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The Social Cosmos of Black Ecumenism
Get PDFPrior to World War II, the black sub-culture had been in stolid isolation from the rest of the country for as long as Blacks had been in America. The black world was a cosmos apart, seldom penetrated from the outside except by the white mercantilists, and largely left to the development of its own cultural profile through the instrumentality of its own peculiar devices. The organizing matrix was the Black Church, which, curiously enough, had never been one church but many, and ecumenism had never been a salient feature of the black experience
Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, Back Matter, 1979
No full textInterdenominational Theological Center An Ecumenical Professional Graduate School of Theolog
Color Symbolism and Third-World Religious Life
Get PDFIn this paper I would like to discuss the effects of color symbolism in the spirituality of third-world Christians. By third-world Christians, I mean dark-skinned Christians. Among these I include Black American Christians. A characteristic feature of third-world Christians is their poverty and state of oppression. Oppression is not merely a material state for them but also a spiritual one. In other words, it is not merely economicand politicial but also psychological and mental
Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, Front Matter, 1981
No full textTHE JOURNAL OFTHE INTERDENOMINATIONAL THEOLOGICAL CENTER is published semi-annually by the Faculty of The Interdenominational Theological Center, 671 Beckwith Street, SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30314. Manuscripts and related correspondence should be sent to The Editor at the address above. Matters pertaining to subscriptions and back issues should be directed to Wilson N. Flemister at the school address. Copyright, 1978, by the Interdenominational Theological Center. All rights reserved. 
Sketches of Early Black Methodists
Get PDFWhat methods are we to employ in the understanding of history? Certainly one of the most useful—and fascinating—approaches is through personalities, the prominent and the little known. What better technique for our present study than to stroll through a portrait gallery, observing sketches of early black Methodists. Many are nameless, so far as extant records show, but these men and women whose names are now known only to God, made an invaluable contribution. Some faces are easily recognized. All belong and all have an important story to tell. Time permits us to select but a few. Many more could—and should—be included, and this calls for continued research and publication
The Genesis of Douglass’ Moral Understanding While a Slave: A Methodological Approach to Freedom
Get PDFFrederick Douglass’ autobiographical1 statement of slavery, a classic in its own right, represents one method of approach in the history ofAfro-Americans’ freedom struggle. It is a strand in their complex and diverse moral history. A critical analysis of it serves two purposes for this discussion: 1) It demonstrates that Afro-American consciousness has never been homogenized about any particular method of liberation. Instead, the moral history of slaves suggests diverse understandings about what constituted appropriate methods of liberation. 2) It contributes theoretical elements that suggest a more inclusive interpretation of the history of Afro-American morality. This study, perhaps, will contribute to a scholarly method of interpretation that identifies methodology that is indigenous to Afro-American materials. It challenges, in particular, theologians, and social ethicists to re-examine the primary sources for interpretation. Most students of the literature will agree that the Afro-American religious imagination has richly influenced the social, political and economic facets of American life. No scholarly effort as of yet has constructively interpreted the history of Afro-American morality. This discussion is an initial contribution to that rigorous task
Evil, Being Black, And Love
Get PDFThe revival of interest in the problem of evil has coincided with a popular concentration on the holocaust. The two may not be connected. Evil as a theological problem or stumbling block in the religious life continually re-emerges because it is never really solved. The dilemma evil poses looms up more decisively in a modern era just because many want to ban evil and be convinced of human progress. Like Marx, they want to let men bear their own responsibility for evil without calling on God. It is partly, then, the enormity of the destruction of the holocaust, plus our growing disillusionment with modern notions of progress or human evolution, that has brought evil back as a problem
The Healing Tradition Of The Black Church And Modern Science: A Model Of Traditioning
No full textWe live in a period of great spiritual awakening in America. This awakening is characterized by the following dimensions: (1) a deep frustration with secular and scientific solutions to human problems, (2) an awareness of the deep need within persons to be whole relational creatures, (3) a consciousness that people must be committed to something beyond themselves, and (4) a growing knowledge that there must be some continuity with the past for life to have meaning. In a real sense we are in the post modern age where the secularistic desire to remove divine references from all life is on the decline. People are less ashamed now than previously to own the religious leanings and spiritual steerings that are deep in their souls
Historians and Afro-American Religion
Get PDF“The Negro has already been pointed out many times as a religious animal, — a being of that deep emotional nature which turns instinctively toward the supernatural.”1With these words W. E. B. DuBoisstates one of the two basic assumptions of much of the writing on black religion. The other is like unto it: “The Negro church of to-day is the social centre of Negro life in the United States and the most characteristic expression of the African character.” Few scholars who have dealt either superficially or extensively with the life or history of Afro-America have challenged these assumptions. One wonders, then, why these same scholars have dealt so carelessly or cusorily with these apparently critical dimensions of black American existence
The Leadership Practicum؛ The Space Where DMin Education, Action Based Research and Interfaith Dialogue Converge
Get PDFThis essay argues that inteffaith engagement is an invaluable form of Christian mission wherever Christian and other faith communities live together and share common social and geographical space. Actually, it is perhaps one ofthe most valuedforms ofChristian mission operable among dynamic multi-religious urban contexts in North America. The question that stands out is: “What would happen if the core DMin leadership course the practicum-was re-conceptualised to enable the student who is engaged in action-based research to benefit academically from the perspectives and insights of another religion or faith tradition?” My suggestion is that the andragogy that informs my teaching among MDiv theological students at the InterdenominationalTheological Center (ITC), as they are equipped for ministry in the dynamically religious contexts of urban USA; has applicability for DMin education. 2 This unique approach toward interfaith dialogue competency supports and offers current and future Christian leaders opportunities for engaging three religions: African, Jewish and Islamic*, and tlieir faith systems based on a more relational model of inteffaith engagement