The Calvinist International
Given the prominence of the legacy of slavery and race at the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention and at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, it stands to reason that discussions over the legacy of race and slavery and their historical relationship with Evangelicalism will continue. Some of these discussions are helpful—one thinks […]
The work of Gospel-centered racial reconciliation presents unique challenges for Christians as they seek both truth and charity. The truth is that Reformed Evangelicalism has a disastrous history regarding the treatment—cultural, ecclesiological, and social—of African Americans. For Reformed Evangelicals, especially those who live in and understandably celebrate cultural distinctives of the American South, this is […]
The Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia flies no more on the lawn of the South Carolina capitol grounds. In the rush of emotion that followed Dylan Roof’s killings, the debate among Christians shifted from the subject of race and Christianity to a debate—though it wasn’t really a debate, more of a en-masse […]
In Chapter 15 of My Bondage and My Freedom, Frederick Douglass describes the ultimate incoherency of the notion of a fully privatized faith, which can lead a man to act with love at one time and utter malice at another while seemingly feeling no cognitive dissonance from it. In this specific instance, he has just told […]
Once again on Frederick Douglass. We know from the previous post that Douglass was familiar with William Cowper. But how did he come to know how to read at all? Douglass tells of his move from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to Baltimore in chapter 10 of My Bondage and My Freedom. There he came under […]
That is Frederick Douglass’ description, borrowed from the evangelical Anglican poet William Cowper, of the man who is not moved by the music of the slave’s lament. In chapter 6 of My Bondage and My Freedom, Douglass gives an account of the emotional and spiritual power of the song of the grief-stricken. Though slaves were […]