African-American Interest
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Were You There
$17.00Add to cartValuable not only for their sublime musical expression, the African American spirituals provide profound insights into the human condition and Christian life. Many spirituals focus on the climax of the Christian drama, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the ways in which those events bring about the liberation of God’s people.
In these devotions for the season of Lent, Luke A. Powery leads the reader through the spirituals as they confront the mystery of Christ’s atoning death and victory over the grave. Each selection includes the lyrics of the spiritual, a reflection by the author on the spiritual’s meaning, a Scripture verse related to that meaning, and a brief prayer.
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African Saints African Stories
$18.99Add to cartFrom the continent of Africa come a wealth of saints and other inspirational people included in the Catholic tradition. Some are well-known, like Saints Augustine, a doctor of the church, and his mother, Monica, while others may be unknown to us, such as Blessed Daudi Okelo, and Blessed Jildo Irwa, 20th century Ugandan martyrs. Regardless of popularity, each holy person included in this book displays perseverance in faith and can inspire us all.
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No Longer Slaves
$24.95Add to cartNo Longer Slaves brings the ancient New Testament message into conversation with African American culture. Twenty centuries after Paul penned Galatians, American culture in general and American Christianity in particular continue to struggle with the problem of race relations. Our challenges are not identical to those faced by Paul and the Galatians. Yet, when one reads Galatians through the lens of African American experience, striking similarities emerge.
In No Longer Slaves, Brad Braxton helps us see that race relations is a central issue in Galatians. Paul believes that Christ came in order to unite Jews and Gentiles. The church was intended to be a multi-ethnic community in which persons of different backgrounds co-existed harmoniously. Any effort to compel Gentiles to live as Jews is an invalidation of the freedom of the Gospel. Galatians offers us a portrait of an early Christian leader and community sorting out complex social issues.
No Longer Slaves explores the concept of liberation in African American experience. It entails a discussion of American slavery. Rather than depicting African Americans simply as victims of the crimes of slavery and segregation, Braxton describes the creative cultural and religious responses of African Americans to their oppression. He employs a type of reader-response theory that considers the experiences of the reading community as a lens through which texts are read. His discussion of methodology exposes the reader to some of the issues in the current debate without becoming burdensome to the non-specialist.
The remainder of the book is an interpretation of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Although Braxton takes seriously the original context of Galatians and his exegesis engages the Greek text, he offers a contemporary theological reading that privileges the history, experiences, and concerns of African Americans. Those who are concerned about the connection between Christianity and ethnicity will find this interpretation intriguing and challenging.
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Resurrection Song : African American Spirituality
$24.00Add to cartThis fresh treatment of African-American spirituality explores the roots of its expression in African, through their retention in communities of the enslaved in the American South, and in Black churches nationwide today. Bridges also considers the manifestations of these retentions in contemporary film.
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God Of The Oppressed
$26.00Add to cartIn his reflections on God, Jesus, suffering, and liberation, James H. Cone relates the gospel message to the experience of the black community. But a wider theme of the book is the role that social and historical context plays in framing the questions we address to God as well as the mode of the answers provided.
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Sexuality And The Black Church
$18.00Add to cartThis book tackles the “taboo” subject of sexuality that has long been avoided by the Black church and community. Douglas argues that this view of Black sexuality has interfered with constructive responses to the AIDS crisis and teenage pregnancies, fostered intolerance of sexual diversity, frustrated healthy male/female relationships, and rendered Black and womanist theologians silent on sexual issues.
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Worship As Body Language
$39.95Add to cartWorship sets an assembly in motion movement towards God in response to God’s movement towards humans thus creating a resilient and caring community. Worship as Body Language brings the African community’s experience of the body and its gestures together with the Christian liturgy, since worship and social action are closely related.
The “body language” or gestures of praise, adoration, contemplation, ritual dance, and care of the neighbor are meaningful to the ethnic group; African Christians tune into these body motions to express the one Christian faith. In Worship as Body Language, Father Uzukwu details how patterns of African ritual assemblies and sacred narratives have merged with Jewish, gospel, and early Church traditions to create living Christian communities and liturgies.
Using a socio-historical method, this book sheds new light on liturgical action and theology, and suggests more transition rituals. It also provides samples of emergent African Christian liturgies that emphasize intense community participation with appropriate gestures. These local liturgies attest to the patristic principle that different customs actually confirm the unity of our faith in Christ. Scholars teaching and researching the foundations of the liturgy and liturgical inculturation, graduate students, and those organizing workshops on the regional, diocesan, or parish level will find Worship as Body Language a ready handbook on the liturgy. It is also a useful textbook for introducing college students and seminarians to the anthropological, historical, and theological dimensions of the liturgy.
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Daughters Of Anowa
$30.00Add to cartProviding an analysis of the lives of African women today from an African woman’s perspective, this is the study of the influence of culture and religion on African women’s lives. Oduyoye illustrates how myths, proverbs and folk tales operate in the socialization of young women, working to preserve the norms of the community.
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Troubling In My Soul
$26.00Add to cartIn A Troubling in My Soul, well-known womanist theologians explore the persistent question of evil and suffering in compelling new ways. Committed to an integrated analysis of race, gender, and class, they also address the shortcomings of traditional, feminist, and Black theologies in dealing with evil. Taking Alice Walker’s definition of “womanist” as a framework,
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Shoes That Fit Our Feet
$28.00Add to cartOriginal and far-reaching, this book shows the resources for Black theology within the living tradition of African-American religion and culture. Beginning with the slave narratives, Hopkins tells how slaves received their masters’ faith and transformed it into a gospel of liberation. Resources include the works of W.E.B. Du Bois, Toni Morrison, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.
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Martin And Malcolm And America
$30.00Add to cartThis groundbreaking and highly acclaimed work examines the two most influential African-American leaders of this century. While Martin Luther King, Jr., saw America as essentially a dream . . . as yet unfulfilled, Malcolm X viewed America as a realized nightmare. James Cone cuts through superficial assessments of King and Malcolm as polar opposites to reveal two men whose visions are complementary and moving toward convergence.
