History of Black Catholics: Introductions and References

An extremely valuable contribution to our understanding of African-American religious life by presenting the first full-length treatment of the Black Catholic experience; conversion and historical, social and spiritual chronology.

Since the early days of the Republic, Washington has nurtured an increasingly prosperous and articulate community of black Catholics. For much of that time the spiritual welfare of these citizens as well as their material aspirations centered on St. Augustine's parish.

Introduces the challenge of Black Catholics to theology and the church. Contributors examine where Black Catholics have come from and where their futures lie in a church in which they see themselves as co-participants.

"A History of Christianity in Africa examines the origins and development of Christianity in Africa from the early story of Egyptian Christianity to the spectacular growth, vitality, and diversity of the churches in Africa today." "Isichei opens with the brilliance of Christianity in Africa in antiquity and shows how Christian Egypt and North Africa produced some of the most influential intellects of the time. She then discusses the churches founded in the wake of early contacts with Europe, from the late fifteenth century on, and the unbroken Christian witness of Coptic Egypt and of Ethiopia. Isichei also examines the different types of Christianity in modern Africa and shows how social factors have influenced its development and expression." "With the explosive growth of Christianity now taking place in Africa - 393 million adherents projected by the year 2000 - and the increasingly recognized significance of African Christianity, this much-needed book fills the void in scholarly works on the continent's Christian past, also foreshadowing Christian Africa's influential future."--Jacket.

This historical approach presents one view of the episcopal role in the evangelization of African Americans "Many Rains Ago",especially during the period immediately following the Middle Passage.The challenge proposed is one that is based on an awareness of the history of African Americans participation in the Church and actively and agressively leads the Church in creating a climate in which there is an affirmation of the inherent dignity and worth of African Americans and their culture.Unless the challenge is met by carefully orchestrated dialogue involving the episcopacy and the African American community,the "Thunder and Lightning" of the future will be discordant.-Preface

From the brilliant Saint Augustine and his long-suffering mother, Monica, to the heroic Ugandan martyrs of the twentieth century, the saints of Africa inspire. As told by Dr. Camille Brown these stories will astonish, inform and delight all with the history and drama of our Catholic heritage. -Jacket

Stephen Ochs's study of the struggle for African-American priests not only illustrates the institutional timidity and racism that for so long pervaded the church and denied effective leadership roles to people of color; it also highlights the faith, tenacity, and courage of those Catholics, black and white, cleric and lay, whose successful struggle for greater racial inclusiveness within the leadership ranks of their own church mirrored similar efforts in American society at large. -Jacket

Assembling a chorus of voices from history, "Can I Get a Witness?" chronicles African American women's lives as faithful witnesses to the prophetic dimensions of the Gospel, from slavery times to the present. Using touchstones of significant moments - slavery and emancipation, the Great Awakening and suffragism, women's clubs and missionary movements, and the great Civil Rights struggles - "Can I Get a Witness?" documents the crucial links between faith and the struggle for justice that forms the basis of the contemporary womanist movement. -Jacket.

Traditions come together in this book of prayer: the African American faith tradition, the Roman Catholic Christian tradition and the variety of forms of prayer from African peoples. You will find liturgical prayer, prayers for families and communities, meditations, and prayers of healing, inspiration, consolation, freedom and reconciliation. -Jacket.

Treating Southern Catholicism in functional and symbolic terms and relating it to the culture of the region, this study indeed represents a pioneering effort, comprehensive examination of what it was like to be a Catholic in the slaveholding, predominantly Protestant South. In the editor's introduction (Miller) and afterword (Wakelyn) they provide an incisive overview of a heretofore neglected field. -Jacket.

The purpose of this study is to analyze historically the origin and development of one such movement, the Federated Colored Catholics, and especially a clash of views on racial justice which split the organization into factions as it developed. Each of the principals in this controversy - Dr. Thomas W. Turner, a black layman and founder of the Federated Colored Catholics, and two prominent white Jesuits, Rev. William M. Markoe and Rev. John LaFarge - viewed the issues of racial justice from his own special experience. It is my intention to establish the three perspectives. -Jacket.

Demonstrates that white Catholic theologians have largely ignored racism in United States, as well as the African American (black) theologies that grapple with this racism. This title argues that their identity and integrity as Catholic theologians demand their serious engagement with both.

Examines the history of racism in the United States from the Civil War to the twenty-first century and discusses the teaching efforts of the Catholic Church to put a stop to racism and promote reconciliation and justice.

Founded in Baltimore in 1828 by a French Sulpician priest and a mulatto Caribbean immigrant, the Oblate Sisters of Providence formed the first permanent African American Roman Catholic sisterhood in the United States. It still exists today. Exploring the antebellum history of this pioneering sisterhood, Diane Batts Morrow demonstrates the centrality of race in the Oblate experience. -Jacket.

"Selected by two of America's leading Black Catholic scholars, documents included here demonstrate that African Americans have long been an integral part of Catholic history in America. From the Spanish and French periods of the pre-Revolutionary South, continuing through the Civil War and the 20th century struggles against racism, "Stamped with the Image of God" offers hope for all Catholics as they search to realize a communion that embraces members of all races and cultures as equals."--Jacket.

It seems important to me to state at the very outset that this is not intended to be a definitive statement about Blacks and the Catholic Church.Nor is it intended to be an updated rehashing of old and already presented material on the subject.My purpose in writing this book is entirely pastoral.For some time,I have wanted to call us all to reexamine our hearts,our minds,our attitudes,and our position with respect to the White-dominated American Catholic Church as it reaches into Black life in the hope of extending the evangelization of Black People.I want Black Church leaders to take a fresh look at some possible different approaches to the work they must do within the Black community.I want to call attention to the possibility that Black Catholics may be in a unique historical position to bring about healing and reconciliation among the various races,so that the prayer of Christ to his Father,"That they all may be one," may finally be realized.Hence the title of this book is To Be the Bridge.I want to raise a few new questions and present a few new ideas.-Introduction.

Christianity ha been present in Africa since apostolic times.In sub-Saharan Africa,where it was first introduced in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,and again in the nineteenth,it is no longer an imported religion but an inescapable component of contemporary African culture.The historical churches (Catholic,Protestant,Orthodox) already bear the mark of this culture in their liturgies and their approach to people and to things.To a greater extent,Christianity shows other faces in the independent or African-Christian churches and in the new Pentecostal-inspired churches.
These African faces of Christianity raise a fair number of questions concerning the gospel message and the present state of African societies.How do they relate to the sources of Christianity and to the Bible in particular?How do African Christianities deal with the multiple crises afflicting the continent,such as epidemics, corruption,poverty,struggles for economic and political power, and the violation of human rights? What concept of salvation do they hold?
Communication problems and the multi-occupation of some colleagues have prevented us from obtaining contributions on important points such as the political role of the churches,both the long established and the new,ecumenism,interreligious dialogue,base church communities,feminist theologies,and the Coptic Churches of Egypt and Ethiopia...However,I believe that the texts included in this volume tackle essential questions that command our attention.Introduction.

Given the hybrid nature of Black Church Studies as a multidisciplinary field of study with as emphasis on interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches,Black Church Studies joins the study of the Black Church with reflection upon those aspects of the prophetic witness and ministry that have characterized this tradition from its historic beginnings.It does this by connecting the study of being the Black Church with the project of doing Black Church.The foundation of this understanding of Black Church Studies is the often-noted resistance within the Black Church to the separation of theory and practice,most often encapsulated in the dictum "will it preach"?The approach this book takes is,therefore,one that merges the practices and theologies that animate the Black Church in ways that will hopefully resonate not only in the classroom but also in the church and the community.-Introduction.

One of the most important directives of the African Synod, found both in the Message of the Synod and in the Post-Synodal Exhortation "Ecclasia in Africa", is the injuction to carry out a dialogue with African oral tradition and to use it as a resource for the inculturation of the Gospel. The value of oral tradition in Africa cannot be too highly stressed. It is the primary expression of the African Imagination, the creative power of human intellect in Africa. Not only is oral tradition a fundamental source for modern creative writing in Africa, it is also closely associated with African traditions of fine art. Christianity needs to dialogue with both these areas of creativity, as well as with oral tradition itself, for an authentic African expression of Christianity. -Jacket.