion we have fulfilled in a highly laudable manner our task. For, first of all, he is a product of the ethos of the black community. Secondly, he so adequately symbolizes our ideal of a Christian minister. He is as is well known eminently qualified educationally, with honors too many to enumerate. Personally I am honored because Andrew Young has for a long time been a contemporary in the civil rights struggle for freedom and human dignity. I recall, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, when he was employed, first, as a staff member, and, subsequently, elected Executive Director of that organization. When he was elected a United States Congressman from the 5th District of the State of Georgia, the Reverend Dr. Young did not relinquish his interest in the civil rights movement, nor did he hold his peace when he was appointed Ambassador to The United Nations. Indeed, his commitment to justice have overflowed into every responsibility that he has assumed. Many persons in our nation, in other nations, indeed, in the world, have not always agreed with Ambassador Young, but without exception, no one has had an occasion to question his ethical commitment or moral integrity. For he has accepted every responsibility knowing full well that there could well come that time when resignation was more desirable than the compromise of personal integrity. It is for this standard that he has earned our respect and acclaim. As scholar, politician, as Christian gentleman, a world reknown and recognizedstatesman, as spokesman for justice and human dignity, he is my ambassador still. I have the greatest happiness in presenting to you Ambassador Andrew Young
Black Ecumenism and Theological Educator
Get PDFDr. C. Eric Lincoln in writing about the vision of The Congress of National Black Churches, an Institutional-Denominational coming together of the Seven Historic Black Churches of over 100,000 membership entitles the vision “The Search for Community in an On-going Tradition,” and writes:“One of the peculiar legacies of the Black experience in religion in America has been the distinctive cultural patterning of the Black Christian churches. While Africa was one of the earliest and most fertile seedbeds of Christianity, the West African diaspora who came eventually to embrace the faith in America did so largely on the basis of their contact with the prevailing Anglo-Saxon culture here in the New World. In consequence, bath and baby came in the same catchment, and the African expatriates who had already been forced into a common secular mode by virtue of being Black and African, now found themselves bequeathed a religious faith as varigated in style and conformation as the roots of European sectarianism could make it. Hence, ‘conversion’ for the African diaspora meant considerably more than the voluntary assumption of the Cross. It meant also the involuntary assumption of the peculiar budens of Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Congregationalism, or one of several varieties of Presbyterianism, Baptism or Methodism
Questions Out Of The Fire: Spiritual Implications of the Holocaust
Get PDFThis essay reflects on the continuing spiritual implications of the Holocaust of 1933-45, the Nazi program for the extermination of millions of humans deemed physically or mentally unfit, or racially impure. The following questions will guide our investigation of the spiritual consequences of this human tragedy: 1) Are human values rooted in reality? 2) Is there any permanent “human nature,” and if so, what is it? 3) What is the meaning of the Holocaust for contemporary Christianity? 4) What are the implications of the Holocaust for our understanding of the “modern” world