Preaching with Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 to the PresentMartha Simmons, Frank A. Thomas One hundred sermons that display the victorious, although sometimes painful, historical and spiritual pilgrimage of black people in America. A groundbreaking anthology, Preaching with Sacred Fire is a unique and powerful work. It captures the stunning diversity of the cultural and historical legacy of African American preaching more than three hundred years in the making. Each sermon, as editors Martha Simmons and Frank A. Thomas reveal, is a work of art and a lesson in unmatched rhetoric. The journey through this anthology—which includes selections from Jarena Lee, Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Gardner C. Taylor, Vashti McKenzie, and many others—offers a rare view of the unheralded role of the African American preacher in American history.The collection provides new insights into the underpinnings of the black fight for emancipation and the rise and growth of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Sermons from the first decade of the twenty-first century point toward the future of African American preaching. Biographies of the preachers put their work in the cultural and homiletic context of their periods. The preachers of these sermons are men and women from a range of faiths, ancestries, and educational backgrounds. They draw on a vast and luminous landscape of poetic language, using metaphor, rhythm, and imagery to communicate with their congregations. What they all have in common is hope, resilience, and sacred fire. “Even during the most difficult and oppressive times,” Simmons and Thomas write in the preface, “the delivery, creativity, charisma, expressivity, fervor, forcefulness, passion, persuasiveness, poise, power, rhetoric, spirit, style, and vision of black preaching gave and gives hope to a community under siege.” This magnificent work beautifully renders the complexity, spiritual richness, and strength of African American life. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
JOHN CHAVIS | 31 |
HOSEA EASTON | 45 |
LEMUEL HAYNES | 56 |
JOHN JEA | 63 |
JOHN MARRANT | 76 |
GEORGE WHITE | 90 |
RICHARD ALLEN | 105 |
CharLes harrison mason | 434 |
reverdy Cassius ransom | 450 |
CharLes aLbert tindLey | 467 |
LACEY KIRK WILLIAMS | 475 |
19511968 | 485 |
WILLIAM HOLMES BORDERS | 498 |
TIMOTHY MOSES CHAMBERS | 504 |
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR | 514 |
BROTHER CARPER | 111 |
ALEXANDER CRUMMELL | 123 |
FREDERICK DOUGLASS | 135 |
JARENA LEE | 160 |
ZILPHA ELAW | 166 |
NATHANIEL PAUL | 181 |
JAMES WILLIAM CHARLES PENNINGTON | 189 |
MARIA W STEWART | 203 |
SOJOURNER TRUTH | 217 |
RICHARD HARVEY CAIN | 237 |
RICHARD R DEBAPTISTE | 247 |
WILLIAM BENJAMIN DERRICK | 256 |
ELIJAH JOHN FISHER | 262 |
GARFIELD T HAYWOOD | 266 |
LUCIUS H HOLSEY | 272 |
JOHN JASPER | 281 |
EMILY CHRISTMAS KINCH | 291 |
WILLIAM HENRY MOSES | 303 |
ELIAS CAMP MORRIS | 313 |
JAMES PRESTON POINDEXTER | 322 |
MARY LENA LEWIS TATE | 339 |
SAMUEL RINGGOLD WARD | 349 |
WORLD WARS FREEDOM STRUGGLES | 363 |
WILLIAM JOSEPH SEYMOUR | 372 |
nobLe dreW aLi | 378 |
Zora neaLe hurston | 392 |
James WeLdon Johnson | 412 |
EL HAJJ MALIK ELSHABAZZ | 526 |
JOSEPH HARRISON JACKSON | 545 |
BENJAMIN ELIJAH MAYS | 562 |
JESSE JAI MCNEIL | 569 |
FROM BLACK TO AFRICAN AMERICAN | 581 |
CHARLES GILCHRIST ADAMS | 594 |
CHARLES E BOOTH | 605 |
thea boWman | 612 |
Caesar arthur WaLker CLark sr | 626 |
CLaudette a CopeLand | 642 |
James aLexander Forbes Jr | 667 |
haLL | 687 |
edWard viCtor hiLL | 700 |
thomas dexter t d Jakes | 721 |
miLes Jerome Jones | 736 |
vashti murphy mckenZie | 753 |
pauL s morton sr | 766 |
anna pauLi murray | 782 |
FrederiCk k C priCe | 796 |
sandy F ray | 811 |
Gardner CaLvin tayLor | 829 |
Jasper WiLLiams Jr | 845 |
The Musicality of African American | 864 |
Other Notable Preachers | 885 |
Bibliography | 911 |
Credits | 953 |
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Preaching with Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 ... Martha Simmons,Frank A. Thomas No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
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