Womanism and Afrocentrism are the two most influential currents in contemporary African American culture. They both heighten black cultural self-awareness, even as they deepen knowledge of its historical sources. As womanism mines the ways and wisdom of African American women for Christian theology, so Afrocentricity excavates an African past to liberate the oppressed from Eurocentric worldviews. Yet are the two compatible? What does the mostly male Afrocentric scholarship contribute to the survival, wholeness, and liberation of black women? In this volume social ethicist Cheryl Sanders and...

Saints in Exile studies, from an insider's perspective, the worship practices and social ethics of the African American family of Holiness, Pentecostal, and Apostolic churches known collectively as the Sanctified Church. Cheryl Sanders identifies the theme of exile, both as an idea and an experience, as the key to understanding the dialectical nature of African American religious and intellectual life, that W.E.B. Du Bois called "double-conscious." Sanders's saints in exile are a people who see themselves as "in the world but not of it"; their marginalized status is...

The author issues a call for the church to update the idea of ministry and mission by moving away from condescension and towards inclusion of marginalized groups seeking justice.

In Beyond Rhetoric, the late Samuel Hines and Curtiss DeYoung place reconciliation at the very center of God's agenda for humankind. In so doing, they provide both inspiration and guidance for faithful Christian living that embraces a passionate pursuit of reconciliation. --In this articulate guide for reconciliation, DeYoung and Hines create a wonderful harmony of personal testimony and eternal truth.-- John M. Perkins President, Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation and Development --Samuel Hines demonstrated that the gospel of reconciliation is not just an ethical idea but an on-the-ground...