History and Heritage of African American Churches: A Way Out of No Way

by L.H. Whelchel

Overview

Drawing on a wide array of sources to document cultural influences from Africa, the author vividly describes the emergence of an independent church tradition among African Americans. L.H. Whelchel demonstrates the struggles of Africans in the United States to build and maintain their own churches before showing how those churches and their ministers were often at the center of seminal events in the history of America. Dr. Whelchel provides an engaging and provocative narrative, and with detailed documentation and end notes for each chapter along with critical analyses which will be of benefit to ministers, scholars, teachers, students and the general reading public.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557788931
Publisher:	Paragon House Publishers
Publication date:	02/03/2011
Pages:	366
Sales rank:	270,588
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

L.H. Whelchel is a respected scholar, university professor, and civil rights activist who trained hundreds of ministers. He is currently Professor of Church History at the Interdenominational Theological Center, GA.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction xix

The Road Ahead xx

Chapter 1 Our Mother 1

The African Origins of Humanity and Civilization 1

The African Defenders of the Faith 13

Discussion & Review Questions 28

Chapter 2 Christianity in Transition 29

Roman Imperial Christianity 29

African Developments Apart from Foreign Invasions and Colonization from 300 to 1450 C.E. 35

Discussion & Review Questions 47

Chapter 3 The European Slave Trade 49

Prelude to the Great Calamity 49

The Middle Passage from Freedom to Slavery 56

The American Practice of Slavery 64

Discussion & Review Questions 75

Chapter 4 The Conversion of Enslaved Africans to the Practice of American Christianity 77

Africa's First Encounter with Christian America 77

Conversion and the Inspiration to Literacy 91

The Silver Bluff Awakening 97

The Age of the Heroic Preachers 1750-1800 102

The Historical Role of Women in the Black Church 115

Discussion & Review Questions 123

Chapter 5 The Black Church and Black Reconstruction 125

The Emergence of Independent Black Churches and Preachers 125

The South as a Field of Mission 135

Black Preachers as Political Leaders During Reconstruction 138

The Determination and Drive to Establish Independent Black Churches 145

Discussion & Review Questions 149

Chapter 6 The Struggle in the Wilderness 151

The Emergence of Color Consciousness and Elitism among African Americans: Background to the Plessy v. Ferguson Travesty 151

From Slavery to Peonage in the Post-Reconstruction South 158

The Great Migration and the Initiation of the Civil Rights Movement 161

The Emergence of Nonconformists, Radicals, and Militants in the African-American Religious Experience 171

The Rise of Grassroots Protests Leading to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Decision 177

Discussion & Review Questions 186

Chapter 7 The Civil Rights Movement as an Outgrowth of the Black Church 187

The Montgomery Bus Boycott-The Empowerment of a Movement and the Coming of a Leader 187

Confronting the Philistines-The Struggle to Bring Social Justice to Birmingham 205

Gathering of the Masses-The Spiritual Power Base of the Movement 213

Black Power Emerges out of the Movement 217

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference-The Black Church as the Institutional Center of the Movement 223

Discussion & Review Questions 229

Chapter 8 Conclusions 231

The People Were Burdened with a Great Oppression 231

And So God Called Them to Preach to the People 237

Notes 241

Bibliography 311

Glossary of Selected Terms 323

Index 335