In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

250 l Denominational Traditions WOMEN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN DENOMINATIONS Sandy Dwayne Martin CHRISTIANITY, PARTICULARLY ITS Protestant variety , has been of immense, even central religious, social, and political significance in the historical experience of African American women. This essay focuses on the largest black denominations but also addresses themes and developments that have often been equally applicable to black women in smaller black as well as mainly white denominations. The beginning of the story of the connection between African women and Christianity can be traced to the biblical and ancient world. Increased attention to the racial-ethnic dynamic of ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Islam reveals that all three religions developed in a racial-ethnic-culturally diverse world, where various peoples migrated, lived among and alongside each other, and interacted on varying levels. A closer study of Christian origins in particular reveals that African peoples were intimately involved in the origins and growth of the religion, including being central to its leadership. In other words, from the inception of the Christian movement, African peoples, by race and ethnicity, not simply geography, have been a part of the Christian movement. Egypt and northwestern Africa were important theaters of some of the earliest leaders, churches, and movements, some “orthodox,” some subsequently judged “heretical,” such as Gnostics, Arians, Monophysites, Montanists, and the Donatists. Ethiopia, or Abysinnia, joined Armenia and the Roman Empire as one of the earliest kingdoms to embrace Christianity as a state religion in the fourth century. The kingdom of Ethiopia and numerically minority communities in Egypt and other northern African areas have remained committed to the faith down through the centuries. In southern Egypt and Nubia, strong church communities resisted the tide of expanding Islam as late as the eighteenth century. From Africans to African Americans While a small percentage of Africans in the Americas may have embraced Christianity prior to their being sold and relocated for enslavement, the great majority entered their new worlds as practitioners of traditional African religions. A smaller but significant percentage (estimates range from 6 to 20 percent) of the victims of the Atlantic slave trade conducted by Europeans and their African partners came from Islamic societies. Thus, African American women adopted Christianity against backgrounds of mainly traditional African religions and secondarily Islam. We need greater research on the pe- WOMEN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN DENOMINATIONS l 251 Jarena Lee, in her conflict with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, reflected the arguments used by black women to justify their right to preach the gospel. Lee spoke of her clear calling and direction from God and insisted that since Christ died for males and females, both should be free to preach the gospel. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. riod from the contact of Europeans with Africans in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the middle of the eighteenth century when Africans in what is now the United States joined the Christian movement in signi ficant numbers. That these Africans entering the Americas, and the preindependent United States, continued to practice as best they could the traditions of their foremothers and forefathers is clear. Undoubtedly, as with any religious tradition, changes occurred in the face of new circumstances and challenges. We must also bear in mind that traditional African religion manifested itself in a variety of ways on the mother continent and in the Americas since it varied from ethnic group to ethnic group. Nonetheless, there are central features that united the various ethnicities and facilitated easier synthesizing of their multiple, ethnic-based traditions. Speaking generally, with an appreciation for variations among the different groups, traditional African religion(s) were characterized by a belief in a Supreme Being who was the source of all existence; a Vital or Spiritual Force permeating reality; deities of varied ranks and powers who superintended specific areas of existence; a deep respect or veneration of ancestresses and ancestors; the importance of sacred leaders such as priests, priestesses, prophets, and prophetesses ; a belief in the sacred and central significance of community; the religious bases of life cycle rituals; and an emphasis on the importance of ethical behavior. It was within this context of African traditional and occasionally Islamic religious traditions, the barbarous transport to the Western Hemisphere by means of the Middle Passage, and life in a strange physical, cultural, and religious environment that African women in America for the most part first encountered Christianity. More aggressive historical and archaeological research will yield a fuller picture of the attempt...

Share