The Black Church in the African American Experience

by C. Eric Lincoln, Lawrence H. Mamiya

Black churches in America have long been recognized as the most independent, stable, and dominant institutions in black communities. In The Black Church in the African American Experience, based on a ten-year study, is the largest nongovernmental study of urban and rural churches ever undertaken and the first major field study on the subject since the 1930s.Drawing on interviews with more than 1,800 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 changes, the authors provide important insights into the Church’s relationship to politics, economics, women, youth, and music.Among other topics, Lincoln and Mamiya discuss the attitude of the clergy toward women pastors, the reaction of the Church to the civil rights movement, the attempts of the Church to involve young people, the impact of the black consciousness movement and Black Liberation Theology and clergy, 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 ten-year survey was made possible by the Lilly Endowment and the Ford Foundation.

Genres: History, Religion, Church History, Nonfiction, Theology, Sociology, Audiobook

808 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 7, 1990

Reviews

[Tyler Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 400+ pager is a crash course on the history and state of the black church in the US. It is pretty dense and very data driven, but really helpful understanding the distinctives of the major black church denominations. My only complaints are that 1) a lot has happened in the US since 1990 and some sections felt a little dated, and 2) on a few topics, the authors have an opinion about what health is (for example, the ordination of women clergy) and they let that viewpoint color their assessment.

The authors begin by surveying the major black denominations (Baptists, Methodists, and Pentecostals), and the unique experience of urban and suburban black churches. Then they examine the black church experience from a variety of standpoints. The thing I left most impressed with regarding the black church was what Lincoln and Mamiya call its "inherent genius" which is "its holistic ministry that seeks to encompass all of life because human beings are not only spiritual, but also physical and social creatures" (400).

[Michele Waggoner · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a black woman who was not raised in a black church denomination, this book was an excellent educational resource. At times, I felt that some of the language adultified black girls (ex: "teenage woman"), but other than that, I thought that the book was well researched and concise. I know that the black church receives a lot of criticism. It's not a perfect institution, but I am very thankful for the contributions that it has made to our community and to American Christianity in general. Our history as foundational Black Americans is complexed but it's also incredibly enriching and inspirational.

[Andrew Ivester · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is long and littered with statistics and analysis throughout. The authors labor to provide all of the data that they do in order to validate the points that are made. It is well written and conclusions are carefully drawn. I am definitely more aware of the history surround the African American Church in a way that helps me better understand both past realities and current trends. Although long, it is definitely worth a read in regards to gaining proper perspective on the Black Church.

[Stuart Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Information rich

This book is filled with information capturing the black church experience. This book updates the commentary on the black church. The author doesn’t shy away from the issues that have driven change in the church. I would suggest reading the content slowly so the crucial concepts aren’t overlooked.
I couldn’t appreciate the statistical tables as structured in the book. The labeling could have been better so the intended information is more easily understood.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Black Church and the African American Experience has an excellent opening chapter that explores the cultural significance of the Sacred Black Cosmos in Black American Culture, but the Christian church history that comprises the bulk of this text can be occasionally dense and less relevant for literature scholars.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was bit quite what I was looking for. This is a sociological look at the Black Church, not so much a historical look. This leads to a lot data discussed resulting from their surveys. It was interesting for what it was, but the pervasive secular utilitarian view of the church was somewhat annoying.

[Daniel Kleven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent; comprehensive; essential reading on the Black church.

[Zack Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Text

This was a great text. I used it several times for research and recommendations regarding the restoration of the church in the 21st century.

[Michael Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lincoln and Mamiya describe their study as one of social description, historical overview, and statistical analysis of “the churches and clergy that comprise the seven major historic black denominations:” African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.); African Methodist Episcopal Zion (A.M.E.Z.); Christian Methodist Episcopal (C.M.E.); National Baptist Convention, U.S.A. (NBC); National Baptist Convention of America (NBCA); Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC); and Church of God in Christ (COGIC).

The authors spend considerable time describing their “dialectical model” of the black church, noting several such tensions: priestly vs. prophetic; other-worldly vs. this–worldly; universalism vs. particularism; communal vs. privatistic; charismatic vs. bureaucratic; and resistance vs. accommodation. Oddly, once they have established this model, they abandon it for the remainder of the book.

The authors contend that the black churches are the central institution in black communities. They are also “the cultural womb” of these community, giving birth to numerous social and educational institutions. The spend considerable time discussing both the rural and urban churches and the nature of leadership in both.

They provide a lengthy discussion of black churches and political activism, especially with regard to the civil rights movement, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and their role in electoral and protest politics.
The most curious aspect of their book is their discussion of the role of women in the black church.
The authors acknowledge that women make up the vast majority of members of these churches. Women make up between 66 and 80 percent of the membership of the churches they surveyed, with men making up on average only 30 percent of the membership of any given congregation. Because of the pervasive belief that only men may be ordained church leaders, of the 363 clergy the sampled, 346 were males and 17 were females. The authors then deliberately oversampled female clergy to adjust for this overwhelming male bias. However, because the authors chose to interview only church leaders, their study really concerns what male leaders of black churches think about topics and dialectics involved. Women have little say and non-leaders have no say in their findings.

The book does provide an immense trove of statistical data on black churches (or at least the perceptions of its male leadership) that has proven useful to researchers over the years. Perhaps now is the time for a renewal of this study with broader inclusion of women and laypeople.