The Negro's Church
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Joseph Micholson
- Benjamin Mays
 Title page for The Negro's Church (1933) | |
| Author |
|
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Institute of Social Religious Research |
Publication date | 1933 |
| Publication place | United States |
The Negro’s Church (New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1933) is a book by Joseph Nicholson and Benjamin Mays. It highlights the origins of African-American religion and how it became a way to cope under racist oppression. It said the songs, hymns, and dances of that culture were a way to "endure suffering and survive as it helped blacks get through heartache with the music of the soil and the soul".[1]
In Chapter VI (titled "The Message of the Minister") the authors performed a systematic study of 100 sermons in order to evaluate the "teaching quality" by the minister in each Negro church. They separated the sermons into "three classes: those that touch on life situations, sermons that are doctrinal or theological, and those that are predominantly other-worldly".[1] They then critiqued each of the 100 sermons and worked to further classify them.[2]
