Swing Low, Volume 1: A History of Black Christianity in the United States, Walter R. Strickland II. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514009369) 2024.
Summary: A history of African-American Christianity tracing stories of social uplift and the lives of faithful Black Christians.
A number of writers and scholars have written about African-American history. The Black church has always played an important part in that history as a source of comfort and hope during slavery and reconstruction, a center of community and cultural life, and a pivotal place of resistance and social uplift.
This new history by Walter R. Strickland II goes deeper in two ways. Along with others, he traces a historical narrative from 1620 up to the present. Distinctive among narratives, he introduces us to numerous faithful Christians in each period of this history. Furthermore, he argues for five theological commitments which he terms “Anchors” that he traces through the historical narrative. They are:
- Anchor 1: Big God
- Anchor 2: Jesus
- Anchor 3: Conversion and Walking in the Spirit
- Anchor 4: The Good Book
- Anchor 5: Deliverance
The Anchors are not theological abstractions. Instead, Strickland shows the outworking in praxis of the anchors throughout his history.
The first four chapters show the early spread and adaptation of Christianity among African-Americans. One noteworthy contribution of this history is to establish that there were Christians among the Africans imported to the United States. Slavery didn’t introduce Christianity to Africans! Strickland then traces the spread of Christianity through American revivals, the distortion of slave-master faith, and the move from Blacks in White churches to their own, sometimes illegal, gatherings. At this time, the church was an ‘invisible institution,” albeit one with its own distinctive worship practices, such as the “ring shout.”
Chapters Five and Six trace the emergence of Black churches following Emancipation and how it became the central institution in Black communities. This includes educational opportunities and it was during this period when many of the great Black colleges got their start.
Chapters Seven to Nine cover the period from the rise of Jim Crow through the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. Jim Crow led to the Great Migration north and west. Strickland traces the new church bodies formed during this period including distinctive churches like Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, which played a formative role in Bonhoeffer’s faith. He also features figures liker W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells and their influence in the beginnings of the NAACP. Then Chapter 8 focuses on Black Pentecostalism and Black Fundamentalism. For example, we are reminded that William Seymour, a catalytic preacher and Black was at the heart of the Azusa Street revival, marking the beginning of American Pentecostalism. Chapter Nine traces the intellectual beginnings from Mordecai Wyatt Johnson through Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr. Along with these leaders, we learn of the foot soldiers engage in non-violent direct action.
Strickland pauses his narrative at this point to consider the rise of Black consciousness and the two distinctive responses to it within Black Christianity. One was Black evangelicalism, which is then elaborated in Chapters Ten through Twelve, including key figures like Tom Skinner and efforts at racial reconciliation through parachurch ministries. The other was Black liberationism, discussed in Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen. He concludes with a short account of twenty-first century developments, ending more hopefully than I might have.
I think the “Anchors” play a key role in his optimism. Amid the challenges of slavery, Jim Crow, and persistent racism, he traces persisting belief in a big God, a saving Jesus, a Good Book that relevantly speaks, a transforming Spirit, and the promise of deliverance. Strickland concludes with the words of an old spiritual. “There is a balm in Gilead.”
I so appreciated the profiles of so many key leaders, organizations, and movements during this history. A number were familiar but many were new. I began reading this book on Juneteenth. It indeed emancipated my understanding of African-American Christianity. And I discovered there is more. Volume Two features primary source readings from sermons to contemporary podcast transcripts. Look for my review of that volume later this summer!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
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