By Eric Mason
Dr Eric Mason and friends bring scholarship, experience, and biblical grounding to the subject of urban apologetics. Urban Apologetics: Restoring Black Dignity with the Gospel is a must read.
If the descriptor "urban" applied to apologetics throws you, it won't after you read this book. Mason writes:
In this book, I'm introducing something I call "urban apologetics." When I see "urban" in "urban apologetics," I am referring specifically to our defense of the Christian faith against Black objections and how Christianity meets the unique needs and answers the unique questions of Black people. Urban Apologetics, page 31.
Does that seem too "specialized"? Read these chapters. You will change your mind. Urban Apologetics is nicely divided into three parts: (1) The Context for Urban Apologetics, (2) Religious and Ethnic Identity Groups, and (3) Tools for Urban Apologetics. I needed all three!
Part 1, "The Context for Urban Apologetics," unpacks the subject. I grew up in suburbia and was raised on evidentiary apologetics. I lacked the contextual understanding to appreciate the need for this book. I am not alone. Part 1 also serves those associated with Black Religious Identity Cults (BRICs) by acknowledging the challenges Blacks have faced throughout American history while differentiating these challenges from true Christianity. Chapter 1 ("What Is Urban Apologetics?" by Dr. Mason) and Chapter 2 ("Black Church History And Urban Apologetics" by Tiffany Gill) quiet the critics who would charge Black Christianity with simply supporting the "White man's religion." Having completed the book made me appreciate these chapters even more. Parts two and three help one appreciate some of the strong words regarding "whitewashing" in Part 1.
In Part 2, "Religious and Ethnic Identity Groups," Dr. Mason and others introduce six unique challenges Christians in the urban context face: (1) The Nation of Islam, (2) Engaging Hebrew Israelite, (3) Kemeticism and the Gospel, (4) Black Women and the Appeal of the Black Conscious, (5) Intentionally engaging Black Men, and (6) Black Atheism. These chapters are so well researched and explained. What an education!
Part 3 provides "Tools for Urban Apologetics," examining philosophy and worldviews, outreach, the importance of knowing your Bible, and the role of spiritual warfare in Urban Apologetics. It's gold!
Urban Apologetics is interesting and comprehensive. You will learn about:
Religious and ethnic identity groups such as the Hebrew Israelites. The authors also provide helpful biographical summaries of leaders within the various movements addressed.
Historical highlights and historical roots:
1. The story behind Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest continuously Black-owned plot of land in the country. p40-41
2. Maria Stewart who "penned powerful [19th century] missives refuting narratives about Black inferiority." p. 42
3. The roots of the Nation of Islam including leaders Noble Drew Ali, W.D. Fard, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, and Wallace Delaney Muhammad. Having been raised in and having come out of the NOI, Damon Richardson's treatment is especially insightful and theologically robust as he clarifies the theological differences between the NOI and Christianity.
More on Urban Apologetics:
In his chapter, "Why The Black Church Must Be Relevant," Zion McGregor adds this helpful explanation about urban apologetics:
"Urban apologetics is a cultural apologetic. It is a derivative division of Christian apologetics that engages the unique challenges of faith plaguing the African American community with the informative answers palatable to the African American experience" (p. 55). He adds, "Apologetics is the immune system within the body of Christ," identifying, engaging, and dispelling false and dangerous teachings (p. 59). "Urban apologetics is the countermeasure to the disease of doubt" (p.60). Urban apologetics shines the light of the gospel on various Black Religious Identity Cults (BRICs) "debunking the unique and challenging errors" presented by them (p. 62).
My takeaways:
1. Coursework at LBC: Invite Tiffany Gill to develop and teach a course such as "The History Of The Black Church In America." Churchill said, "the longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward."
2. The President's Book Club: Tiffany Gill suggested that readers "Create a culture of literacy that is infectious beyond the walls of the church. . . . Create book clubs and reading groups as a means of outreach." p. 49
3. Framing Black History Month: Utilizing Urban Apologetics as an institution-wide read would help reshape Black History Month, understanding more deeply the unique challenges, the power of the gospel, and why we as an institution unapologetically emphasize urban apologetics, but don't reserve our focus on people of color to one month in any given year.
Conclusion: In his chapter, "Philosophy and Worldviews," Brandon Washington writes, "Our King, the prototypical intellectual, has both commissioned and equipped us to be kingdom thinkers. Sitting idly by and allowing ghastly ideas to run roughshod over the urban community is an abdication of our calling." p. 202
For me, those lines sum up the approach of this book. Fulfilling the great commission takes equipping. Urban Apologetics will equip you to be better prepared to help point people to the King who restores true dignity with his gospel.
Recommendation:
I gave Urban Apologetics five stars because this is so much more than a "re-packaging" of evidentiary apologetics. Mason helps the reader (especially this white reader) to better understand urban culture and the criticisms that arise within it against historic orthodox faith. This is a subject about which I have been ignorant. This book is helping me culturally, theologically, institutionally, and personally. Urban Apologetics has strengthened my faith, my understanding of the Black religious experience in America, and my conviction that real dignity is found not in a racial identity, but in Christ through the gospel.