The Ground Has Shifted: The Future of the Black Church in Post-Racial America

by Walter Earl Fluker

Overview

“An exuberant, thought-provoking assessment of the dilemmas facing black churches” examining their historic role in today’s cultural landscape (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

In The Ground Has Shifted, Walter Earl Fluker discusses the historical and current role of the Black church and argues that the older race-based language and metaphors of religious discourse have outlived their utility. He offers instead a larger, global vision for the Black church that focuses on young Black men and other disenfranchised groups who have been left behind in a world of globalized capital.

Lyrically written with an emphasis on the dynamic and fluid movement of life itself, Fluker argues that the church must find new ways to use race as an emancipatory instrument if it is to remain central in Black life. He points the way for a new generation of church leaders, scholars and activists to reclaim the Black church’s historical identity and to turn to the task of infusing character, civility, and a sense of community among its congregants.

Honorable Mention, Theology and Religious Studies PROSE Award

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479823888
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Series:	Religion, Race, and Ethnicity , #6
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	325
File size:	601 KB

About the Author

Walter Earl Fluker is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership, the editor of the Howard Thurman Papers Project, and the Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Initiative for the Development of Ethical Leadership (MLK-IDEAL) at Boston University School of Theology and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Part I Memory: remembering our story 1

1 From Frogbottom to a Bucket of Blood 3

2 Haunted Houses: Black Churches and the Ghost of Post-Racialism 16

3 Cultural Hauntings: Black Church Leadership and Barack Obama 43

Part II Vision: Retelling Our Story 65

4 Turning from Dilemma to Diaspora 67

5 Turning from Exodus to Exile 89

6 Turning from the Frying Pan to the Fire 115

7 Just above Our Heads: A Meditation from the Middle 142

Part III Mission: Reliving Our Story 163

8 Returning to the Little House Where We Lived and Made Do 165

9 Cultural Asylums and the Jungles They Planted in Them 197

10 Waking Up the Dead 223

Notes 239

Index 297

About the Author 313

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/12/2016
The black church is “haunted by an old ghost who has shape-shifted into the language of post-racialism,” writes Fluker (Ethical Leadership), professor of ethical leadership at Boston University School of Theology, in this passionate analysis and call for change. Approaching post-racialism as a “postulate that is subject to argument and investigation,” Fluker organizes his discussion around memory, vision, and mission to encourage “a disturbing theology, a disruptive ethics, a prophetic preaching” with a particular focus on the “exilic condition” of young black men. Fluker’s up-to-date appraisal includes discussion of the Black Lives Matter movement and ways the “old ghost” of slavery and racial oppression has haunted Barack Obama’s presidency. This work, aimed specifically at black church leaders and scholars, offers a conceptual path forward rather than a handbook of specific strategies. Fluker’s more poetic, personal sections can be riveting, but his extensive use of academic social science language and close analysis of the work of scholars in his field may make his lines of inquiry difficult for the general reader to follow. Those up for a challenge will find an exuberant, thought-provoking assessment of the dilemmas facing black churches and pointers toward, in Fluker’s words, “new ways to model citizenship in diasporas and exiles.” This book is perhaps best suited for academics, theology schools, and large public libraries. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"The Ground Has Shifted analyses the ramifications of post-racialism in the black church and emphasizes the various ways that religious leaders and scholars can engage and re-evaluate critical questions; thus, coming up with clear and concise solutions towards historical problems of race, and sexualized and gendered politics of the church … The author paves a way for a new generation of church leaders, scholars, and activists for them to reclaim the black church’s historical identity of being the pivotal force within the community, while also instilling character, civility, and a sense of community among its congregants once again."

Black Theology

"Flukers book is thoroughly interesting as he studies the history and present of the black church Fluker brings us a work for todays church and a charge to connect that church to the world house."

Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"This is the most decisive statement on post-racialism, the American dilemma, and black church positive agency. On each page, Fluker's writing moans and wails us out of southern African American religiosity, up north into the fragmentation of black urban life, and into an ethical world of hope for an America becoming. A defining direction and persuasive proposal on how to get us to healthy community."

Dwight N. Hopkins

"This is a very important work that challenges all who read it to continue to search for answers to the growing crisis of faith in the black community, answers that will provide a viable way forward for black Christians and their churches in the challenging years ahead."

The Journal of Religion

"[T]imely and fascinating...The Ground Has Shifteddoes a masterful job of blending black religious thought, literature, critical theory, memoir, and personal experience."

Religion Dispatches

"The Ground Has Shifted addresses questions being posed by a historical Black Church caught between its piety, the politics of respectability, and a cataclysmic shifting of the taken-for-granted realities of a besieged/blessed people. I will buy and teach this book as often as I can. What an amazing contribution to the literature."

Barbara A. Holmes

"An important and perceptive contribution to the literature on religion and race."

Choice

"An excellent conversation starter to inspire holistic freedom for all people."

The Journal of African American History

"Fluker has a fresh approach to deal with the subject and provides new insights on the subject. It is meticulously researched and well-referenced. Walter Earl Fluker's scholarship is unmatchable."

The Washington Book Review

"Flukers judicious use of personal reflection provides an exciting affirmation that our black lives and our black churches really do matter as important standpoints for engaging spirituality, renewing the national imaginary, and enhancing the human condition."

Cheryl Townsend Gilkes

"Walter Fluker is the towering theorist of the Black Church and the unapologetic lover of the black prophetic tradition. This powerful and timely book is sophisticated, subtle, and rich. And it soars with a deep, long memory alive in the present a present that reeks of a 'cultural asylum' that he notes the Black Lives Movement is shattering!"

Dr. Cornel West

"The Ground Has Shifted puts forward a passionate challenge to the Black Church and all those who profess to stand in the prophetic Black Church tradition. It is a powerful and provocative treatment of the role and place of this venerable institution and the Gospel that gives it life. But more than that, the book offers a blueprint for a way forwarda pathway that involves "reclaiming [our] humanity through the integrity of the act"; to find beauty and grace in the dark places of what it means to live in this world without the burdens of ghosts. Beautiful written; passionately argued. A must read!"

Eddie S. Glaude

"This is the most decisive statement on post-racialism, the American dilemma, and black church positive agency. On each page, Fluker's writing moans and wails us out of southern African American religiosity, up north into the fragmentation of black urban life, and into an ethical world of hope for an America becoming. A defining direction and persuasive proposal on how to get us to healthy community."-Dwight N. Hopkins,author of Being Human: Race, Culture, and Religion

From the Publisher