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Book Reviews / Pneuma 29 (2007) 131-178
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Iva E. Carruthers, Frederick D. Haynes III, and Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., eds., Blow the Trumpet in Zion! Global Vision and Action for the Twenty-First Century Black Church (Min- neapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2005). xix + 180 pp., $16.00, paper.
One attempt to articulate and revitalize the prophetic voice of the black church, as this activism was expressed in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s, is represented in the formation of the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference, which published its first set of 2004 conference papers under the title of this book under review. At the time of his death on May 21, 1997, Samuel Proctor was pastor emeritus of Abys- sinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Professor emeritus at Rutgers University, in Newark, New Jersey. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. says that Proctor’s foremost attributes were: (1) demanding intellectual excellence of himself and expecting the same from his students, (2) awareness of social and cultural events and their relevance to Christian faith and ministry, (3) moral integrity and sound biblical and theo- logical perspective, and (4) witness to and partnership with God’s overcoming racism and other adversities in life.
In addition to J. Wright, other contributors to Blow the Trumpet in Zion include: Charles G. Adams, Randall C. Bailey, Iva E. Carruthers, Delman L. Coates, James H. Cone, Stacey L. Edwards, James A. Forbes Jr., Jacquelyn Grant, Frederick D. Haynes III, Obery M. Hendricks Jr., Asa G. Hilliard III, Dwight N. Hopkins, Monifa A. Jumanne, Samuel “Billy” Kyles, Portia Wills Lee, Vashti M. McKenzie, Otis Moss Jr., Otis Moss III, Larry Murphy, Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, Renita J. Weems, Reginald Williams, and Gayraud Wilmore.
In Hopkins’ preface to the book, he identifies the problem of the twenty-first century as the plight of the African American poor, who are historically and statistically remain the poorest of the poor in the United States. Hopkins says, “The U.S. system of monopoly capitalism is one of the greatest abominations since the Tower of Babel and Sodom and Gomorrah” (xviii). He recommends that African American churches lead a movement for a Poor People’s Bill of Rights. Such a movement, he believes, will be guided and sustained by the Holy Spirit and be eschatological in nature, something experienced now as promise but realized fully, for certain, in the future.
Other contributors to the book utilize eschatology as a source of norms for moral and ethical action leading to liberation. F. Haynes claims that recovery of the prophetic voice begins with eschatological vision, while O. Hendricks goes on to suggest that what is needed is a holistic spirituality that focuses on eschatology and social responsibility. V. McKenzie implies that the minister, by pressuring and challenging his or her congregation, can be an agent of change, and O. Moss III defines prophetic ministry as that which hap- pens between the minister and congregants in response to the question: “What can we do together?” J. Forbes says that what the United States needs is a revitalization of values, in which the church can lead the way but at the costs of suffering and possibly even death. O. Moss Jr. recalls that neither Martin Luther King Jr. nor even Jesus was received well. S. Kyles bears witness that King was killed but his dream of beloved community lives on. P. Lee stresses the importance of teaching children the dream of God’s possibilities. T ough intolerant of injustice, several contributors acknowledge that God’s change of the world happens over spans of time longer than that of any person’s lifetime. The accomplishment
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 DOI: 10.1163/157007407X178490
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Book Reviews / Pneuma 29 (2007) 131-178
of social change may take several generations. R. Weems defines faith as the discipline of living between promise and fulfillment, while C. Adams reassures us that, in this process of change, God will be with us and sustain us, and C. Murray points out that the future belongs to God and that the outcome of all believers’ strivings for the reign of God is in God’s hands.
In addition to the book’s innovative use of eschatology, its other significant features are: (1) emphasis on contextualization (that is, understanding the gospel through the experi- ences of black people), (2) critical perspective on evangelical and fundamentalist theology, and (3) concentration on social justice as a mandate of the gospel of Jesus Christ. L. Murphy says that the black Christian concept of mission is three-dimensional: a bal- anced focus on evangelism, God’s intervention in history, and human liberation. T is concep- tion of Christian mission, with prophetic radicalism as an integral component, corresponds to the egalitarian tradition that started at the Azusa Street Mission and challenges various barriers to ecclesial and social unity. Blow the Trumpet in Zion! hence alerts African American Pentecostals to several issues pertaining to the construction of racial and religious identity, the association of Pentecostalism with and its distinction from conservative evangelicalism, the work of the Holy Spirit in political and secular settings, and the role and mission of the church in society and culture. More precisely, these issues, in question form, are: How may Pentecostal identity be defined and reconciled to a concept of black Christian identity that emphasizes prophetic radicalism? How does black Pentecostalism differ or depart from conservative evangelical theology? How does the Holy Spirit work in economic, social, and political liberation as well as in personal religious experience? And from the view of escha- tology (or Christian millennialism), what is the role and mission of the church in contem- porary society and culture? T is book will be a springboard for reflection for African American Pentecostals and others interested in the fate of black Pentecostalism in North America.
Frederick L. Ware
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