Other Black Church - by Joseph L Tucker Edmonds (Paperback)

About the Book

The Other Black Church places Father Divine, Charles Mason of COGIC, and Albert Cleage in conversation with the long history of Black theology and Black religious studies, and it suggests that alternative Christian movements are essential for thinking about African American cr...

Book Synopsis

The Other Black Church places Father Divine, Charles Mason of COGIC, and Albert Cleage in conversation with the long history of Black theology and Black religious studies, and it suggests that alternative Christian movements are essential for thinking about African American critiques of and responses to the failures of US-based democracy.

Review Quotes

The Other Black Church is an essential read for those who wish to understand the Black religious experience in its totality. The book moves Mason, Divine, and Cleage from the fringes and clearly links them to the prophetic tradition of the Black church.

Tucker Edmonds argues that three non-mainstream, mid-20th-century religious movements are as central to affirming the Black body (both physical entity and metaphor) as those associated with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement. He presumes readers are familiar with all three movements--Pentecostal Church of God in Christ, founded by Charles Mason; Father Divine's Peace Mission movement; and Albert Cleage's Shrine of the Black Madonna--and with key Black religious thinkers. Tucker Edmonds emphasizes Mason's opposition to war and advocacy of female leadership, Divine's calls for a non-racialized community (body), and Cleage's commitment to Black economic development. Recommended.

About the Author

Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds is assistant professor of religious studies and Africana studies at Indiana University's School of Liberal Arts (IUPUI) and the Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture.