¶ … Religion in Human Transformation of the African-American topic with a focus on the African-American Christianity experience. The writer explores the transformation to Black Christianity and uncovers some of the underlying features of its existence. The writer examines the patterns and experiences of spirituality for the Black Christian experience in North America as well as the ways that the particular historical experiences of Blacks in the United States assisted in creating distinct forms of spirituality in the communities. There were five sources used to complete this paper.
The Christian movement in North America is a large one. Millions of Christians worship in churches across the continent each week and the numbers continue to climb. African-American Christians have a faith and spiritual path that is somewhat different than white Christians follow. The terms "black church" and "black Christian" can be heard periodically in theological discussions. From the music to the underlying beliefs, Black Christianity has developed from the days of slavery until current times through the path that African-Americans followed since the beginning of their North American journey.
The differences in Black Christianity as compared to White Christianity are founded in that path and the exploration of its history and transformation to today's faith is one that spans centuries, and miles of hard earned faith.
Experts have a difficult time agreeing on the point of turn for African-Americans and Christianity.
'Historians and theologians differ in their views on the origins of Christianity among African-American slaves during the 18th century. On one side are those who claim that slavery did not destroy the African culture of the slaves and that the influences of Africanisms continue their manifestations in Afro-American culture. Others reject this position, however. They argue that the role of African culture in the rise of black Christianity was insignificant
The transformation and nature of the black slave Christianity has been the topic of debate and guessing for many years among theologians, historians and folklorists.
'The central issue, for most researchers, has been what Lawrence Levine calls "a questions of origins." By uncovering the degree to which black Christianity was rooted in African religions, historians (and others) hope to explain the seemingly unreasonable behavior of slave converts
In Albert J. Raboteau's Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South the author takes the readers on a discussion of African Religious tradition which is important information for the purpose of tracking Black Christianity.
Raboteau gets knee deep in the debates when he presents a double edged sword regarding black Christianity and its roots
. He first says that slavery stripped African-Americans completely clean of African-American history, tradition and culture. By this standard the culture could not have had anything to do with the transformation to black Christianity.
However, on the other hand the author discusses the impact and importance that the African-American traditions and culture had on the development and path of Black Christianity. It is this contradiction in statements that has kept the debate alive and burning concerning Black Christianity and its development and transformation to today
In The Myth of the Negro Past, Melville Herskovits, a historian known for his defense of African-American culture and history, attacked the apriori positions that "primitive" cultures, such as those in West Africa, could not possibly survive once transplanted into a "civilized" milieu. He maintained that far from being childlike people drawn from the lowest ranks of an underdeveloped society, African slaves left behind a sophisticated social structure and carried with them their languages, world views, and values
. Upon establishment in North America, these cultural elements were not simply swept aside by a European orientation, argues Herkovits, but were "reinterpreted." European words were translated into African speech patterns" and "European culture was translated into African value and behavior systems
Regarding religion it is his belief that African-Americans simply adopted many of the white traditions into its own for the purpose of solidifying things including Christianity. He maintains however that the African-American population maintained its own identity and traditions even during the transformation to Black Christianity.
"In outlining the Herskovits-Frazier debate, Raboteau places himself somewhere between the two. He writes, "the resolution of the . . . debate lies in recognizing the true aspects of both positions." However, Raboteau seems ultimately more sympathetic to the Herskovits position; he at least takes it more seriously. His critique of Herskovits is two-fold. At a general level, Raboteau feels Herskovits undercuts his arguments by relying on impressionistic evidence and generalizations. Pointing to a natural "religious bent characteristic of Negroes...
130). Although their white masters generally exposed them to Christianity, enslaved people adopted only parts of the white religion and mixed it with elements of their own beliefs. Even though the family was not generally a legally sanctioned unit on plantations, the basic roles of mothers, fathers, and grandparents in rearing children did exist. Families could be severed and separated at the whim and desire of the slave owners, but families
African-Americans in Louisiana & Type 2 Diabetes Rates The poor will be always with us, we are biblically admonished. And for Americans we might add to this ancient maxim that the African-American poor will be always with us. Despite the many gains that they have made in the past 30 years African-Americans remain far more likely to be poor than are white Americans. This has a number of different consequences for
American Revolution Slavery in the United Stated lasted as an endorsed organization until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. In 1619 twenty Africans were brought by a Dutch soldier and sold to the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia as indentured servants. This would be the first of many visits up and down the American eastern seaboard. At this time, most slaves were being purchased by
In fact the aims of theosophy when it was founded was to "form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, creed, or color," and also "to promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literature, religions, and sciences," and also "to investigate the hidden mysteries of nature." (Prothero 197). New Human Potential Movement members have written books but none have penned a book that
Human Sexuality and Homophobia Even in the wake of political correctness, homophobia still haunts many people in our culture. Heterosexuality is still the dominant social expression and any intimate relationship that falls outside the accepted boundaries of heterosexual union is considered to be taboo. The modern media and institutes of higher learning are only recently beginning to try changing the ingrained belief that heterosexuality is the only "normal" form of sexual
religion entered the 18th Century and with it a revival. The growth of the revival was overwhelming.More people attended church than in previous centuries. Churches from all denominations popped up throughout established colonies and cities within the United States. Religious growth also spread throughout England, Wales and Scotland. This was a time referred to as "The Great Awakening" where people like Jarena Lee got her start preaching. Evangelism, the epicenter
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