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117
Roswith I. H.
Gerloff,
A Plea
for
British Black
Theologies:
The Black Church Movement in Britain in its Transatlantic Cultural and Theological
Interaction.
(Studies
in the Intercultural
History
of Christianity, 77;
Frankfurt am
Main,
New York: Peter
Lang, 1992).
2 vols.: xxxv + 415
pp.;
viii
+ 419-1086
pp.
DM 148.
Reviewed
by Peter
Hocken
These two volumes
comprise
the doctoral dissertation at the University
of
Birmingham, England,
submitted
by
Roswith
Gerloff,
a German Lutheran
pastor,
who for
many years
worked in
England where she became the founder
(1978)
and director
(until 1985)
of the Centre for Black and White Christian
Partnership
in Birmingham. The dissertation differs from most in two
significant respects: first,
it covers a vast
range
of
material,
far more than is
commonly acceptable
for doctoral
dissertations; secondly,
the research was conducted over a period
of almost 20
years,
the first half before Pastor Gerloff had entered the doctoral
program.
The text of the dissertation is found in the first
volume,
while all the apparatus,
the
endnotes,
illustrative
documents,
texts of interviews, and a
directory
of black churches in Britain are
printed
in the second. The initial research extended to all black church
groupings
in Britain, and is reflected in the
chapter
on
“Development
of the Black Church Movement in Britain from 1952.” The later work focused on three case studies,
one Pentecostal
(Oneness)
and two Sabbatarian
(Seventh-Day), one Adventist and one
Baptist.
In each
case,
Dr. Gerloff chronicles the struggle
of black Christians to
escape
from white ecclesiastical
control, so as to be able to exercise their own African
gifts
and to
express
their Christian faith in their own cultural framework.
The three case studies have been well chosen to illustrate
differing possibilities
and outcomes.
First, among
the Oneness
Pentecostals,
the attempt
to establish black
parity
in leadership was
primarily
worked out in the USA and in the Caribbean. The
policy
of the United Pentecostal Church in Jamaica is described as “the
imposition
of a ‘White’ church structure on an
indigenous community,
or of the colonial maxim ‘Divide and rule”‘
(I, 196).
The
origins
of
indigenous
Caribbean Oneness denominations are
recounted, e.g.
the Shiloh
Apostolic Church of Jamaica and the First United Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic. Notwithstanding
the white
supremacy
in the United Pentecostal
Church,
the
growth
rates of the colonial and the
indigenous types
are not that different. The formation of Oneness
congregations
in Britain
generally
follow the
patterns already
established in the Caribbean, especially
in Jamaica.
Secondly,
Dr. Gerloff sketches the situation of the Seventh
Day Adventist Church in Britain. Here white members felt threatened and
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118
leadership
By contrast, denomination,
successfully integrated
immigrants
some left as the black
membership multiplied,
even before
any
black
had
emerged.
To address white concerns of a black take-over and black desire for the
raising up
of a black
leadership,
the formation of a Regional Conference for black
congregations
within the one denomination was
proposed.
This course
of
action was
rejected
on the
grounds
that a British Church should
preach
the
gospel
to
all,
and not
neglect
the
indigenous (white) majority.
This is a
story
of slow reactions and an unimaginative if not
hypocritical response.
the
Seventh-Day Baptists, though
a
very
small
black West Indian members into what was
virtually
a
dying
British denomination. In this
case,
the
were
welcomed,
and the denomination admitted black leadership
and held
together.
the
struggles
of black Christians to be treated as equals by
the
whites,
Dr. Gerloff also accents the attractiveness to the black believers of those bodies
generally
seen as deviant
by
the white Christian
establishment,
whether in the Oneness form of Pentecostalism
Besides
presenting
or in the
Seventh-Day
sabbatarian
minority, following
groups.
Various causes are
cited,
one
being
the natural
sympathy
of the black
people
for the
despised
their own
experience
of
oppression:
“For us it is relevant that
people
in a remote comer of the world and in a condition of
neglect
and
poverty,
do
identify
with the
history
of
marginalized churches and defenseless Christian minorities and see themselves as heirs of that true church
kept
alive
through persecution
and
suffering”
(I, 381).
under
slavery),
(I, 100).
But the
and the other
literary too
stereo-typed;
it can Pentecostalism
among
the
in Britain and the
However,
an additional thesis is being urged in the
longest
case
study on the Oneness
Pentecostals,
which
gives
much
greater
attention to their
origins
in the United States and the Caribbean. This is that black Oneness Pentecostalism is the authentic heir of Azusa Street and the heritage
of William J.
Seymour.
Dr. Gerloff
rightly recognizes
that the Azusa Street church
“brought
into existence a kind of
‘marriage’ between the two cultural
traditions,
one African
(modified
and refined
and the other Euro-American”
following
remarks: “one oral and
multifaceted,
and more or less one-dimensional”
may
be
underestimate the oral character of
primitive
white
dispossessed
and
thereby misinterpret by making
too inevitable the later trend toward conservative rationalist Fundamentalism.
The distinctive features of black
Christianity
Caribbean are
clearly demonstrated, including
their
greater openness
to ecumenism and their natural
antipathy
to Fundamentalist
thinking.
some black-white contrasts seem to be
overstated,
or a
is made between
non-comparables,
presence
of the
Spirit
would be felt in joy, in music and
rhythms,
and in the
embracing
of the whole of God’s
creation;
for white
Pentecostals,
Occasionally, comparison
e.g.
“For
blacks,
the
2
discontent’
and ‘frustration'”
part
of the
The
greatest
of detail
concerning
the
and
denominations,
out
by
119
as ‘social
bishop
and
development
of black both in Jamaica and in Britain. Since
the ‘root source’ of their
religion
came to be
interpreted
(I, 102).
A black Pentecostal embracing
the
apostolic
succession is attributed to the need “to become
British or
Anglo-Saxon
tradition”
(I, 243),
but
might
not this also reflect a deeper African sense of generational identity?
value of this dissertation is found in the massive
quantity
origins
congregations
hardly any
of this material is available in
libraries,
it has to be ferreted
visits to
pastors, by participating
in congregational worship and church
conventions, by gathering pamphlets
and brochures. To do this
the trust and confidence of those whom you
are
studying.
This seems to be Dr. Gerloffs
why
these volumes have succeeded in
gathering
quantity
of information. Here the
length
of the
research-period, contributed to the
depth
of her welcome in the black
churches,
and the
covered
contribute, significantly
to the value of
effectively requires winning
breadth of the material the overall
study.
forte,
and the reason such a remarkable
which
Peter Hocken is the Executive
Secretary
of the
Society
for Pentecostal
to the Mother of God
Community
in
Studies and is a
priest belonging Gaithersburg, Maryland.
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