Photograph: Metropolitan AME Church, founded in 1838 as Union Bethel AME Church.  Photo credit: Agnosticpreacherskid | CC3.0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped, color adjusted). The African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first Protestant independent denomination founded by black people, who wanted independence from white Methodists in 1816.  African-American churches nourished faith, hope, and love as well as organizations like the NAACP, Urban League, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  See Chris Hayes, ‘As Low As It Gets’: Black Lives Matter Signs Destroyed At Historic D.C. Churches. All In | MSNBC, Dec 15, 2020.

Introduction

The selection of perspectives on church history in this section — Church and Empire — has been guided by three factors: (1) to demonstrate that Christianity has not been a “white man’s religion”; (2) the study of empire as a recurring motif in Scripture by recent biblical studies scholars; and (3) explorations of biblical Christian ethics on issues of power and polity, to understand how Christians were faithful to Christ or not.  Christian relational ethics continues a Christian theological anthropology that began with reflection on the human nature of Jesus, and the human experience of biblical Israel.

This page explores the experience, activities, and theological thought of African-American Christians in the U.S. prior to 1954. The famous Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education was decided in 1954, which reinvigorated the Fourteenth Amendment and energized a new wave of human rights and civil rights activities called The Civil Rights Movement.

Messages and Resources

Our video series, The Theology of Marvel’s Black Panther, is also found on our Arts and Theology section and our YouTube channel, where we put brief descriptions of each video. It’s a great way to engage people who have an appreciation for the movies, especially if they are also activists at heart, and wonder why we firmly argue that Christian faith is not a “white man’s religion.”

Dr. Vince Bantu, Assistant Professor of Church History at Fuller Seminary and Founder-Director of the Meachum School of Haymanot, joins Mako Nagasawa to appreciate Marvel's Black Panther. We talk about church history, Christian ethics and theology, and the lessons we need to learn today. Each video has questions for group discussion and/or personal reflection. In particular,

Part 1 explains the movie Black Panther in the context of the historical Black Panthers in Oakland, and explains Christian faith in the context of colonialism and resistance to colonialism and white supremacy

Part 3 examines the compelling character of Eric Killmonger, and why his embrace of the imperialist, violent option was ultimately flawed, and rooted in his own character flaw of being unwilling to suffer again, for others.

Part 4 examines T’Challa, and why he was heroic; we point out the Christian journey of descent and ascent where T’Challa’s arc is similar to Jesus’ arc, and why Jesus’ determination to lead his people to give to the world the gift from above was the only real option.

Part 5 explores the movie Wakanda Forever for the importance of leaders and their development, especially in grieving. Queen Ramonda shines as the moral center of the film because of her qualities as leader of her nation and family. Shuri takes up the mantle of her leadership, but only by entering into a process of grief, the embrace of tradition, and belief that there is something more than just the physical, material world. We reflect on Judaism contributing to the sense that human leaders are human, not divine, and therefore need to have integrity and compassion and mercy, while Jesus shows these human qualities are in fact the character of a loving God. We engage with an article by Inigo Laguna, How to Sabotage a Black Utopia. And while we recognize the possible point for future movies, we instead express gratitude to the Black Church Prophetic Tradition in the U.S. and the sacrifices made by heroic Black Christian leaders.

A thirteen minute video about the Virginia Company and the Massachusetts Bay Company. “For-profit Christianity” compared with more authentic Christianity. We turn a brief spotlight on Black Christians in VA who wrote a letter in 1723 to the Anglican bishop in London to set them free.

Slavery in the New England Colonies: Key Moments and Motivations. An outline (8 pages) of early events in the English Puritan colonization of New England. The outline draws on historical research to show how the Pequot War of 1637 - 38 was motivated, in large part, by financial reasons: The Puritans of Mass Bay Colony needed cheap labor, as the seven year contracts of English indentured servants were expiring, and the seven year monopoly on trade with Old England was expiring as well. New England then participated in the Triangular Trade, transporting enslaved Pequots and bringing back enslaved Africans. This outline focuses on stated motivations by the English settlers and slave traders involved. They drew on biblical language and categories but utterly betrayed Christian faith.

Searching for faithful ways of understanding and engaging our political and racial climate? Examine U.S. history from the standpoint of church history. This series of blog posts explore how Christian (mostly Protestant) heresies started and continue to influence our modern political and racial challenges, including in housing, schooling, policing, and business systems. Christians must take responsibility for these heresies in the framework of repentance.  We lead the material in online discussion groups, but you can use the study guide with the blog posts for personal reflection or discussion in your family, church, organization, etc. See the whole course or just the blog posts.

The Role of Jesus in Revolution and the Pursuit of Justice

This is an evangelistic message that highlights the Christian-led and Christian-influenced non-violent resistance movements throughout the world in the 20th century, such as the Black Church and the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.  These movements show the spiritual vitality of Christian faith under empire or empire-like oppression.

 
 

Church and Empire in Africa: Topics:

This section explores the experience and activities of Christians under various regimes in Africa. We divide this material into Africa Pre-1600, Africa Post-1600, African American Pre-1954, African American Post-1954, African American Spirituality, and the African Diaspora outside the U.S. The time period around 1600 AD is significant because: In the West, the Songhai Empire collapsed in 1591 and the Mali Empire was divided in 1610; in Central Africa, Idris Alooma, ruler of the Kanem-Bornu Empire, died in 1603; in the East, Portugal and the Catholic Church were expelled from Ethiopia in 1632; and on the coasts, accelerated conflict with European colonizers and slave traders

The Church and Empire in America: Topics:

This section explores the experience and activities of Christians under colonial and modern regimes in the Americas. The pages are: African Americans Pre-1954 and Post-1954 because in 1954, the Supreme Court handed down Brown v. Board of Education, which was a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement and U.S. legal history; African American Spirituality; Asian America; Latin American In the US and Latin American Outside the US; Native American; White Anti-Supremacist; and White Supremacist. Other related topics include: Slavery and Race and Politics.

Church and Empire: Topics:

This page is part of our section on Church and Empire. These resources begin with a biblical exposition of Empire in Church and Empire and the meaning of Pentecost in Pentecost as Paradigm for Christianity and Cultures, then grouped by region.