Book review: The Divided Mind of the Black Church: Theology, Piety, and Public Witness

Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America, describes a division in the Black church in the United States that centers on its true mission and purpose. On one side are Black pastors, and on the other are Black theologians. Pastors in the Black church tend to focus on piety and personal salvation (much like evangelicals), whereas Black theologians see the focal point of mission as a liberationist movement to save the culture from racism. Warnock argues for a coming together of the two sides, in order to “more fully integrate [the Black church’s] pietistic and protest dimensions into a more holistic understanding of what it means to truly be a prophetic church and a liberationist community” (188, 189)