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The Social Teaching of the Black Churches
By Peter J. Paris
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1985. 156 pp. $8.95.

From a rich but largely untapped reservoir of black history, Peter J. Paris has brought forth a work of signal importance to an understanding of black Christian churches. From denominational minutes, presidential, and episcopal addresses, the author has extracted what he believes to be the dominant strain of social teaching which characterized the developing black churches of the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries.

While placing himself squarely in the tradition of James H. Cone, who pioneered a genre of scholarship committed to dealing with the experience of oppression from the perspective of the oppressed, Paris sees his methodology as being different from Cone's in one important regard. His interpretive principle is derived from the historical materials of black religion and is not imposed from outside. The language used, furthermore, is one that is inherent in the source, rather than one foreign to it.

The author reduces the aim and goal of black churches to one statement of principle, namely the institutionalization of the Christian faith in a non-racist form. In doing so, the early black churches built what amounted to a surrogate world, in which they attempted to prove themselves capable of building a world of their own as well as of adapting to their environment. In this surrogate world, black Christians were taught constructive ways of responding to racial hostility. The author also reduces the black Christian tradition to a single statement of principle. The principle is anthropological, and as such is both political and religious. It is also biblical. Stated in a non-sexist way, it is the parenthood of God and the kinship of all humankind.

The drive to institutionalize the Christian faith in a non-racist way and the struggle to be faithful to the parenthood of God and the kinship of all humankind presented the developing black churches with significant moral dilemmas. One such dilemma was the seeming incongruity

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between their unqualified commitment to the Constitution of the United States and their resistance to the nation's racist agenda for black people. Another dilemma was the apparent inconsistency between their ideal vision of a universal Christian church and their pursuit of a racially separate church. Paris contends that the resolution of the first of these dilemmas was achieved by their unwavering faith in the transformability of the nation. The second dilemma was answered by the subordination of a racially separate church to the level of a means to an end rather than an end in itself.

The black churches were committed to social transformation. They never abandoned their vision of a just society that was free of racism. It would seem that their dedication to racial self-development was in conflict with their vision of social transformation. Paris argues that their political idealism most certainly functioned as a restrictive factor in terms of their racial self-development. In other words, they often proceeded with anxiety and fear that they might be perceived as racists. Paris correctly notes that this is less and less true for black Christians today. This is so because of such developments as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and the development of theologies of liberation. Whatever the reasons, now the agenda of racial development is seen as appropriate to the gospel, as well as a kind of prelude to the ideal society to which the black churches have always been committed.

Paris is to be commended for his considerable analytical gifts. These are evidenced by the way in which an expansive corpus of material has been integrated into clearly articulated principles and categories of discussion. The book is a welcome contribution to religious education and social ethics. The author provides an important service by suggesting at points throughout the volume some issues for further study, which, it is hoped, will be pursued by persons wanting to engage in the serious examination of the black religious experience.

The validity of one of Paris' assumptions must be challenged. Paris assumes that "basic communal values are legitimated and preserved by a community's religious institutions. Accordingly, we contend that the official leaders of the latter express (either explicitly or implicitly) their community's most basic values in their public addresses, deeds, and actions" (p. xii). The question must be raised as to the actual relationship between the utterances of leaders and what is taught and practiced at the basic level of black church life, namely the local congregation. Just as Paris himself cited differences between what the women's auxiliaries advocated and what was advocated by their parent bodies, so it may have been with reference to what local Methodist and Baptist congregations were saying and doing, as opposed to what their leaders were saying. Any conclusions must await scholarly investigation. It is conceivable that the leaders were not always at one with their constituencies back in the fields, contrary to Paris' assumption.

The Social Teaching of the Black Churches contributes immeasurably to the search for clarity about the teachings of the black churches.

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It will be a most welcome addition to class resources for those who teach and learn in a wide range of disciplines related to black religion.

Paul Nichols
Good Shepherd Baptist Church
Richmond, Virginia