This is an important book for at least a four reasons. First, it is the first book of its kind demanding and giving compelling reasons why white Reformed Christians should think about and pay attention to and learn from the experience of black Christians. Second, it is provides a window into a community whose experience and history is (probably) quite different from that of its intended audience—though I suspect that Christians of all races could learn from this work. Third, it is an excellent starting place for a dialogue that needs to begin where it has not and that needs to continue where it has begun. Finally, for those who are interested in seeing the Reformed faith reach every people group in North America and in the rest of the world, this book is an essential starting point.

According to the Council of Reforming Churches, Anthony J. Carter

currently serves as the Assistant Pastor of Southwest Christian Fellowship in Atlanta, GA. He has a BA from Atlanta Christian College and an MABS from Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL. He is also the author of the books On Being Black and Reformed: A New Look at the African-American Christian Experience and Hesed: A Word Better Than Life. He currently serves as Assistant Pastor at Southwest Christian Fellowship in Atlanta, GA. Besides his teaching and preaching duties at Southwest Christian Fellowship, Anthony frequently travels as a conference speaker and guest lecturer. Anthony lives in Jonesboro, GA where he and his wife, Adriane, are raising their 5 children.

He blogs at Non Nobis Domine.

I won’t survey the book here because I want readers to read it for themselves. I regret that book reviews, instead of becoming a stimulus to read and learn, have become opportunities not to read but rather executive summaries for those too busy to read.

The strongest chapter is chapter 3: “The Church From Chains,” in which Carter provides a brief but quite helpful introduction to the rise of the modern slave trade and to the history of the experience of black Christians in North America. He nails the incongruity of self-professed “evangelicals” owning slaves and refusing to allow them to be catechized (pp. 50-51) because that would lead to baptism and that would lead to freedom for the slaves and economic loss for the slave owners. The Christian capitulation to culture has taken many forms. Carter observes the implicit anthropology by which “Christian” slave owners justified their sins, by denying humanity to the slaves. This ability to decide at will who is and isn’t human would come to haunt the modern world in a variety of ways including mass slaughter in the twentieth century in Germany, Russia, and in American abortion clinics.

Carter also offers a helpful explanation for why it is that Reformed and Presbyterian folk have such a poor track record at reaching the black community with the faith. Baptists and Methodists “welcomed slaves into their communions and condemned the practice of slavery” (p.54). According to the founder of the AME, the Presbyterians were too were too “high flown” to reach the slaves (p.55). A third reason why the Methodist and Baptists churches command the loyalty of African-American Christians is that they were willing to “develop and promote African-American preachers” (ibid).

Part two of this review.

Update: Anthony’s initial response at Non Nobis.