Navigating the deep river
Subtitle: spirituality in African American families
By: Archie Smith, Jr.
Publisher: United Church Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Cleveland, Ohio
Language: eng
Number of pages: 181
Subjects: African American families -- Religious life.; African Americans -- Religion.; Church work with African American families.
Description: As mythos and metaphor, the river has played an important role in the struggles of African Americans in a racist society. After three decades as a pastoral family therapist with African American families and families of other cultures, Archie Smith draws on the spiritual and cultural richness of such metaphors to construct an "ecological approach" to pastoral care, which takes seriously American history, democracy, racism, the environment, and black experience within a multicultural context.

Smith's compelling guide demonstrates how pastors and social workers can tap the spiritual wellspring of the African American family in order to counter a deepening sense of despair, to provide hope, and to offer strategies for transformation.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 168-176) and index.