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About Swing Low, volume 1: A History of Black Christianity in the United States &
Swing Low, volume 2: An Anthology of Black Christianity in the United States
An interview with Walter R. Strickland II
EV: What led you to put this book together? What problem or issue(s) are you seeking to address?
WRS: Swing Low is certainly a passion project. I stumbled upon many of the figures introduced in the book while I was writing my doctoral dissertation, and I was heartbroken that I hadn’t been exposed to these faithful brothers and sisters having grown up in the church or in my first three theological degrees. As the project developed, I began understanding new aspects of my own spiritual heritage and the faith of my God-fearing family. It was refreshing.
EV: What’s the thesis of your book?
ME: Swing Low establishes a theological framework grounded in the Orthodox Christianity that marked the African American Christian witness and traces its development from the 1700s to the 21st century.
EV: Who’s your target audience, and what are you most hoping they hear from it?
WRS: My desire is to introduce the body of Christ to an underexplored tributary in the American Christian story from an Orthodox theological perspective. Swing Low can be used as a textbook in seminaries and Bible colleges because of its comprehensive exploration of the topic, but it is accessible for anyone who desires to wade through its pages.
EV: Did you have any “aha” moments while editing the book?
WRS: The story of African American Christianity has been told by exploring its denominational development, social impact, and political engagement. While each of those is necessary to provide historical accuracy, the most important missing piece has been an account of the theology that drives the narrative. The theological framework that was inductively established within the African American theological tradition reveals that some of the most prominent African American religious scholars of the 20th century do not represent the theological convictions of the average Black churchgoer. This realization corrects wide-spread misconceptions about the theology in African American churches that were perpetuated by academics that are unrecognizable to regular church folk.
EV: What was the most challenging part of the book project?
WRS: So much of the African American Christian story is under researched because Black Christianity has been an oral tradition that creates fewer written artifacts and treatise to explore and incorporate into the book. As a result, a significant amount of time was spent locating primary sources from ministers who kept limited notes and lacked the finances to preserve their literary footprint. A specific example of this are the chapters on Black Evangelicalism, there are few secondary sources on this movement, so I had
to spend a significant amount of time and money securing resources and soliciting interviews to ensure the historical accuracy of the account.
EV: If your book was made into a movie, what actor/actress would play the lead role?
WRS: The story took place over four hundred years, so the main character cannot be an individual, but the person sovereignly facilitating (or narrating) the story, namely God.
This is consistent with the African American Christian tradition because it is expressed communally as we bear witness to Christ.
EV: What kind of seminary/church classes should assign your book?
WRS: Swing Low would benefit the following types of classes or courses:
Seminary
Church History
United States Christian History
African American Theology
African American Church History
Contextual Theology
Church
Black history studies
Leadership development
Racial understanding initiatives
About the Author
Walter R. Strickland II (PhD, University of Aberdeen Scotland) is Associate Professor of Systematic and Contextual Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.