Fortress Intro Black Church History
astor Anne Pinn and Macalester College religion professor Anthony Pinn have produced a readable, clear introductory reference guide to African-American church history. Section one offers portraits of the seven largest black denominations, including, among others, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The authors are to be commended for consistently paying attention to women, noting, for example, when different denominations began ordaining them and including biographies of leaders like AME preacher Mary Evans. In the second section, the Pinns attempt a short history of "liberation thought in the church," connecting the early 20th-century social gospel with the leadership of the black church during the civil rights movement, and outlining the development of black liberation theology. The book's most provocative portion is a two-paragraph discussion of the extent to which black theology can happen outside the church; some readers may wish the Pinns had more fully engaged such questions. Useful reference aids conclude each chapter; careful time lines and the biographical sketches of church leaders tidily distill the narrative discussions of church history, while the suggested reading lists helpfully direct readers to both primary and secondary sources. This primer is not terrifically analytical it won't replace, for example, Eugene Genovese's works on slave religion or Albert Raboteau's Canaan Land: A Religious History of African Americans (Oxford, 2001). But it provides a fact-packed, handy introduction to African-American Christian history.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.