Hard-Fighting Soldiers

Edward J. Robinson's history of the African American experience in the Churches of Christ religious tradition clearly illustrates that African American Churches of Christ exist today solely because of systemic racism in American society. From the “flames of revivalism [that blazed] across the Kentucky frontier” in the summer of 1801, fueling the Second Great Awakening, descendants of enslaved Africans enthusiastically embraced the spiritual message and theology of Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell, the “white Christian preachers who sought to ‘restore’ New Testament Christianity in nineteenth-century America” (p. 180). By focusing on the black Churches of Christ, Robinson's engaging narrative provides historical insights into a significant aspect of American religious history known as the Stone-Campbell (or restoration) movement, still a vital part of American Christianity today. Robinson organizes his history into four parts. First, he looks at the African American experience before and after emancipation in the 1860s with the establishment of separate “mother churches” for black adherents throughout the United States by the “founding fathers” of the faith. The second part focuses on the years 1900 to 1930 and the historical implications of the rise of Jim Crow laws and lynching. In part 3 (1931–1968), Robinson traces the growth of this religious movement until the modern civil rights movement. Finally, part 4 (1969–2008) explores important themes that reflect the theological perspective of African American Churches of Christ today: the role of women in the church; their unique music or hymnody tradition; the role of education and religious studies programs; and African American Churches of Christ around the globe in Africa, the West Indies, and South America

African american · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Black church · Christianity · Emancipation · Ethnology · Faith · Frontier · Great Awakening · History of religions · Literature · Middle Passage · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · White (mutation · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Studies