Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church

by Barbara A. Holmes

The exuberance of its worship and its mighty social-justice witness are well-known features of the black-church life and legacy. More subdued yet equally distinctive, says Barbara Holmes, is the tradition African American contemplative practices, those elements in the tradition that mediate experience of the divine.Her research—through oral histories, church records, and written accounts—details not only ways in which contemplative experience is built into African American collective worship but also the legacy of African monasticism, a history of spiritual exemplars, and unique meditative worship practices that originated in the southern Delta region of the U.S. She shows how African Americans made contemplative practice into a communal experience. Probing first the history, then the present practices, and finally the future of African Americans' inward journey, Holmes connects us all to a stream of life energy that animates the whole Christian sojourn.

Author Bio:Barbara A. Holmes is Associate Professor of Ethics and African American Religious Studies at Memphis Theological Seminary. An accomplished attorney as well as an ordained pastor and theologian, she is author of Race and the Cosmos: An Invitation to View the World Differently (2002) and A Private Woman in Public Spaces: Barbara Jordan's Speeches on Ethics, Public Religion, and Law (2000). FORTRESS INTRODUCTION TO THE PROPHETS

Genres: Spirituality, Religion, Christianity, Theology, Nonfiction, Christian, Faith

Audio CD

First published July 1, 2004

Reviews

[Steve Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barbara Holmes challenges a narrow, Eurocentric definition of Christian contemplation by examining the full range of contemplative practices of the Black church. Contemplation isn't merely stillness or silence; it is whatever roots us inward - toward spirit, toward wisdom, toward an anchor in the best of the traditions of ancestors, toward a unity of heart and mind, toward an integration of intellect and emotion and action.

"Our obsession with blamed with the question of who is or is not worthy of God's full embrace disrupts the journey. For we are not headed toward a single goal: we are on a pilgrimage toward the center of our hearts.... We need only make the contemplative turn to restore our inner sight." (200)

Holmes looks not just to the songs and prayers and culture and Biblical interpretation of the Black church, narrowly defined, but to the spirituality of social protest movements, the wisdom of Black leaders operating outside the sphere of church, the syncretism of the Christian tradition meeting African spirituality, the expressions of wisdom and heart-centeredness of Black music.

Holmes' commitment to the wisdom and life of her culture and generosity in sharing it is beautiful. Her blending of preservation and welcome of innovation is also unusual. This book belongs in any course or journey of Christian spirituality or spiritual direction.

[Drick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barbara Holmes contemplative practices found in the African American church, past and present. Beginning with the religious practices of West Africa, Holmes examines the contemplative moments in slaveholder religion, the historic Black Church, the Civil Rights Movement, Barack Obama and Black lives Matter. She concludes with a chapter on the use of the arts in black religion.

In the process Holmes redefines contemplation. Traditional contemplation has been seen as a private individual practice of prayer and meditation before and with God. Holmes presents contemplation as something that is communal, outwardly expressive, and actively practices and experiences in the course of one's daily life. The historic view of contemplation she notes I primarily European and Western, where the traditions of Africa and the African Diaspora are much different.

I found this book not only to be enlightening in terms of helping describe and explain current practices in many Black churches, but also personally stretching, inviting me to expand my understanding of God's presence in my life and the world. For years I have sought to develop what I have alternatively called Urban Spirituality, Engaged Spirituality, and Activist Spirituality. I have always suspected that African-American spirituality had something to teach me. Holmes confirmed that suspicion

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Holiness can be found in refugee camps, in prisons, and under viaducts. It is as apparent when we are in communion with those who are in economic, physical, or spiritual peril as it is during liturgy and worship."

Words such as these make up this delicious read. If you want to know more about contemplation then this is an excellent way to learn.

[BrendaC · Rating 5 out of 5]

This reads like a dissertation on the Black church. It details its African and American origins and the assimilation into society at large. This book speaks insight and irrefutable facts about social justice movements such as BLM and CRM. It compares and contrasts the two. This book specifically addresses contemplative practices that aim towards building a better society. I learned so much from this second edition and you will too.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Contemplation is not confined to designated and institutional sacred places... Some sacred places bear none of the expected characteristics. The fact that we prefer stained glass windows, pomp and circumstance... has nothing to do with the sacred."

Barbara Holmes' JOY UNSPEABLE is a blend of Africana history, academic discussion of contemplation and her own experience.

Fairly early on in her book, Holmes brings up Randall Bailey's point that there has been a de-Africanization of Christianity, which has led to a forgetting that Augustine - one of the pillars of the Christian church - was a bishop from Africa.

When she zeros in on the beginnings of the African-American church in the US, things really start to get interesting. Holmes writes that "hush arbors" provided a physical place, far enough away from plantation owners, where slaves could "pray about their situation in cries so heartfelt that heaven itself must have shuddered."

Thus was born the African-American roots of the black church's style of contemplation.

"Slavery is a crisis of such extraordinary proportions that unless equally extraordinary measures are taken, the result will always be the destruction of humanness... The contemplative turn occurs in the midst of trauma and is a crisis mediation that gives birth to a new community. This community contemplatively reorders its priorities and begins the designated task of sifting through God's broken heart for their liberation."

Unlike eurocentric forms of contemplation, which tend to be individual, quiet and removed from the physical world, Holmes argues that "I have often wondered what Christian communities expect when they invoke the presence of the Spirit called Holy. [In the African-American experience] something happened when the Spirit was present."

"The historical black church is the blessed legacy of the ancestors," says Holmes. Ancestors that are on a pilgrimmage where "that which has afflicted you may become your salvation."

Given its rich history of communal contemplation, out loud and lamenting, in the middle of struggle, Holmes calls the black church in North America to "Claim its role as mother and witness to the working of God here on earth. As a mother, its first call is not to church growth but the birthing and nurturing of the Christ imaged in the least of us. As a witness to God-with-us against war and hurting the poor."

Holmes reminds us of the three Marys (among them Mary, Jesus' mother, and Mary Magdelene) who remained at the foot of the cross with Jesus while all of his other followers, save John, fled.
Holmes sees their witness as a powerful form of contemplation, right in the middle of suffering.

She makes an interesting point that "contemplation always involves some mix of reality and transcendence... even more problematic is the belief that we are right and that our image and understanding of God supersedes all others..." Pentecost, to Holmes' way of thinking, is born out of communal contemplation and "from the realm of multiple realities, the Spirit storms the upper room, and disrupts the probability of institutional dysfunction that is certain to follow Christ's leavetaking."

Holmes offers the rich examples of Fannie Hamer, Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey as being expressions of black contemplatives. In Holmes' opinion what black America needs is a "return to reclaim its unique Africana contemplative heritage," in order to re-connect spirituality with the present social justice movement in the US. Holmes argues that the passive resistance of the Civil Right movement of the 1960s was "the spiritual destination of these justice processons and was the consciousness of the nation." Holmes continues, "the end result was that a proportedly Christian nation was forced to view its black citizens as a prototype of the suffering God, absorbing violence into their own bodies without retaliation."

While Holmes is aware of the difference between the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the Black Lives Matter movement, [which is not grounded in black churches] she has hopes that the BLM movement will build upon this legacy.

At the end of the day, Holmes remains deeply hopeful, defining hope as "a commitment to the strangeness of the future - a future that is uncertain, fragile, carefully negotiated and often wretched, strained and disfigured through suffering, yet it is situated in the narrow space of transcendence, like the element of surprise in the narrative, the imagined possibility tht brings resolution and redemption to the tragic and ironic, only to be upended and retured again to the struggle."

Holmes concludes: "The creative exchange between the forces of segregation and nonviolent resistance could only be engaged after a contemplative period away from the immediacy of the struggle... In order to make new worlds, you need a profound understanding of the world as it is. The key is to be grounded in present reality with a reflexive grasp of the past and an irrational hope for the future."

[Adam Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: An exploration of contemplation in the Black church.

Part of the importance of reading widely is opening up our perspectives to correction. Joy Unspeakable is both discussing the contemplative practices of the Black church but redefining contemplation for those in and outside the Black church

I did not read Joy Unspeakable quickly. l slowly read the book over a couple of months. I probably read it a bit too slowly but I finished it as I was halfway through Armchair Mystic, a book assigned for my Spiritual Direction program. Armchair Mystic is attempting to teach the basics of contemplative prayer. On, the whole it is a helpful book but it is rooted in a white western concept of contemplation.

"Black people for far too long have been forced to refine our message according to what is comfortable for the mainstream. We have made a distinctive choice not to do it...Our goal is to be free and authentic, not to pacify others." Joy Unspeakable redefines or explores aspects of contemplation that have been under-appreciated. There are more traditional ideas like music and traditional liturgy and prayer and historical legacy. But more important to me is the non-traditional, activism, the leadership of Obama, BLM, and the subversion of older activist models, modern music, hip hop, blues, jazz, etc.

When the word contemplation comes to my mind, I think of Thomas Merton and his lengthy and illuminating discourses about the practices that include complete dependence on God. But I also want to talk about Martin Luther King Jr. and his combination of interiority and activism, Howard and Sue Bailey Thurman and their inward journeys. I want to present Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, Barbara Jordan, and the unknown black congregations that sustained whole communities without fanfare or notice.

Part of the importance of Joy Unspeakable and considering contemplation from a position that is beyond silence and individual prayer is that contemplation is fuel to an integrated life.

"...the human task is threefold. First, the human spirit must connect to the Eternal by turning toward God’s immanence and ineffability with yearning. Second, each person must explore the inner reality of his or her humanity, facing unmet potential and catastrophic failure with unmitigated honesty and grace. Finally, each one of us must face the unlovable neighbor, the enemy outside of our embrace, and the shadow skulking in the recesses of our own hearts. Only then can we declare God’s perplexing and unlikely peace on earth."

A significant portion of what I found helpful is a focus on the communal aspects of contemplation.

The key to contemplation in the black church seems to be its emergence as a communal practice. Although European mystics and contemplatives often lived in community, they tended to focus on the individual experience of encountering the divine presence. African American contemplatives turned the “inward journey” into a communal experience. In this ethnic context, the word contemplation includes but does not require silence or solitude. Instead, contemplative practices can be identified in public prayers, meditative dance movements, and musical cues that move the entire congregation toward a communal listening and entry into communion with a living God.

I have 26 highlights on my Goodreads page. This is a good book and I probably need to re-read it again in a year or so.

[Sherri · Rating 3 out of 5]

JOY UNSPEAKABLE: CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES OF THE BLACK CHURCH (Second Edition)
Barbara Holmes, 2017
3 Stars

Get your dictionary out. This author’s vocabulary is from the Ivory Tower!

This difficult book’s audience seems to be Black Theological Academia. I find myself in a quandary as to how to rate it as I am neither black nor in theological academia. Many would even say I don’t have the right to rate it because of my race, culture, and history. How could I possibly understand? What I am, though, is a Christian so I’ll use that to justify qualifications to make any comments at all.

Ms Holmes’ purpose is to explain the integral importance, history, and influences of contemplation in spiritual development among the peoples of the African Diaspora and ultimately the Black Church. She tackles the differences between historically African and historically European contemplation. Her African history of contemplation begins before the Middle Passage and encompasses both The Christian God and the non Christian tribes who worshipped other gods.

Maybe here nor there in describing this book, but I found important food for thought that many of the people who were captured and enslaved were already Christians. Our white selves tend to forget that the earliest seats of Christianity were in Northern Africa.

The history continues through the years of American slavery and details how the contemplative practices of the ancestors were carried on in the fields and in the hush harbors, sustaining the enslaved as they suffered. White Europeans should prepare to get their hands slapped here.

The author bemoans the growing loss of contemplative practices in the Black Church today and suggests this slowly fading spiritual gift is causing a crisis in the culture and degrading of church attendance. Here she brings both black and white cultures back together again, suggesting that though the practices may be different, the same shrinking of the historically European churches is occurring. The loss of contemplation equates to a loss of relationship with God.

The first edition was written in 2004 and a lot has happened. So in 2017 Holmes added three chapters covering current events and culture. One is on BLM, the second is Barack Obama, and last is a chapter on Beyoncé, rappers, and other art forms. I had little disagreements with her in the original book, but her idealizing approach in these new chapters were over the top for me. Call it my cultural ignorance. However, at the end she summarizes her thoughts in a wonderful and beautiful way. One that resonates cross-racially, cross-culturally, cross historically. At the end she brings us all together at last.

“When we decide to live in our heads only, we become isolated from the God who is closer than our next breath. To subject everything to rational analysis reduces the awe to ashes. The restoration of wonder is the beginning of the inward journey toward a God who people of faith aver is always waiting in the seeker’s heart…… What a gift it is, this lack of understanding. Perhaps we are confounded so that we might always have much to contemplate.”

[Luke Hillier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holmes presents a deep exploration of Black religious tradition and practice, emphasizing the presence of contemplative spirituality throughout. Key to her study is the disruption and expansion of the hegemonic conceptualization of what "contemplation" means and implies. She argues that that term has been essentially co-opted by Eurocentric practitioners who have established particular boundaries around what constitutes a contemplative practice or experience. Thus, her book sets out to reclaim the term and articulate the rich presence of contemplation that has been embedded within Black spiritual practices, whether or not they have been named as such. Whereas "contemplation" is likely to summon images of solitary, silent, and meditative spiritual practices, Holmes argues that it is just as prominent in the communal, expressive, and ecstatic worship practices common to Black Christianity and wider Africana spirituality. Holmes also demonstrates a number of attributes of Black spiritual ethos that exist alongside and undergird these practices, including the integration of the sacred and secular, the immanence of God, the capacity to engage in crisis contemplation, and the mobilizing impetus of spirituality towards justice.

However, that is really just the foundation of the book, and while it alone is worth the price, it goes on from there. After establishing this point, Holmes goes on to essentially use her expanded and reoriented conception of contemplative practice to examine its presence across an array of different spheres relevant to Black life. Using the table of contents to jog my memory, a few examples are a consideration of West African spirituality, the interior life of Black slaves in America, Black engagement with particular Biblical passages (creation, the Exodus, Hagar, the Firey Furnace, Mary pondering, Jesus in Gethsemane, Simon helping Jesus carry his cross, and Pentecost), the civil rights movement, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Her engagement across disciplines, offering biblical exegesis, theological reflection, socio-historical analysis, and artistic criticism, is honestly stunning and further accentuated by the occasional poeticism of her writing. However, I most appreciated her work at the onset, building her formative argument, and then in her exceptional examination of the movements for racial justice in the 60s and today. It was really fascinating to engage with all the contexts in which she discerned the presence of contemplative spirituality (across faith contexts, including the absence of one) and especially to hear her take on the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement. As a whole, this is a truly excellent book, not just for its redefining and reclaiming of "contemplative practice" but for the ways it also demonstrates sweeping analysis through such a lens.

[Dawn Dishman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barbara Holmes writes about contemplative practices that challenged my thinking that is limited to my cultural and religious upbringing. She talks about the “Black Church” in a broader scope than what I felt comfortable with, but then again, I wanted to learn about contemplative practices in a different culture from mine.
The Black Church is rich with practices born out of suffering and pain of which I cannot fully understand, yet the authenticity of faith demonstrated is one to be noticed.
I found this book very interesting to read, and also changed some long held viewpoints of what is contemplation.

[Marcia McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. I learned so much about African-American spirituality and the impact of slavery and racism. There was much I also resonated with as I long for change in Protestant worship. It's not an easy read - I read it slowly and that really paid off in understanding what she was saying. At the close of the book, in the 2nd edition, she tackles the meaning of rap. Very helpful!
Well worth reading.

[John MOREHOUSE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing synthesis of the contemplative tradition and the prophetic call for long delayed racial justice. Justice with a spiritual center. This is brave work!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly expansive book written by Dr. B, which breaks open the limiting white Eurocentric concepts of what contemplative practice looks like. Recommend the 2nd edition which adds chapters on president Obama, BLM, and music.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as part of the Abbey of the Arts Book Club. I loved it! There is much wisdom in its pages! It provides a great comparison of the Civil Rights Movement and today's Black Lives Matter Movement, including the prophetic voices of Rap Music!

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history of the Black church traditions. A call to return to contemplative practices in order to unite and preserve the church.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exploration into many of the practices of the Black church and culture and how they relate to the contemplative tradition.

The author sets out from the beginning with the recognition that Africana contemplative traditions do not look like the quiet meditative discipline which is normally associated with the term. She makes compelling arguments that even though the Africana traditions may involve dance and ecstatic experiences, it remains very much in the same vein as the contemplative tradition, and can be considered part of the contemplative tradition.

She explores the legacy of contemplation from West African societies and how they would have provided a foundation for those brought over to North America; she considered the "inner life" of those enslaved; she considered how many of the traditions of the Black church have a contemplative side or are their own forms of contemplation; she investigated the way such themes are expressed in Biblical interpretation in the Black community; she explored how the contemplative traditions were practiced and informed activism for civil rights, and even how more "secular" forms of entertainment, the blues and jazz, etc., were expressions of the contemplative tradition in many ways. She sees a way forward for song, dance, and ritual to bring people together, and for the Black church to become the home for its people it ought to be.

This is a very helpful book to expand one's view of what the contemplative tradition ought to look like, even if one has not been acculturated into such different perspectives and would find many of the practices foreign.

[David Woods · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew! Reading the prefaces to the 1st and 2nd editions, and the introduction was some of the most arduous reading I’ve done in a long time. I felt wholly unprepared to be able to handle the rest of the book. I was reading each sentence 3 times, and looking up at least a couple words per page! Fortunately, the reading became a bit more accessible for me once the book was properly underway. I ended up reading the first half the book, and listening to the second half of the book on audible.

Regarding the thesis of the book, which dealt with arguing that contemplative practices were more than just silence and solitude, that was also eye-opening for me. She seems to define contemplation as when we have crossed over and are communing with the unseen spiritual realm, whether it is through dance, song, protest, crying out in pain for salvation, leading from a contemplative mindset, etc. “What is contemplation if it is not the unlikely lifting of mud, bone, and flesh to the heavens?” I love the idea that so much contemplation can be done corporately, and indeed, this corporate contemplation really is a necessary part of our faith, such as at Pentecost, or when Christ asked for corporate prayer and listening in the Garden. My definition of contemplation has been expanded greatly, and for that I’m thankful.

[Elizabeth Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important (albeit academic) text for our times. Barbara Holmes cracks open European Christianity's small compartmentalizing of contemplative practice (as what happens in solitary, still, silent prayer and within monastic communities) to trace contemplative strands in what she calls the Africana experience. She understands contemplation to be at the core of the justice movements of the twentieth century--and thus the key to any significant social transformation today. She also seeks to reclaim contemplation as the connective life-force of the Black church in America and rejoices in the secular ways it shows up in the Black Lives Matter Movement.

While I found the first half of this book overly defensive and academic, Holmes lives into her message in the second half. There she locates contemplation in the actions of civil rights leaders, in the presidency of Barack Obama, and in the African American music scene. When contemplative practice is mixed up with protest, leadership, art making, or any of the ordinary stuff of life, it's often hidden and difficult to locate. We need more people like Holmes to bring this deep, sacred listening within life's messiness (and especially within the work of opposing systems of oppression) to our attention.

[Carol Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend and I read and discussed this book as a book club of 2. We chose it because while we were interested in theology and contemplation expressions of faith, we realized we had been informed by predominantly White voices., and we wanted to learn from a Black theologian, preferably a woman. Our motive was not to appropriate practices but rather to understand deeper and broaden our perspectives. Barbara Holmes wrote this book primarily to Black readers, so we recognized that as White Christians we were secondary learners, which is just fine. We also recognize that our traditions are implicated in the oppression behind the moans and laments and other outpourings Holmes writes about, and we acknowledge that too. The courage and depth of faith to still cling to and welcome joy unspeakable that she writes about is incredible. She did indeed broaden our perspective on contemplation and community. If you are thinking about reading this book, be aware that it is more academic in tone than I anticipated. Don't expect to breeze through it. The topic deserves our respect and serious contemplation.

[Jeffrey N. Hora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was introduced to Barbara Holmes via Richard Rohr. This particular work was given to me, and the topic of the contemplative life of the black community is attractive.

I found myself challenged, primarily as the experience that Holmes described is not part of my experience. This didn't throw me off, but working through and absorbing the thread of the book became a bit like my other study of philosophers who present me with altered meanings of vocabulary and then using this vocabulary to go deeper into the experience. While not an easy process, I found the journey through this work extremely valuable. Along with my study including the works of Dr. Cornel West and lenny duncan, I will continue to spend time ingesting and working to gain a listening-based awareness of their voices.

I highly recommend this work.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a little all over the place for me. The preface and introductory chapters were super interesting and even spiritually healing for me in many ways. But as the book went on, Holmes dives uncritically into some Black Hebrew Israelite teaching, which is always a bit of a red flag, and then goes on to examine the contemplative spirituality of Obama where she says that Obama’s presidency was one with zero scandals. Overall, a mixed bag but I don’t regret reading it.

[Janell Downing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expansive and detailed. Academic and quite dense. I loved her reflections on Old Testament and New Testament examples of contemplation. Hagar in the desert and returning. The serpent in the desert - a curse and the answer. Simon of Cyrene, the three Mary's at the cross of Jesus, aspects of all of these found in the history of Africana people and the American black church.

[Felicia Murrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful

I’m not a heady person and this was at times cerebral and scholarly. But it is a beautiful and necessary work, a treatment of our history, our holding and an invitation to return to that which has long kept us, Joy Unspeakable.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a delightful read. The book gives a very good review of contemplative practices in African spiritual traditions and civil rights activism. It offers new perspectives on contemplative practices and discussed why they are more relevant today than ever.

[Kayleigh Harker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful and challenging read. I was grateful for the ways that Holmes challenged my way of thinking, beliefs, and assumptions.

This book is full of rich history that I grateful to have read and now be a bit more educated on. Truly amazing read.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written by a Mystic Dr of Theology who worked at United Theological Seminary in the Twin Cities. This book researches the importance and value of contemplation in the black church. Apparently she just died 10/15/24.

[Piper Hilgaertner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and think it gave great perspective on how diverse contemplation can be. I really enjoy learning about being contemplative in community and in other ways besides silence. I don't see myself reading this book again but I'm glad I read it!

[Brian Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting introduction into an oft overlooked element of religion in general and of the black church in particular. I find the author’s style hard to engage with personally, but it was still an excellent book.

[Michael Cichoracki · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Eric Krumland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely read and fantastic insight into the contemplative nature of the black church. I particularly found the descriptions of contemplative action with blm to be a view I hadn’t seen.

[Jerry Wirtley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that will change your understanding of what contemplation is for your own good.