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The Black Church

The Black Church: Purpose and Function

The purpose of this research is to examine the historical functions of the Black Church in the U.S. as a social institution. The plan of the research will be to describe the details of the purpose of the study as well as the significance and need for it, and then to discuss the historical/comparative methodology employed to analyze appropriate data and commentary, anchored chiefly in the theories of social analysis contained in Social Theory and Social Structure by Robert Merton and, secondarily, in Sociology: A Systematic Introduction by Harry M. Johnson. The body of the study will review and analyze related literature with a view toward discerning meaningful patterns of institutional organization and behavior that can serve to appropriately position the Black Church vis-a-vis modern society in general and other modern social institutions in particular. It is hoped that the findings and conclusions derived from this study will have the effect of adding to the existing sociological knowledge base pertaining to Black Churches while encouraging future research efforts aimed at a fuller understanding of such institutions.

It is a truism of the popular culture that much of the culture of the black American community is manifest to a significant extent in the experience of the black church. Many black popular musicians received their initial exposure to music in the church setting. The black church, particularly in its Protestant manifestation, was the most visible institution driving social and political, as well as religious, leadership during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Such mainstream political leaders in the movement as Dr. King, Jesse Jackson, and John Lewis (now a U.S. Representative) had the credentials of ordained ministers, not political scientists, when they assumed their leadership roles. And while it might be argued that such organizations as the Nation of Isla...

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The Black Church. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:54, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1691322.html