Some of the most stirring and inspirational words of hope and healing have come from black pulpits and the mouths of impassioned black preachers, down through the centuries. Much of this genius of the African American preaching tradition has been oral, and as such, has travelled in the oral tradition. Only in the last four plus decades, in the wake of America’s discovery of the power of black preaching in the public ministry of Martin Luther King, Jr., has the academic theological community paid serious attention to this tradition.

These efforts have culminated in the first PhD program in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana. I am privileged to direct the program and have begun training a cohort of scholars that will continue the scholarly exploration of the tradition. The cardinal belief of the program is that the beauty, depth, history, and transformative power of the African American preaching tradition can generate a preaching renaissance that will lead to the revival of American Christianity in the 21st century.

Admittedly, black preaching reviving American Christianity is a bold claim and grand vision. I believe this claim and vision can be accomplished through a series of patient, yet critical strategies, this article being one. In this article, I would like to briefly explore the genius of the African American preaching tradition by: 1) articulating a functional definition of African American preaching, and 2) offer several distinguishing characteristics of the African American tradition.

Definition of African American Preaching

Diverse Interests, Methods, and Expertise

It is important to begin with several key clarifications. First, there are diverse interests, methods, and expertise amongst theoreticians and practitioners of African American preaching. Not all adherents of the African American preaching tradition center on and intend to explain the distinctiveness of the African American preaching tradition. There is a school of thought in the African American community that does not articulate their preaching as “black.” Cleophus J. LaRue clarifies this perspective:

… there are black preachers who preach, but they don’t preach black, they preach the gospel. Chief among the proponents of this position was the late Samuel DeWitt Proctor . . . Proctor though not anti-black preaching, simply believed there was too much diversity within the tradition historically or as presently constructed to make accurate generalization. Proctor observed that African American preaching demonstrated the same diversity as other forms of American Christianity and should not be characterized by style of delivery or theological assumptions.

Several contemporary preachers hold to some form of this perspective. Even as I seek to define black preaching, I would like the reader to recognize that because it is a tradition, there are many valid points and perspectives, and no one size or shoe of orthodoxy fits or explains all. The African American preaching tradition is diverse, and I give respect and love to the diversity.

Following in the footsteps of Henry H. Mitchell, I feel the need and call to clarify and articulate the distinctiveness of African American preaching based upon my interest in the preservation of the African American preaching tradition and the potential contribution of this tradition to the present moment of crisis in contemporary North American Christianity. The genius of African American preaching, in the totality of its many forms and methods, can revive American Christianity and we cannot hide our light under a bushel.

Content Connected with Context and Struggle

Second, singer, songwriter, actress, and rapper Lauren Hill once said that many people attempt to imitate Bob Marley. She said that they would wear the hairstyle, put on the clothes, and buy a guitar. They could duplicate the externals, but they could not duplicate the depth of the musical content because the content is informed by a context and struggle. She said, “They have no idea what he had to go through to develop that kind of content.” In order words, you cannot dismember the content from the context and struggle that helped produce the content.

Such it is with the genius of the African American preaching tradition: one cannot divorce the content (including both theological and rhetorical processes) from the context and struggle that produced it. African American preaching is forged as a result of the encounter of the oral traditions of principally West Africa with the brutal experiences of American slavery, racism, and oppression. The result is a tradition of rich resources of hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ that has sustained many African American people for over four hundred years in this country.

The definition of African American preaching is elusive. Each generation of pastors and scholars must wrestle with the question and make a contribution to the definition of this tradition. From my perspective, African American preaching has been shaped by faithful responses to centuries of racial, sexual, social, cultural, political, economic, and gender oppression. As a result, is uniquely able to minister to all people—especially hurting and oppressed people in America—and all over the globe.

Therefore, my functional definition of black preaching is this: black preaching calls forth the deep longing for liberation, ultimately for belonging to the human family in individuals, and connects it with those same longings fulfilled in the gospel of Jesus Christ, such that when the preacher champions the gospel to victory, a victorious people are formed and ready to act.

Now that we have some sense of the struggle and context of black preaching, let us now look at characteristics of black preaching.

Characteristics of African American Preaching

When we consider characteristics of the African American preaching tradition, I would argue that there are at least seven:

-The centrality of the Bible—This is not to be mistaken for a rigid biblical literalism. The Bible is seen as the inspired and dynamic source for understanding the world and the wise guide for life’s decisions. Cleophus J. LaRue suggests: “More than a mere source for texts, in black preaching, the Bible is the single most important source of language, imagery, and story for the sermon.” Despite competing claims of post-modernism, secularism, religious diversity, and so on, the Bible is authoritative as the very words of God.

-The importance of experiential preaching—The Bible comes alive by means of an eyewitness style of picture painting and narration. Zora Neale Hurston suggests that the words of African Americans are action words and not principally abstractions. For Hurston, Western culture thinks in the written language of texts, and African Americans think in word pictures like the hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt which results in rich metaphor and simile. Hurston admits that much of this has been influenced by the acculturation of African Americans into mainstream American life, but oral traditions still heavily remain in black culture. The preacher stirs the five senses with word pictures, and as a result, the hearer does not just hear about John the Baptist in past biblical times; John the Baptist is present in the room, seen, heard, touched, and felt by all. The African American sermon is experiential.

-Existential exegesis—A particular form of exegesis that joins biblical scholarship to existential human need. African American preaching operates from the perspective of a close observation of the Bible and human need, which directs the sermon to resolve existential concern by exegesis of the text. The sermon is never academic alone, but exegesis addresses concrete human need and illustrates for hearers the true meaning of life and living.

-The call and response nature of the sermon—Call and response refers to the interaction between preachers and congregations all over black America that allows the audience to partner in shaping and directing the sermon. Based on oral traditions in west and central Africa, the preacher says something and the congregation says something back. The preacher often makes a sermonic plan in the study, but feedback from the audience often leads to improvisations initially unforeseen by the preacher.

-The inspiration of the Holy Spirit—The preacher is dependent on a power beyond the preacher’s power. The Holy Spirit ultimately shapes and delivers the message through the preacher. The sermon is not simply the words of a human being, but the very voice of God speaks through the preacher.

-Suspense that leads to celebration—The preacher structures the sermon to hold suspense as long as possible, and after the suspense is resolved, the preacher celebrates the good news with a powerful and uplifting conclusion. The weight that the black church places on a powerful conclusion to a message is unparalleled in any culture. The majority of the time the close is reserved for pure celebration and close the preacher must.

-The performative nature of the sermon—The Word of God must be “embodied” in the total person of the preacher, including head (rationality), heart (emotionality), and body (physicality). The Word must be incarnated in the total person of the preacher and not just the rational aspects of the preacher’s being, hence the sermon, in the best sense of the word, is performed.

With an understanding of a functional definition of black preaching and the characteristics of black preaching, I re-affirm my belief that African American preaching can lead a preaching renaissance that revives American Christianity in the 21st century. Would you join us in this preaching renaissance?

Editor’s Note: For a fuller treatment of the definition of black preaching, see Frank Thomas’ book, An Introduction to the Practice of African American Preaching , published by Abingdon Press, 2016.

Frank A. Thomas is the Nettie Sweeney and Hugh Th. Miller Professor of Homiletics and Director of the PhD program in African American Preaching at Christian Theological Seminary of Indianapolis, Indiana. Follow Frank on Twitter @drfrankathomas