THE INTERDENOMINATIONAL THEOLOGICAL CENTER

RESOLUTION: GIVEN THE EXPERIENCE OF SLAVERY AND ITS AFRICAN

ETHNIC ORIGINS, THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCH IS A UNIQUE
MOVEMENT WITH HISTORICAL PRECEDENT IN THE AMERICAN CONTEXT.
IT IS RELATED TO THE PURITAN PARADIGM.

SUBMITTED TO DR. MARK ELLINGSEN

IN PARTIAL COMPLETION OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
TEH 642: CHURCH HISTORY II

BY

ANTHONY D. CLINKSCALES

ATLANTA, GEORGIA
MAY 6, 2010

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Christianity has evolved out of plurality of racial, ethnic, and cultural distinctions,
and has proven to be a melting pot of religious habits, traditions, and understandings
about how to live and worship. I believe that the African-American church movement
was unique because it birthed out of a people who survived the trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade. Furthermore, I believe that The Black Church was syncretistic, appropriating
black and non-black religious thought and practices as it defined, redefined, and refined
African-American religious thought and practice. E. Franklin Frazier argued that the
Black church initially was a compensatory structure for a struggling people focusing on
the after life. Frazier also believed in the necessity of the demise of the Black Church for
the public good of blacks.1 Apparently, African traditions and practices couldnt thrive
and struggled to survive in America. Seemingly, slaves came to possess a vague
knowledge of their background. Identity theft of Black people carried-out after the
Middle Passage, during what Love Henry Whelchel Jr. called the Caribbean seasoning
process included de-humanization, de-personalization, de-sexualization, de-socialization,
and de-racination. This identity theft explains why there wouldnt be much retention of
African religious traditions among slaves.2
Gayraud Wilmore suggests that the Black church is unique because it is based on
action, and it never abandoned its commitment to freedom, equality, and justice.3
Wilmore disregards the Puritan paradigm as insufficient for characterizing the AfricanAmerican church because it is based on theories and ideas instead of action. But,
1

C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya, The Black Church in the African
American Experience (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1990), 11.
2
L. H. Whechel, The Genius of the Black Preacher (lecture, The
Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta, GA, January 2009).
3
Gayraud S. Wilmore, Black and Presbyterian: The Heritage and the Hope
(Louisville, KY: Witherspoon Press, 1998), 79-86.

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Puritanism was based on a people who were in search of religious freedom, which is why
they fled to America during colonization. This suggests that Puritanism is not just about
ideas or theories, but is about action too. I concur with C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence
Mamiya when they describe the black religious paradox as being very similar to W.E.B.
Dubois concept of a dialectical double consciousness. Dubois describes the dialectical
double consciousness stating: One ever feels his twoness, an American, a Negro; two
souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings two warring ideals in one dark body,
whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.4 The African-American
church has been embedded with American thought and theology since the Plantation
Missions. Thus, having a dialectical double consciousness adequately describes the
African-American Churchs persona, and made it vulnerable to Puritanical influence.
There was some retention of African musical traditions that remained from the
Motherland including the following: call and response, multiple rhythms, syncopation,
slides from one note to another, repetition, handclapping, and body movement.5 The
Puritans were stately and were not emotional and artistic in their worship. Clearly
influenced by the Puritan paradigm, AME bishop Daniel Payne looked upon the former
slaves worship as excessively emotional, and despised the ring shout. Many Northern
missionaries shared this view, thus we have the unfolding of deliberate attempts to
indoctrinate former slaves with the traditional values of middle-class Protestantism.6 In
Reclaiming Our Roots, Ellingsen highlights that Payne tended to reflect Puritan emphases
4

W. E. B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (New York:
Blue Heron Press, 1953), 3.
5
Albert J. Raboteau, Canaan Land: A Religious History of African
Americans (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 52-53.
6
Daniel Alexander Payne, Recollections of Seventy Years, 1st publ. 1886
(New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1969), 253-55.

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on discipline, industry, thrift, and duties of religion.7 Presently, there are several black
congregations that do not display retention of African musical traditions, but have wholly
embraced the Puritan paradigm for worship.
Another point of interest is related to Raboteaus acknowledgment that, former
slaves disliked white preaching about morality, but preferred to focus on feeling the
power of Gods love, in the tradition of the invisible institution of their parents and
grandparents.8 Moral behavior was the favorite topic of discourse for the Puritans. Their
emphasis on Moralistic character, moral behavior had much responsibility for the shaping
of the American mindset and in effect had much influence upon the evolving AfricanAmerican preachers, especially those groomed in the North, as well as those in the South
who were groomed by teachers from the North.
From another viewpoint, I have identified a distinct connection between the
Puritan Paradigm and the African-American church: The tradition of lined hymn singing
in the Black church finds its precursor among the psalm singing of the Calvinists, which
was perpetuated in the American colonies by the Puritans.9 Since the early black church
had no choir, the entire congregation did all the singing, generally without the aid of
instruments. The singing was led, not conducted by a person who had the ability to lead,
could read or remember the songs, and could line-out the hymns, in a type of voice
production or vocal recitation that is partially sung and partially spoken. This practice of
lining-out was adapted from the Church of England in the eighteenth century; Euro-

Daniel Alexander Payne, Welcome to the Ransomed, in African

American Religious History: A Documentary History edited by Milton C.
Sernett (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1999), 232-241.
8
Albert J. Raboteau, 66.
9
C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya, 354.

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American worshipers established it in the 1640s.10 The early hymnals contained texts of
songs most often with the alphabetical reference to the meter (i.e. LM/Long Meter,
CM/Common Meter, SM/Short Meter), but did not include music notation. Black
Christians, once introduced to the practice, adopted it, and blackened it. Assuming that
the emergence of meter as an oral art form occurred at the end of the eighteenth century
with peak involvement occurring during the nineteenth century, this form also paralleled
the antebellum, reconstruction, and post-reconstruction erasencompassing the Puritan
epoch.
As various Black denominations developed, Black Baptists has become the
pervasive group for continuing the meter hymn tradition. Meter hymn singing
nonetheless persists in other denominations including the Holiness denomination of my
nativity, the Church of God, Holiness, as well as appearing less frequently among
African-American Methodists. Often, a minister, presiding elder, or bishop who knows
the tradition will use it when preparing to preach.
It should be noted that although these churches display a connection with the
Puritan tradition of hymn singing, these churches differ from the Puritans in their value of
education. Generally, churches that possess an old-fashioned hymnody such as the lined
tradition do so because of their nonconformist theology and tradition. Similarly, these
churches reject theological training, mission, and evangelization. They continue to
repudiate many modernizations in hymn singing that have been taken up over the years
by more progressive denominations, including the use of harmony, written music,
musical instruments, soloists, and performing choirs. Their position is not rooted simply
10

Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History (New York: W.

W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1997), 28-29.

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in a stubborn reflection of new ideas in general or musical progress in particular.11
Puritanism is generally marked by careful thought and profound intelligence as evidenced
by Puritans apt to defend their religion with doctrinal ordering, careful biblical exegesis,
and theological responsibility.12 If this is true, there is extreme distinction between the
Puritans and these lined-hymn singing black churches.
From another viewpoint, African-American churches differ on a fundamental
truth with Puritanism that has existed and prevailed for centuries. Puritanism, African
American churches and our African ancestors share the concept of an absolute and
supreme Creator ordering all aspects of the universe, but disagree about the nature of
humanity. The African-American Church up to about the 20th century subscribed to the
ancient African adage, I am because we are; because we are, therefore I am.
Essentially, I believe African-American churches have abandoned the sense of pride held
by our ancestors. Even our worship has become too self-centered and individualistic,
which reflects the consciousness of persons engrossed with American thought and
perception. Puritanism differs from the African primal worldview of the universe, which
embraces a unified spiritual totality in which all things and all beings are holistically
related and organically interdependent.13 Cosmology was a unifying thread that
superseded all religious denominations and affiliations. Cosmology set the standard for
ritualistic practices by influencing the way music and other liturgical offerings were
rendered.
11

Brett Sutton, Shape-note Tune Books and Primitive Hymns,

Ethnomusicology 26, no. 1 (January 1986): 11-26.
12
Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People, 2nd ed.
(New Haven & London), 130.
13
Melva W. Costen, In Spirit and in Truth (Louisville: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2004), 5-9.

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Seemingly, Africans, African Americans, and the Puritan paradigm have a
fundamental agreement about the freedom of God to have Gods own way. We all agree
about our freedom to respond to Gods divine freedom as the community of faith. But
unlike African perspectives, the Puritans emphasized revivalism, which the AfricanAmerican church still contend to be logical and purposeful. However, I think that this
Puritanical sense of hope and optimism was a natural response influenced by the
Enlightenment. By presenting Christian faith in an intellectually credible way, as the
educated Puritans, we are more like the Puritans, and unlike the Africans.
On one side, Puritanism embodied optimism and responded to Americans
depraved hearts and minds by organizing revival meetings. Accordingly, they affirmed
that the human will had the duty of coming to God. On the other side, Puritanism, as
noted in the Westminster Confession stressed the sovereignty of God, Bible infallibility,
and they acknowledged an Augustinian view of human nature.14 This is also prevalent
among African American churches. Accordingly, the Baptist Articles of Faith, the
African Methodist Episcopal15, African Methodist Episcopal Zion16, and the Church of
God in Christ stress the sovereignty of God, infallibility of Scripture, and they also

14

The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1643, in Documents of the

Christian Church, 3rd ed., edited by Henry Bettenson and Chris Maunder (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 320.
15
The 25 Articles of Religion of the African Methodist Episcopal Church,
in Know Your Church Manual edited by Andrew White (Nashville, TN: AMEC
Publishing House, 1965), 1ff.
16
Articles of Religion, in Book of Discipline of the African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church edited by the Compilation Committee (Charlotte, NC:
AMEZ Publishing House, 2004), 1ff.

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acknowledge an Augustinian view of human nature.17 18 They differ in their views of
justification. For the African Methodist and the Baptists, justification is by grace through
faith in Christs blood.19 The Puritans believed in justification of the elect, and an
invisible universal church of the elect. The C.O.G.I.C. and the Church of God Holiness
both have a forensic view of justification, where God declares the sinner righteous.20 21
In conclusion, because of the brutal reality of American Slavery, the AfricanAmerican church birthed and was nurtured on foreign soils by foreign peoples. I have
suggested that the uniqueness of the African American church is in its syncretism. It has
juxtaposed African heritages and traditions with Christian praxis and theology
appropriating American, non-Black religious thought, practices, and structures in its
development. There are clear distinctions between African and Puritan influences upon
African-American churches. However, there are clear connections between the Puritan
Paradigm and the African-American Church from practical, ritual, philosophical, and
doctrinal standpoints. On the one hand, they embrace the Augustinian view of human
nature, and the Sovereignty of God. On the other hand, they embrace an optimism,
stressing revivalism, and the cooperation of the human will to come to God. Considering
all of this, and that Black hymnody derived out of Puritanical hymn singing, and the
17

The Doctrine of God and The Doctrine of Sin, in The Official Manual
with the Doctrines and Discipline of the Church of God in Christ, edited by C.
F. Range, Jr. (Memphis, TN: Board of Publication of the Church of God in
Christ, Inc., 1973), 41-42, 55-56.
18
Baptist Confessions of Faith, in Documents of the Christian Church,
3rd., 319-325.
19
Articles of Faith, in The New National Baptist Hymnal, edited by Ruth
L. Davis and others (Nashville, TN: National Baptist Publishing Board, 1977),
607.
20
The Official Manual with the Doctrines and Discipline of the Church of
God in Christ, 57.
21
The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of God Holiness, in Star
Book and Discipline of Churches of God Holiness (Atlanta, GA: Bethlehem Star
Publishing, 1965), 19-20.

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persistence of the Plantation Mission Preachers, I maintain that the African-American
church was impacted by the Puritan paradigm.