Between Two Worlds

byFaith Magazine interviews Anthony Carter about the upcoming book, Experiencing the Truth:
Bringing the Reformation to the African-American Church.

Here's the table of contents:

• Experiencing the Truth: An Introduction by Anthony J. Carter
• Biblical Theology: Experiencing the Truth about God by Michael Leach
• Biblical Preaching: Experiencing the Word of God by Anthony J. Carter
• Biblical Worship: Experiencing the Presence of God by Anthony J. Carter
• Biblical Spirituality: Experiencing the Spirit of God by Kenneth Jones
• Afterword: Grace So Amazing: Experiencing the Doctrines of Grace by Anthony J. Carter

And here are some blurbs:

“Experiencing the Truth gives great acclamation to black (African-American) church worship, black preaching, and the black Christian experience, rightly showing the strength of Reformed theology for each of these traditions. It also provides a rapier diagnosis of a churchgoing people whose tryst with liberation theology has birthed a practice of Christianity that is too badly deformed to produce a kingdom of God-like presence in the African-American community. The authors offer a careful narrative of orthodox Christianity with a faithful and proper emphasis on the Reformed confessions, creeds, and solas so that African-American believers can find themselves tied to a pre-Middle Passage Christianity without sacrificing their own identities to the heroic personalities of the Reformation. I am excited about a book that would dare to suggest the “irrepressible urban beats” of Fred Hammons’s Bread of Life and van Dyke’s Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee sung to an arrangement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony could be used together to enhance our corporate worship experience!
Carter, Jones, and Leach have wed the African-American Christian experience with the Reformation so graciously that that those proud to be the ethnic and religious descendants of Dubois, Douglas, and King can relish equally in their spiritual heritage from Calvin, Luther, and Edwards. The analysis, synthesis, and directives of this collaborative treatise may represent one of the most important works since the now classical observations of Frazier, Lincoln, and Mamiya, for in this work the authors call us to be a church where our need for God can be fulfilled rather than a religious organization that meets people’s self-serving desires. I hope Experiencing the Truth will be an impetus to move the African-American church from the self-deprecating darkness of theological liberalism into the divinely nourishing the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
—Rev. Eric C. Redmond, author of Where Are All the Brothers? Straight Answers to Men’s Questions about the Church.

“In the midst of so many socially driven critiques of the African-American church, finally we have a book that is theologically robust, historically engaging, and at the same time remarkably easy to read. The authors show no fear as they tackle the tough issues (i.e. preaching, singing, worship, to name a few) facing the African-American in particular and the evangelical church in general. Carter, Leach, and Jones demonstrate their in-depth knowledge of the African-American church and their doctrinal prowess by offering not only sobering critiques but substantial biblical solutions rooted in the historic doctrines of the church. It is not very often a book of this nature is published. I say get it, read it, and discuss it. Any serious conversation about the church of Jesus Christ will include many references to Experiencing Truth: Bringing the Reformation to the African-American Church.”
—Louis C. Love Jr, Pastor of New Life Fellowship Church, Vernon Hills, Illinois

“A long line of people offer advice about the church—her ills, her hopes, her needs, and her prospects. But most diagnoses and prescriptions rely on the pundit’s own store of knowledge. In Experiencing the Truth, Carter, Leach, and Jones provide a biblical diagnosis and a biblical prescription for what ails the African-American church and much of the larger church world as well. From theology to preaching to worship and Christian spirituality, these veterans of the church and pulpit apply the scalpel of truth to every major area of church life. They helpful remove the diseased tissue and bandage the strong muscle of the church. Anyone who cares about seeing the cause of Christ advanced in the local church will delight in this volume and be helped in that cause.”
—Thabiti Anyabwile, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman

HT: Keith Plummer