The Transformative Years Of The Black Church:1890-1950

In the context of a wide variety of socio-historical factors the black church in America per se underwent significant historical transformations during the period1890-1950.And as a consequence of these historical changes,the years 1890-1950 stood as the transformative years in African American religious experience.From the perspective of sociology of religion,this dissertation intends to examine the black church in the years 1890-1950 and its importance as “the transformative years” in black religious experience,exploring the contributing factors for and the major manifestations of these significant transformations,and discussing their impacts on and implications for the post-1950 black churches.The significant transformations taking place within the black church during the period 1890-1950 manifested themselves in chiefly three aspects.These historical transformations displayed themselves,first and foremost,in a gradual “partial separation” between the influence of the black church and various areas of black life as well as in the subsequent decline of the black church's influence in the black community since the 1880 s or 1890 s.This significant change paved the way for the historical shift of the contemporary black church from multifarious community involvement to the "partial separation",which resulted,inevitably and irreversibly,in the decline of its overall influences.Equally important,this transformation set the stage for the two other significant transformations in the black church of this period.Partly in response to the decline of the black church,which compelled black Social Gospelers to expand the mission of the church so as to maintain its preeminent position in the new urban setting,the significant transformations in the black church of the era 1890-1950 also exhibited themselves in the broadened mission of the traditional black church to combine the spiritual with the material and in the subsequent rise of black urban social ministry.The emergence and remarkable development of black institutional church work on the part of many large urban black churches in the era 1890-1950 laid the foundation for the social service and community outreach efforts by the post-1950 local black urban churches.Meanwhile,partly as a response to the religious vacuum left by the decline of the traditional black mainstream churches,the significant changes in the black church of the period 1890-1950 revealed themselves in the emergence of great varieties and numbers of new unconventional black religious groups as well.The rise and flowering of these new nontraditional groups in the urban environment,particularly the emergence of black Pentecostal-Holiness groups(the Church of God in Christ)and the black Muslims(the Nation of Islam),not only presented direct and serious challenges to the dominance of the traditional black mainline churches in the period1915-1950 and thereafter,but also launched the initial stage for the great diversity and richness of the contemporary black religious scene.In short,the three significant historical transformations in the black church itself not only considerably redrew the religious map of the period 1890-1950,but prepared the way for the formation of the post-1950 black religious landscape.Therefore,it might be argued that the years 1890-1950 constituted transformative years in African American religious experience.These transformations were embraced in the post-1950 black community and led to a much richer,much more vibrant,and much more diverse black religious culture,thereby vigorously facilitating the prosperity of the contemporary black church as well as furthering the ongoing search of African Americans for identity and meaning.