Here are our top choices to begin your reading, or to fill out what you have already read:
Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals and Race
This is the sanest and most comprehensive treatment of racial differences that I've read. It puts race into an international context, and debunks and clarifies what we know, what we think we know, and what we cannot know about race. Highly recommended.
Profiles of African-American Missionaries, co-edited by Robert J. Stevens and Brian Johnson
Published in 2012, lives of missionaries from the 1700s to the present are collected into this useful volume.
Buy now from the William Carey Library
Vaughn J. Walston & Robert J. Stevens, African-American Experience in World Mission
Venture into the world of overseas missions from an African-American perspective. This collection of articles takes you deep into the history of missions in the African-American community. You will learn of the struggles to stay connected to the world of missions in spite of great obstacles. You will read of unique cultural experiences while traveling abroad. You will feel the heart for fulfilling the Great Commission both in the African-American community and beyond.
Buy Now from the William Carey Library
ISBN 10: 0878086099
Dr. Michael Johnson, What Jesus Wouldn't Do: Making the Blind Man Lame
Surgeon Michael Johnson has served many years in Kenya. With honesty, irony and pathos, he describes his call to missions, his attempt to negotiate the call, and his experiences with mission agencies, missionaries and those he serves. Here is a candid, and sometimes humorous chronicle of the cost of following Christ among the economically poor. This 2008 revised edition of his very insightful and provocative book What Jesus Wouldn't Do: Making the Lame Man Blind can be purchased from Amazon by clicking here.
Also, you can read articles from Dr. Johnson here on our website and visit Those Peculiar Johnsons.
Carl F. Ellis, Going Global: Beyond the Boundaries
This book is an exploration to rediscover the significance of the African American church's role in the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. Traced is the history of the spiritual foundation laid by our pre-20th century forefathers' involvement in global missions. It also explores how we must build upon that foundation today and diligently work to fulfill the mandate of Christ.
ISBN 10: 0940955938
The Decline of African American Theology
In this book, Thabiti Anyabwile offers a challenging and provocative assessment of the history of African American Christian theology, from its earliest beginnings to the present. He argues trenchantly that the modern fruit of African American theology has fallen far from the tree of its early predecessors. In doing so, Anyabwile closely examines the theological commitments of prominent African American theologians throughout American history.
Chapter by chapter, he traces what he sees as the theological decline of African American theology from one generation to the next, concluding with an unflinching examination of several contemporary figures. Replete with primary texts and illustrations, this book is a gold mine for any reader interested in the history of African American Christianity.
