Who were Jupiter Hammon, Lemuel Haynes and Daniel Alexander Payne? And what do they have in common with Martin Luther King Jr., Howard Thurman and James Cone? All of these were African American Christian theologians, yet their theologies are, in many ways, worlds apart.In this book, Thabiti Anyabwile offers a challenging and provocative assessment of the history of African American Christian theology, from its earliest beginnings to the present. He argues trenchantly that the modern fruit ofAfrican American theology has fallen far from the tree of its early predecessors. In doing so, Anyabwile closely examines the theological commitments of prominent African American theologians throughout American history. Chapter by chapter, he traceswhat he sees as the theological decline of African American theology from one generation to the next, concluding with an unflinching examination of several contemporary figures. Replete with primary texts and illustrations, this book is a gold minefor any reader interested in the history of African American Christianity. With a foreword by Mark Noll.



Thabiti M. Anyabwile is senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. Thabiti has a strong professional and academic background in community psychology, with special interest in the history and development of the African American church.



Mark A. Noll is emeritus professor of history at Wheaton College and the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of many books, including America's Book, Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind, Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia, The New Shape of World Christianity, The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield and the Wesleys, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity, and The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.



Foreword by Mark Noll



Acknowledgments



Figures



Introduction



1 "I Once Was Blind but Now I See"



The Doctrine of Revelation in the African American Experience



2 "A Father to the Fatherless"



The African American Doctrine of God



3 "Ain?t I a Man?"



African American Anthropology



4 "What a Friend We Have in Jesus"



The Christology of African Americans



5 "What Must I Do to Be Saved?"



African American Soteriology



6 "Gettin? in De Spirit"



Pneumatology in the African American Experience



Afterword



Bibliography



Subject Index



Scripture Index



. . . A triumph. . . Anyabwile's work is a resounding call for the African-American church to return to orthodox views of Scripture held by the earliest Christians, the Reformers, and leading African-American theologians of the past.



"An impressive array of historical and theological reflections on the African American church's religious tradition. Anyabwile presents a cogent argument that places the demand on the church's leadership, its theologians and its laypeople to continually evaluate its biblical and theological foundations for both the church's self-understanding as the people of God, and its objectives as God's agents in the world."



A good starting point to learn about trends current in African American theology.



A welcomed addition to every pastor's library, whether African American or not. It will benefit African American pastors by giving them an excellent summary of the history of the African American theological heritage. Pastors of other cultural backgrounds will benefit from seeing some of the depth of theological insights in cultures different from their own. The last section of the book is also very valuable. In it the author gives a four-point plan to correct what he feels are the deficiencies in the categories of theology he has addresses. Anyabwile is to be commended for pointing out the problems and also for offering solutions.



"It is remarkable that, to my knowledge, there has never been a book that attempts what Thabiti Anyabwile's The Decline of African American Theology attempts. For historical purposes, the book makes an unusually valuable contribution withits full account of the course of African American Christian thought. Theologically, it makes another signal contribution with its critique of the general development of that thought. For both historical and theological reasons, this is a very important volume. . . . Because I have already learned so much from its pages, I am delighted to recommend it wholeheartedly to others."