A Field of Study as a Field of Dreams: The Contours of Black Church Studies

Abstract

According to historian Winthrop Hudson, “All religious and ethnic groups reach a point in their historical development when they become self-conscious and look back on their origins as a means of defining their identity. Almost always the first step is an attempt to find their roots in an ancient lineage.”¹ Whether we agree with E. Franklin Frazier’s argument that such a feat is hopeless for African Americans, due to our cultural amnesia caused by the ravages of the transatlantic slave trade, or whether we adopt Melville Herskovitz’s claim that we African Americans have, in fact, retained our African roots, even if only aesthetically, it is undeniable that the most knowable history of African Americans is rooted in the history and wisdom of the hush harbors and invisible institutions of that which has preserved and promoted the faith of Black people.²