Characteristics Of Universalism

The book’s first chapter, “The Meaning of Slave Religion”, explores how the conversion of African slaves in the British colonies of North America to Christianity became an

According to Hinks, Methodists were usually more willing to place “the powerful God of Christianity… on the side of social and political justice.” One religious message that Walker conveys through this Appeal that supports this claim, was

“Not only did slaves believe that they would be chosen by the Lord, there is evidence that many of them felt their owners would be denied salvation” (34). Levine claimed that the slaves uses their beliefs and religion as a “means of escape and opposition” because it gave them a “serious alternative to the societal system created by southern slaveholders” (54.)

African firmly believes that there is a living communion or bond of life which makes for solidarity among members of the same family. Before Christianity, Africans did have their own system of salvation. In traditional religions, salvation can and does take the form of courage to face the reality of morality. The church was looked art as a place for political activity, a source of economic cooperation, an agency of social control, and a refuge in a hostile white world. Slaves worshiped with great enthusiasm. Religion, after all, provided a ready refuge from their daily miseries and kindled the hope that one day their sorrows might end. Planter's actually encouraged religious observances among their slaves hoping that exposure to Christian precepts might make their laborers more docile, less prone to run away, and more cooperative and efficient workers. But slaves turned biblical scriptures to their own purposes forging a theology that often emphasized the theme of liberation. It was easy for them to see, for example, in the figure of Moses a useful model for their own dreams; like the Israelites, they too were ready to cross a River Jordan into a promised land of freedom. The religious services held in the quarters provided slaves with so many positive experiences that, even as they were being exploited, they managed bravely, but perhaps not too surprisingly, to feel that they were free within themselves. In this way slaves began to achieve a degree of liberation well

Since the beginning of slavery, leaders called on their faith to justify the immoral actions of the slave trade. These strong preachers for their communities’ strategically defined the meanings of scriptures to sway members into the ideals of North vs. South. Richard Furman and John G. Fee are historical activists using scripture to inform the community of their views. Both figures, arguments juxtaposed reveal the stark differences in their interpretations of the connection between human nature and scripture.

1. Uniformitarianism is the theory that the Earth has remained the same, or uniform, over hundreds of millions of years. With that uniformity of the rocks and sediments in the layers of the Earth, we can trace these geological principles back to the habitats of dinosaurs because we can understand that the rocks they may have walked on, are the same rocks we see today. This helps explain the findings of fossils; archaeologists often find fossils whether it be a leaf or carbon-print of a dinosaur bone in rocks that are hundreds of millions of years old. Thus justifying uniformitarianism and how Earth has stayed uniform after all these years and we are able to find dinosaur bones and remains from our planet that is extremely aged.

In African-American history, "the church" has been the center of Black communities and has been established as the greatest source for African American religious enrichment and development. The term, "the Black Church” represents many details of racial and religious lifestyles unique to Black history. By 1700, most Protestant and Catholic slave owners came to a conclusion, that if a slave had a soul, conversion to Christianity had no effect on them being a slave. Some slave owners searched for passages in the Bible that made it sound as if the Bible approved the enslavement of black men and woman. During the 1730s, the "Great Awakening" movement brought about a demand for the use of livelier music called hymns in worship service. This new

For almost eight decades, enslaved African-Americans living in the Antebellum South, achieved their freedom in various ways—one being religion—before the demise of the institution of slavery. It was “freedom, rather than slavery, [that] proved the greatest force for conversion among African Americans in the South” (94). Starting with the Great Awakening and continuing long after the abolition of slavery, after decades of debate, scholars conceptualized the importance of religion for enslaved African-Americans as a means of escaping the brutalities of daily life. Overall, Christianity helped enslaved African American resist the degradation

Sernett, Milton C. Bound for the Promised Land: African American Religion and the Great Migration. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press Books, 1997. Explores the role of the Great Migration in transforming black churches into centers for social activism.

In the middle of her struggle, Moody offers insights and correctives to some common interpretations of down south black involvement. They believed that since the black churches were focal points of the community’s beliefs and social groups that they were also in the front position during the first occurrence of racial discrimination. Although, for Moody’s experience, this was not true, well at least in Centreville and the rest of Wilkinson

1. 140 years ago, in Maysville, South Carolina, Mary McLeod, a child of former slaves was born. Coming up from very simple beginnings, would later in life become a renowned educator and college founder, an advocate, for civil and human rights, and a valued advisor to several United States presidents? As a young girl toiling in the fields alongside of her parents, Ms. McLeod knew that education and knowledge would eventually open her eyes to the world outside of South Carolina. At the tender age of 10, Ms. McLeod, began her educational journey by entering Trinity Presbyterian Mission School, followed by Scotia Seminary in North Carolina, and Moody Bible Institute, in Chicago, Illinois. Ms. McLeod, at first wanted

Peter Randolph, too, presented the durable linkage between African-Americans, especially during slavery. Their alliance was characterized by creating the so called, “plantation churches” whenever they could not attend the actual church services. By doing so, they could simply gather together, remember their traditions, dance, sing, recite their prayers, sorrows or play banjo. All those familiar activities were helping them hold on to their culture, refine their identity and avoid the “Social Death” or “Cultural Genocide” they were subjected to. Similarly, creating the AME Church, along with following churches, such as the Ethiopian Church of Jesus Christ, was a method of showing to the society that the African history and beliefs are not forgotten.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church also known as the AME Church, represents a long history of people going from struggles to success, from embarrassment to pride, from slaves to free. It is my intention to prove that the name African Methodist Episcopal represents equality and freedom to worship God, no matter what color skin a person was blessed to be born with. The thesis is this: While both Whites and Africans believed in the worship of God, whites believed in the oppression of the Africans’ freedom to serve God in their own way, blacks defended their own right to worship by the development of their own church. According to Andrew White, a well- known author for the AME denomination, “The word African means that our church was

These three perceptions are distinctly different, but ultimately speak to the contextual nature of Black theology—rooting worship, adoration, and discipleship within the notion a (conscious) living G-d. The first perception explored is the image G-d adored through the lens of Sister Sweet and Mother Darling. At first glance, these women appear different in life style and theology—different churches, different abilities, and different approaches to discipleship. But upon further examination, one discovers the same paradigm at work. Both have lost children to AIDS. Both have committed themselves to a praxis centered theology to process their loss. Mother Darling is street missionary and Sister Sweet is a disabled woman confined to a wheel that feeds the birds and attends to the needs of the Little piece of Heaven Church. Both have found peace in their personalized work for the Lord. Their G-d is a “shelter in a time of storm.” The second perception is the image of G-d as seen through Deacon Zee. This G-d is one of salvation and complacence for Deacon Zee. The “White Jesus” he prayed to for his assistance in finding his copy of the Wall Street Journal—a nuanced symbol for prosperity. This G-d speaks to the corporate nature and element of

Although this information on Liberation Theology is essential to understanding of this concept, the focus of our presentation, in relation to our class, was Black Liberation Theology. It is easy to see how African Americans relate to the idea of Liberation Theology, as a historically socially oppressed group of peoples. The encompassed theme of Black Liberation theologians is the concept of God emancipating African Americans from white racism. Jesus in Liberation Theology is commonly represented as a ‘Poor Black Man’, therefore allowing the representation of a relatable figure for the African American people. One way in which we felt the concept of Liberation Theology come together with class discussion, was in relation to the Black Liberation Theologian, James Cone, whom we had previously discussed in class time, leading up to this presentation.