Black Conscious Christianity: An Afrocentric View of Christianity

By Michael C. Robinson

Designed to help pastors, preachers, leaders, and everyday Christians better understand the connection between Afrocentricity and Christianity. Black Conscious Christianity explores the importance of history, theology, and Christian education from an Afrocentric perspective. It is critical that African descendants of slaves as well as all people come to understand the significant role of ancient Africa in the early Christian story.

Black Conscious Christianity addresses the following questions: 1. Is Christianity a white man's religion? 2. Are blacks Christian only because of the slave trade? 3. How can we trust the Bible when it was a key component of our enslavement?

4 Major themes of this book
1. The importance of a Culturally Relevant Apologetic
2. Ancient African Christianity
3. Early African Church Fathers
4. Ancient African Christian Kingdoms

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098342630

Book preview

BLACK CONSCIOUS

CHRISTIANITY

Copyright © 2020 Dr. Michael C. Robinson

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of information contained within.

Publisher: EMR Productions

Editor: Class A Editing: Dr. Kristie Searcy

Scripture quotations taken from www.biblegateway.com. All rights reserved.

Printed by Book Baby, Inc., in the United States of America.

First printing edition 2020.

ISBN: 978-1-0983426-3-0

DEDICATION

To Erin, Alicia, Micah, Emiah, Phyllis, and Kendra Robinson and in loving memory of James Robinson and Anna Lee Fortson. You all have believed in me, encouraged me, and inspired me to accomplish this great task. My father and grandmother are not able to physically see this accomplishment, but I can feel your warm presence and approval. I could not even begin to express the love I have for each of you. Erin, my wife, you are incredible, without your love and support I would have fallen flat on my face. I owe you the world!

EPIGRAPH

My Ancestors voices echo throughout time,

Lost across oceans, I will scramble to find.

A sense of who I was, who I am, and who I will be,

From the shores of Africa, a son of Royalty.

A Faith that runs deep, its origin dark,

That guides my path on journeys I embark.

My savior, my color, my culture, my hue

My people, your people, in all we have been through

Reclaim your ancestry, its honor and pride,

Realize the warrior you are inside!

Dr. Michael C. Robinson

CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Simba Runs Away

We Are Lions

CHAPTER 2: BLACK CHURCH UNITED

National News

An Overview of Perspectives

CHAPTER 3: BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL, AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

Perspectives

Biblical Perspective

Theological Perspective

Historical Perspective

CHAPTER 4: THE FOUR MAJOR THEMES

A Culturally Relevant Apologetic

Ancient African Christianity

Early African Church Fathers

Ancient African Kingdoms

APPENDIX

Notes

References

About the Author

Dissertation Proposal

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE

1. Knowledge Questions 1-8 (Goal #2)

2. Attitude Questions 9-16 (Goal #3)

3. Action Questions 17-24 (Goal #4)

4. Evaluation Questions 1-6 (Goal #5)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This resource and dissertation have had critical contributions from many minds and hearts. I am extremely grateful to those mentioned below and more:

To Dr. William H. Myers whose teaching and counselformed specific foundations of this resource. Your encouragement and expectations of excellence inspired me to complete this academic endeavor and made mebelieve that I had something positive and valuable tooffer.

To the faculty and staff at the McCreary Center, your duediligence and professionalism was instrumental incompleting this resource. Thank you for being a placethat is welcoming and inviting for students of color.

To Dr. Lewis Brogdon whose scholarship and work ethicinspired me to embark on this journey.

To Dr. R.A Vernon for being a spiritual guide in my lifeand for his own personal accomplishments of scholarship that modeled for me that it was possible.

To Dr. Kristie Searcy whose editing expertise shaped the final product.

To my church family who were patient with me as longdays and night became a common theme. They supported me as this process at times consumed my life.

To my amazing sister and mother who have always beenover achievers and motivated me not to settle for less when the world has more to offer.

To my three beautiful daughters who looks at me with a sense of pride to see their father pressing towards thisacademic accomplishment.

To my amazing wife, some will never know the feelingof having someone love you unconditionally and supports you unwaveringly. As we pursue higher education together, lead a church congregation, run businesses, and raise our children I am more grateful foryou with each day that pass.

PREFACE

The Lion King is by far one of my favorite movies. It has so many different levels and speaks to several social issues. From my observations of the movie what stands out the most is the tension between the main character, Simba’s, past and his future. The movie displays a struggle within the character that plays out GEOGRAPHICALLY, where he is, RELATIONALLY, who he befriends, and EMOTIONALLY, his internal struggles. His future is drawing him forward and the weight of his past is holding him back. I propose that Simba’s ability to become what he was meant to be was heavily dependent upon the lineage and heritage from which he came. His knowledge and rediscovery of his history helped guide him into his destiny. African Americans find ourselves in the same position. We all have a future that we are headed towards however that destination is difficult to reach without the map that develops from an understanding of your history.

His knowledge and rediscovery of his history helped guide him into his destiny.

The African American in America is much like Simba, we’ve been disconnected from our lineage and our heritage. Based on that premise I believe that the success of black people hinges on our consciousness or more specifically black consciousness. For this discussion I think we should develop a baseline for what black consciousness is. Black Consciousness was a movement with the goal of empowering the black mind which had been severely weakened through the trauma of oppression. This was a global attempt to awaken those of African descent of their value and contributions to the World. Black Consciousness is not an attempt to paint black people as superior to others but to confirm and affirm that they are also not inferior. There has historically been a major point of contention between the Black Consciousness Movement and Christianity. Many in the movement felt that Christianity was a white man’s religion forced upon people of color by colonial oppressors. Black Consciousness has a deep history and a global political presence, however for the sake of this discussion I am narrowing down Black Consciousness to an ideology instead of a political movement. When I express the concept of Black Consciousness I am speaking of an understanding of the importance of African Americans being aware of their value, their worth, their connection to Africa and their contributions to the world. Black Conscious thought and Christianity have always struggled to coexist within our community because for many to be Christian is to assimilate into a non-African culture. I will speak in more detail throughout this book about how that thought process is a misconception.

When I express the concept of Black Consciousness I am speaking of an understanding of the importance of African Americans being aware of their value, their worth, their connection to Africa and their contributions to the world.

This tension between the Black Conscious community and Christianity is an unnecessary obstacle that I hope to help our community overcome and those outside of our community understand. Although there are nuances between the two ideas, I will be connecting the term Afrocentricity with Black Consciousness as I believe these two concepts are closely related. I propose that instead of Afrocentricity or Black Consciousness causing tension with Christianity they should work in tandem. The issue between them is that Christianity is seen as a white man’s religion. For many, Christianity is seen as only being introduced to our culture through the slave trade. Therefore, not only was it introduced to us during our oppression, but it was introduced by our oppressors. Historically speaking Christianity was a major component of the cruelty and injustices African Americans faced and are in many ways still facing here in America. With that as the baseline for people’s understanding of Christianity I can comprehend why they feel the way they do towards the religion. What I will attempt to demonstrate is how Afrocentricity or Black Consciousness are both designed to reveal the truth regarding black people’s value and contributions to the world. As a part of their contributions to the world, we will also show the major contributions and impact Africans had in the origin of Christianity. Once it is revealed that Christianity is not a white man’s