Dialectical method
• The Assimilation model – the essence of this view is the belief in the necessity of the
demise of the black church for the public good of blacks. The black church is seen as
a stumbling block to assimilation into the American mainstream. The assimilation
model also views the black church as anti-intellectual and authoritarian. This model is
found in the views and studies of E. Franklin Frazier.
• The Isolation model – the black church is characterized by “involuntary isolation”
which is due to predominately lower class statuses in the black community. Isolation
from civic affairs and mass apathy are the results of racial segregation in ghettos.
Thus, black religion is viewed as being primarily lower class and otherworldly. The
isolation model is found in the work of Antony Orum and Charles Silberman.
• The Compensatory Model – the black church’s main attraction is to give large masses
of people the opportunity for power, control, applause, and acclaim within the group
which they do not receive in the larger society, as St. Clair Drake and Horace Cayton
asserted in Black Metropolis. This view is also related to gunnar Myrdal;s perspective
in An American Dilemma that the black community is essentially pathological and
black culture is a “distorted development” of general American culture, so black
people compensate for this lack of acclaim and for lack of access to mainstream
society in their own institutions.
• The nelsens’ fourth alternative is the “ethnic community prophetic” model which
gives a more positive interpretation of the black church. This model emphasizes the
significance of the Black church. This model emphasizes the significance of the
Black Church as a base for building a sense of ethnic identity and a community of
interest among its members. It also accentuates the potential of the black church or its
minister as prophery to a corrupt white Christian nation.
• Dialectical model - black churches are institutions that are involved in a constant
series of dialectical tensions. The dialectic holds polar opposites in tension, constantly
shifting between the polarities in historical time. There is no Hegelian synsthesis or
ultimate resolution of the dialectic. Although this dialectical model is not completely
new, we feel that it is time to reassert the dialectical tensions in order to obtain a
holistic picture of black churches. The task of the social analyst is to examine the
social conditions of any particular black church, including the situation of its
leadership and membership, in order to determine what its major orientation is in
relation to any pair of dialectical polarities.
• Priestly vs prophetic – mainly about whether the church focuses more on the
church only or also about the wider community that it’s a part of
•Otherworldly vs this worldly – worried about heaven or worrying about living
well here
