Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture

11. On the Compatibility/Incompatibility of Pentecostal Premillennialism with Black Liberation Theology

| 191 11 On the Compatibility/ Incompatibility of Pentecostal Premillennialism with Black Liberation Theology Frederick L. Ware Introduction One aspect of African American religion and culture is the tendency toward utopian and eschatological vision, what I call the mythic dimension of racial consciousness.1 Here is where the turn to another reality takes place, and where belief and hope are born. Here is a nostalgic longing for recovery of a lost past or a dream of a promising future. Brought forcefully and violently into a new emerging global system, oppressed Africans and their descendents formed different ideas about American identity and the role of America and its future in the world. This gaze forward into a time yet to come, but perceived as consequential for the present, is found in Pentecostalism and black theology. Both movements intersect in eschatology, the doctrine of the end times or of the last days (among other arenas). Black theology chooses eschatology as a central category for studying and interpreting the mythic dimension of racial consciousness . In Pentecostalism’s aspiration to be colorblind or to transcend race, ethnicity, and other markers of human identity, eschatology centers on the nearness of Christ’s return, the time at which Christ expects to be greeted by a unified church without regard to these identifiers. The term “millennialism” refers to religious and political perspectives about the end of history. Often hoped for is a golden age of joy, peace, justice, and prosperity. In American civic life, influenced by the Christian hope of a glorious future, talk about the destiny of the United States is framed around optimism and the idea of progress. The American nation, whose best days always lie ahead, is believed to be God’s instrument in ushering human civilization into a new stage of development. In Christian thought, this golden 192 | Pneumatology age is the millennium, the period when Christ will rule on earth. Based on convictions about when Christ will return (before, after, or not at all for the millennium), Christian millennialism divides into premillennialism, postmillennialism , and amillennialism. While political discourse about the future of the United States may be called simply “American millennialism,” it shares in common with postmillennialism the view that the golden age is preceded by, possibly even hastened or caused by, improvement in human society. African Americans altered American millennialism and thus created their own black millennialism to account for their past experience and secure their future participation in the United States and world history. Black millennialism grants African Americans meaningful inclusion in the coming golden age. Black millennialism is shaped by African American beliefs regarding the utility of American culture and social institutions in transforming the world, about the probability and aftermath of divine judgment of injustices in American society and Western civilization, and about the church’s role in establishing a new era of earthly equality, justice, and prosperity. Black millennialism retains an American postmillennial orientation that emphasizes progress and a belief that the golden age is preceded by improvement in human society. Pentecostal premillennialism (the pervasive conception of eschatology in Pentecostal churches) conflicts with black racial consciousness and is thus insufficiently compatible with a theology designed to empower black liberation. Unable to dislodge itself from its premillennialism or develop an alternative conception of eschatology, African American Pentecostals have developed instead their demonology and holiness codes in order to sanction their social activism. However, such a resort to demonology and holiness doctrine alone does not address the restrictions on social action imposed by premillennialist eschatology. In light of African American Pentecostals’ move to name injustice as an “evil” that must be and can be overcome and their integration of social justice into their holiness teachings, an additional adjustment may make African American Pentecostalism a source of liberation theology: replacing premillennialism with a conception of eschatology derived from black folk sources and black Christian millennialism. I do not reject millennialism but instead propose for African American Pentecostals a reorientation toward a conception of eschatology derived from black religion , a covering term for black folk sources and black millennialism. In spite of Pentecostal claims to interracial beginnings, imperatives to evangelize all peoples, and quest for an ecclesial and social unity that transcends race, African American Pentecostals are concentrated in “Black Churches,” congregations and denominations that are membered predomi- Pentecostal Premillennialism/Black Liberation Theology | 193 nately by persons of African descent. Since black theology focuses on matters impacting the humanity and...