Mighty Like a River

An expert in African American culture. Andrew Billingsley surveys nearly a thousand black churches across the country, including its oldest, the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia. These black churches, whose roots extend back to antebellum times, have periodically confronted social, economic, and political problems facing the African American community. Mighty Like a River addresses such questions as: How widespread and effective is the community activity of black churches? What are the patterns of activities being undertaken today? How do activist churches confront such problems as family instability, youth development, AIDS and other health issues, and care for the elderly? With profiles of the remarkable black heroes and heroines who helped create the activist church, and a compelling agenda for expanding the black church's role in society at large, Mighty Like a River is an inspirational, visionary, and definitive account of the subject.

First sentence: When I was growing up in the St. James Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, during the era of World War II into the 1950s, the focus of this church and all its activities was on helping to prepare its parishioners for life in the hereafter.

Year

1999

Language

English

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Editions

4

Pages

272

ISBN

9780195161793

Data source: Wikidata