Augsburg Fortress African American Theology Collection (6 vols.)
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Overview
What is “African American religion”? How have African Americans engaged Scripture throughout history? This collection presents six volumes on African America’s religious history, preaching, systematic and womanist theology, and biblical interpretation. It follows the spiritual development of the nation’s African Americans, illustrating their religious contributions and the contemporary challenges they face. The collection analyzes the theology of the black church and how Scripture has been interpreted in the context of African American religion, culture, history, and society.
The Logos edition of the Augsburg Fortress African American Theology Collection is fully searchable and easily accessible. Scripture passages link directly to your preferred translation, and important theological concepts link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library.
Key Features
- Analyzes African American religious history and theology
- Contains an African American commentary on the New Testament and an African American systematic theology
- Addresses contemporary challenges facing the black church
Product Details
- Title: Augsburg Fortress African American Theology Collection
- Publisher: Augsburg Fortress
- Volumes: 6
- Pages: 1,444
Individual Titles
- The Bible and African Americans: A Brief History by Vincent L. Wimbush
- The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching by Kenyatta R. Gilbert
- Standing in the Shoes My Mother Made by Diana L. Hayes
- True to Our Native Lands: An African American New Testament Commentary by Brian K. Blount
- We Have Been Believers: An African American Systematic Theology, 2nd ed., by James H. Evans Jr.
- What Is African American Religion? by Anthony B. Pinn
The unique encounter of African Americans with the Bible has shaped centuries of spirituality and social engagement of a whole continent. Highly respected biblical scholar Vincent Wimbush here outlines the five phases of African American reading and shows how the Bible offered a language-world through which Africans Americans have negotiated the strange land into which they were thrust.
Vincent L. Wimbush is a professor of religion and director of the Institute for Signifying Scriptures at Claremont Graduate University. He is the author of Paul the Worldly Ascetic and the editor of several volumes, including Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity and African Americans and the Bible
African American congregations have long been celebrated as a locus for powerful, prophetic preaching, but at its best they have also embraced a strong pastoral and wisdom dimension as well, what Kenyatta Gilbert calls a “trivocal impulse.” Yet, African American preaching today is more threatened than ever imagined and must now overcome its own apparent irrelevance in an increasingly pluralistic, postmodern age of intense spiritual and social crisis.
Gilbert asserts that the survival of both black churches and African America at large is directly tied to recovering this trivocal character of gospel proclamation. He closely examines the functions of all these strains of African American preaching in churches and communities, provides road maps for recovering one’s authentic preaching voice, and highlights preachers who embody this trivocal proclamation style. The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching is a constructive effort to examine the historical contributions of African American preaching, the challenges it faces today, and how it might become a renewed source of healing and strength for at-risk communities and churches.
This deeply moving appeal for more faithful preaching in America could not be more timely. Kenyatta Gilbert demonstrates why he is one of the brightest and most creative homiletical minds of his generation.
—DeForest Blake "Buster" Soaries, senior pastor, First Baptist Church of Lincoln, Somerset, NJ
Here is both a remarkably broad historical view of the development of black preaching in North America and an incisive diagnosis of the challenges that preachers within and beyond the African American church must meet today. Reaching into the crucible of African American history and the preaching it evoked, Gilbert crafts a ‘trivocal’ approach to preaching that incorporates three distinctive accents of the black pulpit: the prophetic, sagely, and priestly voices. One can hardly imagine a better introduction to the deep wisdom to be discovered, or rediscovered, in African American preaching traditions.
—Sally A. Brown, Elizabeth M. Engle Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship, Princeton Theological Seminary
Finally something really fresh on African American preaching! Especially relevant for today is Gilbert’s discussion on the seven personals of African American preachers. This will definitely be one of the preaching books discussed by homileticians in 2011 and beyond.
—Martha Simmons, creator, The African American Lectionary
Kenyatta Gilbert has given us an analytical and critical tool for preaching in the twenty–first century. This book is excellent for classroom, private study, and continuing education. We are in Gilbert’s debt for this brilliant teaching instrument for clergy and laity. He will help a new generation to gain and retain a profound appreciation for the creative powers and prophetic drumbeat of the African American pulpit.
—Otis Moss Jr., emeritus pastor, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, Cleveland, OH
Kenyatta Gilbert has made an invaluable contribution to homiletic scholarship and literature. Rich in tradition and wisdom, The Promise and the Journey of African American Preaching captures the genius of the African American pulpit. This work will be read widely and with great appreciation for years to come.
—Richard Lischer, James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor of Preaching, Duke Divinity School
Kenyatta Gilbert’s book, The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching, has afforded us a scholarly and wholesome look over the ways in which our forbears have come on the journey of faith and hope. It is valuable for use by clergy and laity. He bids us to lift every voice and proclaim with wisdom, prophetic confrontation, and priestly listening, his ‘trivocal’ method of preaching, a way in which it can resound in the pulpit, the parish, and the podium.
—Evans E. Crawford Jr., emeritus professor of social ethics and preaching, Howard University School of Divinity
In The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching, Kenyatta Gilbert offers a scholarly, personal, thought–provoking, and practical guide to the best practices in black preaching. The working preacher will find this model both a challenge and resource for promoting balance between the prophet, priest, and sage.
—Leslie D. Callahan, senior pastor, Saint Paul Baptist Church, Philadelphia, PA
This book immerses readers in a sophisticated, multi–voiced soundtrack. Kenyatta Gilbert persuasively calls for ministers to preach in three voices—prophet, priest, and sage. He also amplifies keynotes from other disciplines such as practical theology, cultural studies, and pedagogy. As the Bible says, ‘Faith comes by hearing.’ After hearing this book, your faith in preaching will be renewed.
—Brad R. Braxton, distinguished visiting scholar, McCormick Theological Seminary
Kenyatta R. Gilbert is an associate professor of homiletics at Howard University School of Divinity. He holds degrees from Baylor University and Princeton Theological Seminary and is a contributor to the New Interpreter’s Bible Handbook on Preaching and Feasting on the Word.
Black women in America have carved out a distinctive and instructive faith stance that is influential well beyond the historic black church. Diana L. Hayes, a leading commentator and forger of womanist thought, especially in the black Catholic setting, here offers strong brew for what ails the church, the Christian tradition, and the world.
Hayes specifically shows how womanist commitments in the Christian tradition provide a specific critical lens for seeing the strengths and weaknesses of a Christianity that has often flourished at the expense of or neglect of African Americans. As sometime strangers and sojourners in their own church, black women have a unique take on the church’s stance on race, class, and gender issues. Yet their unquestioned devotion lends a hope and optimism often missing from critical thought and, as Hayes shows in this powerful volume, invites the church itself to a new conversion and role. Her book unfolds in four parts:
- Faith and Worship
- Ministry and Social Justice
- The Public Face of Faith
- A Womanist Faith Challenge
In Standing in the Shoes My Mother Made, Diana Hayes combines personal reflection and commitment with theological analysis to enrich our grasp of womanism, to deepen our understanding of black Catholic experience, to widen our horizons and hearts for a more inclusive ecclesial life.
—M. Shawn Copeland, associate professor, Boston College
Diana L. Hayes is an emeritus professor of systematic theology at Georgetown University. She earned her JD degree from George Washington National Law Center, her STB and STL degrees from the Catholic University of America, and her PhD in religious studies from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Among her many books are Trouble Don’t Always Last: Soul Prayers, And Still We Rise: An Introduction to Black Liberation Theology, and Were You There? Stations of the Cross.
This pioneering commentary sets biblical interpretation firmly in the context of African American experience and concern. Cutting-edge scholarship that is in tune with African American churches calls into question many of the canons of traditional biblical research and highlights the role of the Bible in African American history, accenting themes of ethnicity, class, slavery, and African heritage as these play a role in Christian Scripture and the Christian odyssey of an emancipated people.
Contributors:
- Clarice J. Martin
- James Earl Massey
- Guy L. Byron
- Larry George
- Thomas B. Slater
Brian K. Blount is the president and professor of New Testament at Union Presbyterian Seminary. Prior to that he was, for 15 years, the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Seeking to overcome the chasm between church practice and theological reflection, James H. Evans Jr., a major and distinctive voice in American religion, situates theology squarely in the nexus of faith with freedom. There, with a sure touch, he uplifts revelatory aspects of black religious experience that reanimate classical areas of theology, and he creates a theology with a heart, soul, and voice that speak directly to our condition. Edited and introduced by Stephen G. Ray Jr., the second edition includes three new essays that identify the value of the book for womanist, evangelical, and black church audiences.
In this second edition of James Evans’ seminal work, the theology of the black church emerges as a unique, relevant, and dialogical response to the realities of this present age. The addition of new essays focused on the influence of womanist thought, the evangelical movement, and prophetic black church leadership will inspire another generation of believers in the academy and in the pews.
—Barbara Holmes, professor of ethics and African American studies, Memphis Theological Seminary
The importance of a classic, like James Evans’ We Have Been Believers, is not that it is timeless but that it continues to speak to the present and to make contributions to it. In the midst of widespread theological accommodation to the powers that be, Evans blazes alternative trails that are still worth following not only in the black churches but in all churches, inviting us to take our own struggles for liberation and the divine as seriously as the African-American communities that have gone before us.
—Joerg Rieger, Wendland-Cook Endowed Professor of Constructive Theology, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University
In this work, James Evans works out a critical and engaged systematic theology in the context of African American religious, cultural, historical, and social experience. This work stands as a vital and provocative gift to the whole of Christian theological reflection.
—M. Shawn Copeland, associate professor, Boston College
James H. Evans Jr. is the Robert K. Davies Professor of Systematic Theology at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. He is the author of We Shall All Be Changed, Modern Christian Thought: The Twentieth Century, and Playing: Christian Explorations of Daily Living.
Is there really a monolithic “black church”? Distilling the arguments of Pinn’s important and provocative work in Terror and Triumph, this brief work asks the central question: What really is African American religion?
Sketching the religious landscape of African American communities today, Pinn makes explicit the tension in traditional conversations about black religion that privilege either Christianity in particular or organizations (with doctrines and creeds) in general. Discussing the misunderstandings and historical inaccuracies of such views, Pinn offers an alternate theory of black religion that begins with a basic push for embodied meaning as its core impulse.
Anthony B. Pinn is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and the professor of religious studies at Rice University. Among his many works in theology and the study of religion are Varieties of African American Experience and Fortress Introduction to Black Church History.
Partially includedReviews
4 ratings
David Franks
1/9/2021
Trishonda Roberson
6/25/2016
Tremaine M. Combs
1/7/2016
This is a great start for Logos in presenting materials that are geared toward African American Christians.Noel Hutchinson
8/30/2013
Save on Publisher Spotlight through November 30!