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Orishatukeh Faduma and the New Theology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Moses Nathaniel Moore
Affiliation:
Mr. Moore is assistant professor of American and African-American religious history in Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

Extract

In 1890 the Boston Herald carried the following review of an article entitled “Thoughts for the Times or The New Theology”: “A curiosity is a paper by a native African, Orishatukeh Faduma, on ‘Thoughts for the Times,’ by which he means the new theology. This is the first time that a criticof the new theology has turned up from the dark continent, and is a curious and significant paper. When a native can write like this on subjects in which he has been obliged to educate himself, it means that we are to say nothing more against the intelligence of the African race.” While correct in noting the historical significance of Faduma's efforts, the reviewer's condescension disclosed his failure to appreciate and understand the sophistication and depth of Faduma' theological analysis and agenda. Faduma's critique of elements of the New Theology did not entail his rejection of this controversial theological synthesis which emerged during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Rather, his comments on religion and science, the historicalcritical method, comparative religion, missiology, the historical development of Christianity, and Christian ethics reveal that he essentially shared the theological orientation of its formulators.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1994

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References

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21. Alfred Moss observed that “though they produced a number of creative theological reconceptualizations, and were, at times, perceptive and courageous in tackling some sources of social injustice, these religious liberals were unable to transcend the orthodox racism of the day.” (Moss, Academy, p. 8 and Wills, “Aspects,” pp. 124–125, 127.) See Bucher, Glenn R., “Social Gospel Christianity and Racism,” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 28 (Winter, 1973): 146157;Google ScholarGossett, Thomas, Race: The History of An Idea in America (New York, 1965): 144197.Google ScholarSee also Luker, Ralph E., The Social Gospel in Black and White: American Racial Reform, 1885–1912 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1991), pp. 268311Google Scholarand White, Ronald C., Liberty and Justice for All: Racial Reform and the Social Gospel (1877–1925), (San Francisco, 1990).Google Scholar

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24. Ibid.

25. On Sabatier, one of the major formulators of a “thoroughly liberalized Protestantism,” see Reardon, Liberal Protestantism, pp. 10, 31, 34, 44–58, 65, 163. The Life of Dogmas,” Homiletic Review (05 1890),Google Scholarquoted by Faduma, , “The New Theology,” p. 142.Google Scholar

26. Faduma, , “The New Theology,” pp. 142–143.Google ScholarCompare with Blyden's “Christian Missions in West Africa,” in Blyden, Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race, pp. 4670.Google ScholarHutchison, William has provided perhaps the most comprehensive analysis of the changes fostered in American missiology by Protestant liberalism and the New Theology.Google ScholarSee by Hutchison, , Errand to the World: American Protestant Thought and Foreign Missions (Chicago, 1987);Google ScholarAmerican Protestant Thought: The Liberal Era (New York, 1968);Google Scholarand “Modernism and Missions: The Liberal Search for an Exportable Christianity, 1875–1935” in Fairbank, John K., ed. The Missionary Enterprise in China and America (Cambridge, 1974), pp. 110131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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28. Faduma, , “The New Theology,” p. 143.Google Scholar Thus, unlike Tanner and other black conservatives who were fearful of the racial as well as religious implications of the new sciences and theology, Faduma readily, though critically, appropriated them and proclaimed that they exposed the old scientific and theological props of racism as “pseudo-science” and “pseudo-theology.” Faduma, Orishatukeh, “African Negro Education,” Sierra Leone Weekly News, 24 08 1918.Google ScholarFor a more realistic appraisal of America's racial situation during this era, see Logan, Rayford W., The Betrayal of the Negro from Rutherford B. Hayes to Woodrow Wilson (New York, 1965).Google Scholar

29. Faduma, , “The New Theology,” p. 143.Google Scholar

30. Ahlstrom, Sydney, A Religious History of the American People, (New Haven, 1972), pp. 775776.Google Scholar

31. All sought to clarify the issues and challenges presented to their respective disciplines by the new scientific and intellectual currents. See Bainton, Roland, Yale and the Ministry: A History of Education for the Christian Ministry of Yale from the Founding in 1701, (New York, 1957), pp. 169170, 178–183, 189–190, 202, 225, 219.Google Scholar Letter from Faduma to Dean Luther Allan Weigle, 10 May 1945. Alumni File, Yale Divinity School. During Faduma's enrollment the divinity school also added a number of courses to the traditional curriculum which reflected the impact that the new scientific and academic currents were having within progressive seminaries throughout the nation. For example, in 1892 a course on “The Religious and Theological Conditions in Germany” was offered by Dr. Stuckenberg, pastor of the American Church in Germany. Its purpose was to inform students of current theological trends in Germany. In 1891 and 1892 courses in missions were introduced into the curriculum. The 1892 course, entitled “Modern Missions in the East,” was taught by the Congregationalist missionary and liberal mission theorist, Edward A. Lawrence. It sought to help “the men of the seminary to more intelligent ideas on missions.” See “Lectures at Yale Divinity School,” The Congregationalist 77 (17 11 1892): 448Google Scholarand Lawrence, Edward A., Modern Missions in the East; Their Methods, Successes and Limitations (New York, 1895).Google Scholar

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33. Proctor, , Between Black and White, p. 42.Google Scholar

34. See Faduma, Orishatukeh, “Africa or the Dark Continent,” AME Church Review 9 (11. 1893): 18Google Scholarand Faduma, Orishatukeh, “Religious Beliefs and Worship of the Yorubas in West Africa,” AME Church Review 12 (07 1895): 150158.Google Scholar Faduma's efforts to similarly appropriate the teachings and tenets of comparative religion were also illuminated in a number of articles published in the AME Review during this period. See for example Faduma, Orishatukeh, “Materials for the Study of the World Religions,” AME Church Review 12 (04 1896): 461473.Google ScholarHe argued elsewhere that that “the study of comparative religion is vital in the study of religion.” Faduma, Orishatukeh, “Drawbacks and Successes of Missionary Work in Africa,” Sierra Leone Weekly News, 20 04. 1918.Google Scholar

35. Faduma, Orishatukeh, “The Pastoral Epistles,” AME Church Review 11 (10. 1894): 215230.Google Scholar

36. Faduma, Orishatukeh, “The Faith that Is In Me,” Sierra Leone Weekly News, 16 06 1923, p. 1.Google Scholar

37. On the traumatic nature of this examination for some liberals see Swift, David E., “Conservative Versus Progressive Orthodoxy In Latter 19th Century Congregationalism,” Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 16 (03 1947): 2231CrossRefGoogle Scholarand Hutchison, , Modernist Impulse, p. 134.Google ScholarFaduma, , “The Faith That Is In Me,” Sierra Leone Weekly News, 2 06 1923, pp. 12.Google Scholar

38. His initial assignment as superintendent of Peabody Academy and pastor of the Congregational Church at Troy, North Carolina marked the start of what would eventually be a thirty-nine year tenure as an AMA missionary and educator. See “Rev. Orishatukeh Faduma,” American Missionary 58 (01. 1904): 15;Google Scholarand “Reverend Orishatukeh Faduma,” Sierra Leone Weekly News, 2 08. 1902, p. 4.Google Scholar

39. Faduma, Orishatukeh, “The African Movement,” African Mail, 4 12. 1914Google Scholarand Faduma, Orishatukeh, “Some of My Experiences in the Southland,” The Expected (07 1943): 9.Google Scholar

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41. Although major studies of the theological convictions of most of these figures have yet to be produced, close scrutiny of their educational backgrounds, writings and ministries warrants confidence in labeling them evangelical liberals of various stripes and commitment. On Sutton Griggs see Fullinwider, S. P., The Mind and Mood of Black America: 20th Century Thought, (Homewood, 1969), pp. 7374;Google ScholarGriggs, Sutton, Guide to Racial Greatness or the Science of Collective Efficiency (Memphis, 1923);Google ScholarGriggs, Sutton, New Thoughts for a New Era, (Memphis, 1913)Google Scholarand Griggs, Sutton, The Story of My Struggles, (Memphis, 1914).Google ScholarOn Waldron see Fullinwider, , Mind and Mood of Black America, pp. 47, 63.Google ScholarOn Ransom see Ransom, Reverdy C., The Pilgrimage of Harriet Ransom's Son (Nashville, n.d.), pp. 38, 866–887, 93Google Scholarand Morris, Calvin S., Ransom, Reverdy C.: Black Advocate of the Social Gospel, (Lanham, Md., 1990).Google ScholarOn Wright see Wills, , “Aspects,” p. 230Google Scholarand Wright, Richard R. Jr, 87 Years Behind the Black Curtain: An Autobiography (Philadelphia, 1965).Google ScholarOn Proctor and Powell see Proctor, Hugh Henry, Between Black and White: Autobiographical Sketches (Boston, 1925)Google Scholarand Powell, Adam Clayton Sr, Against the Tide: An Autobiography (New York, 1938).Google ScholarOn Haynes, see Roberts, Samuel K., “George Edmund Haynes: Advocate for Interracial Cooperation,” in Burkett, and Newman, , eds., Black Apostles, p. 114.Google ScholarOn Ferris see Ferris, William H., The African Abroad: Or His Evolution in Western Civilization; Tracing His Development Under Caucasian Milieu, Vols. I, II (New Haven, 1913).Google Scholar On Moorland and Steward see footnotes 43 and 45 below.

42. For example, the American Missionary Association (AMA), sponsored primarily by Congregationalists, supplied monies and staff for schools which provided a significant proportion of black secondary and college-level education in the South. The “heritage of liberal Christianity” in AMA schools has been noted by Clifton H. Johnson. See Johnson, Clifton H., Our American Missionary Association Heritage (New York, 1967), p. 40Google Scholarand Richardson, Joe M., Christian Reconstruction: The American Missionary Association and Southern Blacks, 1861–1890 (Athens, Ga. 1986).Google Scholar

43. Moorland was granted the Doctor of Divinity degree from Howard University in 1906. See Moorland, Jesse E., The Demand and the Supply of Increased Efficiency in the Negro Ministry, American Negro Academy Occasional Papers, No. 13 (Washington, D. C., 1909), pp. 910Google Scholarand Moss, Alfred A. Jr, The American Negro Academy Voice of the Talented Tenth (Baton Rouge, La., 1981), pp. 117, 133–134, 142–146, 159, 164–165, 223–224, 245,261.Google Scholar

44. See Woodson, , History of the Negro Church, pp. 250–251;Google ScholarMeier, August, Negro Thought in America, 1800–1915: Racial Ideologies in the Age of Booker T. Washington (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1966), pp. 133, 232, 271Google Scholarand Roberts, “George Edmund Haynes,” pp. 112–113. Its impact is noted in the biography of Ras Makonnen who observed that the “Y” operated with a “new theology” which insured that its concern “wasn't only religion” nor “provincial.” To Makonnen who later became a “Y” secretary and an important theorist of modern Africa, the YMCA “helped to portray in the most dramatic manner the role of Christ in the modern world.”Google ScholarSee Makonnen, Ras, Pan-Africanism From Within (London, 1973), pp. ix–xi, 41–51, 47, 77, 105–283.Google Scholar

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46. On the relationship between Protestant liberalism and progressive educational reform see Smith, H. Shelton, “Christian Education,” in Nash, Arnold S., ed. Protestant Thought in the Twentieth Century: Whence and Whither? (New York, 1951), pp. 225246;Google ScholarCoe, George A., Education in Religion and Morals (New York, 1904)Google Scholarand Coe, George A., A Social Theory of Religious Education (New York, 1917).Google ScholarSee also Faduma, Orishatukeh, “Lessons and Needs of the Hour,” Sierra Leone Weekly News, 5 10. 1918;Google ScholarFaduma, Orishatukeh, “African Negro or Education,” Sierra Leone Weekly News, 3, 24, 31 08. 1918;Google Scholarand Faduma, Orishatukeh, “The Study of Science in Elementary and Secondary Schools,” Sierra Leone Weekly News, 7 10. 1922.Google Scholar

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49. Faduma, Orishatukeh, “The Faith That Is In Me,” Sierra Leone Weekly News, 2 06, 1923; 16 June, 1923; 14 July, 1923; 21 July, 1923; 28 July, 1923; 18 Aug., 1923; 1 Sept., 1923; 15 Sept., 1923; 20 Oct., 1923; 3 Nov., 1923; 8 Dec., 1923.Google Scholar

50. If so, he was among a number of theological liberals who, amid the carnage of World War I and theological liberalism's manifest failure to usher in the “Kingdom of God,” were forced to re-examine and temper their earlier idealism and optimism. Their revised theological schemas reasserted the reality of both individual and collective sin. See Rauschenbusch, Walter, A Theology for the Social Gospel (New York, 1917);Google ScholarSmith, , Changing Conceptions of Original Sin, pp. 200–201;Google Scholarand Cauthen, , Impact, pp. 97–99, 127–143, 61–74.Google Scholar

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52. Faduma, Orishatukeh, “The Christian Minister's Attitude Toward Religion and Science;” Gavins, Raymond, Perils and Prospects of Southern Black Leadership: Gordon Blaine Hancock, 1884–1970. (Durham, N.C. 1977), pp. 3637;Google Scholarand Ferris, William H., “Viewpoint of Science and Religion,” Negro World 13 (13 01. 1923): 4Google Scholarand Negro World 14 (3 03. 1923): 4.Google ScholarSee also Gatewood, Willard, Controversy in the Twenties: Fundamentalism, Modernism, Evolution, (Nashville, Tenn. 1969);Google ScholarFurniss, N. F., The Fundamentalist Controversy, 1918–1931, (New York, 1954)Google Scholarand Cole, Stewart G., The History of Fundamentalism, (New York, 1931).Google Scholar

53. Founded by Congregationalists in the mid-nineteenth century, the Seminary had been under the increasing influence of theological liberalism since the 1880s. See McGiffert, Arthur Cushman Jr, No Ivory Tower: The Story of The Chicago Theological Seminary (Chicago, 1965), pp. 35.Google Scholar

54. Official transcript of Orishatukeh Faduma, Chicago Theological Seminary.

55. See Cauthen, , Impact, pp. 147–206;Google ScholarMcGiffert, , No Ivory Tower, pp. 87–90, 123, 165, 187, 218–219, 224, 226Google Scholarand Averill, , American Theology in the Liberal Tradition, pp. 95, 100–106.Google Scholar

56. See Faduma's autobiographical sketch entitled, “An African Background,” and Faduma, Orishatukeh, “Africa, The Unknown,” Mission Herald 43 (11., 12. 1939): 20, 44 (Jan., Feb. 1940): 16–17.Google Scholar

57. Fosdick, ,“Beyond Modernism,” Christian Century 52 (12. 1935): 15491552.Google ScholarSee also series of thirty-four articles published under the title, “How my Mind has Changed in this Decade,” in Christian Century 56 (18 01.—20 09. 1939),Google Scholarand Hutchison's assessment of this series in Hutchison, William R., Modernist Impulse in American Protestantism, (Cambridge, 1976) pp. 304305.Google ScholarCalhoun, Robert L., “A Liberal Bandaged but Unbowed,” Christian Century 56 (3 05 1939): 701704.Google Scholar

58. Both aspired to unite the leadership of African-American churches in a concerted assault on the myriad social, economic, and political injustices which afflicted the race. On the Fraternal Council see Ransom, Reverdy C., “Why a Federation of Negro Denominations in the United States?,” Negro Journal of Religion 1 (02. 1935): 5;Google ScholarThus we Go,” Negro Journal of Religion 1 (02. 1935): 15Google Scholar and Ransom, Pilgrimage, pp. 96–300.

59. Daniel, , Black Journals of the United States, pp. 279–281.Google Scholar

60. Editorial,” Negro Journal of Religion 1 (02. 1935): 3.Google Scholar

61. In an editorial section entitled, “A World View of Religion,” Ridley attempted to keep readers informed of the issues involved in the current theological and missiological controversies. See also articles by Wright, R. R. Jr on “The Challenge to the Negro Church,” Negro Journal of Religion 2 (02. 1936): 5Google Scholarand Evans,, Arthur Jr, “Personalism,” Negro Journal of Religion 2 (02. 1936): 6.Google Scholar The second issue of the Journal contained a sympathetic analysis of “Barthianism” and its “theology of crisis.” The author, Charles L. Hill, was dean of Turner Theological Seminary. See Hill, Charles L., “The Religious Crisis of the Present,” Negro Journal of Religion 1 (03. 1935): 5, 6, 13.Google Scholar

62. Faduma, , “Some of My Experiences,” p. 9Google Scholarand Faduma, Orishatukeh, “Africa The Unknown,” Mission Herald 43 (11., 12. 1939): 18.Google Scholar Encourgement of and concern for African students studying in the United States was an important dimension of Faduma's life and work. For example, in 1925 he addressed a joint meeting of the African Students Union and the Student Bible Institute at Hampton Institute on “Africa's Claims and Needs.” Faduma, Orishatukeh, “Africa's Claims and Needs,” Southern Workman 54 (05, 1925): 221225.Google Scholar

63. On Kalibala see King, Kenneth James, Pan-Africanism and Education: A Study of Race Philanthropy and Education in the Southern States of America and East Africa, (Oxford, 1971), pp. 282, 230, 240–245.Google ScholarSee also Kalibala, Ernest B., “Education for the Villages in Uganda, East Africa” (M.A. Thesis, Teachers College, New York, New York, 1934)Google Scholarand Kalibala, Ernest B., “Africa—The Unknown Quantity,” Part I, Mission Herald 44 (0506, 1940): 1012 and Part II (July–Aug. 1940): 11–13.Google ScholarCompare with Faduma's, Drawbacks and Successes of Missionary Work in Africa,” Sierra Leone Weekly News, 16 03. 1918; 30 Mar. 1918; 6 Apr. 1918.Google Scholar

64. Kalibala's dissertation was entitled, “The Social Structure of the Baganda Tribe” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1946).Google Scholar Note also the experiences of Kwame Nkrumah who would become one of the architects of modern Africa. After coming to the United States in 1935, he obtained a Bachelors of Theology degree in 1942 from Lincoln University and preached in a number of African-American churches. However, his increasingly non-traditional theological orientation and defense of African culture eventually pitted him in theological controversy with Dr. George Johnson, professor of theology and philosophy at Lincoln. On Nkrumah's theological orientation and evolution see Nkrumah, Kwame, Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah, (New York, 1957), pp. 113, 31–33Google Scholarand Timothy, Bankole, Kwame Nkrumah: His Rise to Power (London, 1955), pp. 4344.Google Scholar

65. High Point was the site of a normal and industrial school for African-American students. In 1943 Faduma recalled his experiences with racism during the course of his thirty-nine-year ministry in the South. Faduma, Orishatukeh, “Some of My Experiences,” The Expected (07 1943): 9, 10.Google Scholar

66. When the Divinity School mailed Faduma an alumni information form in 1944, he replied in an aged script that he was a “Retired Missionary” who had spent a total of “57” years at various mission posts and institutions in the United States and Sierra Leone. He also included a listing of fifty of his “literary contributions,” the typescript of his autobiographical sketch entitled, “My Nigerian African Background,” and a copy of his 1943 article, “Some of My Experiences in the Southland,” Alumni File, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut. On Dean Weigle who had also been decisively influenced by evangelical liberalism, see Weigle, Luther Allan, The Glory Days: From the Life of Luther Allan Weigle (New York, 1976).Google Scholar

67. Letter from Faduma to Dean Luther Allan Weigle, 10 05, 1945. File, Alumni, Yale Divinity School.Google ScholarSee Bainton, , Yale and the Ministry, pp. 169–170, 178–183, 189–190, 202, 225, 219.Google ScholarLetter from Dean Luther A. Weigle to Faduma, 22 05 1945. File, Alumni, Yale Divinity School.Google Scholar

68. File, Alumni, Yale University. “Certificate of Death,” North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.Google Scholar

69. Faduma, “My Nigerian African Background,” File, Alumni, Yale Divinity School.Google Scholar