Person

C. Eric Lincoln

Q: Did C. Eric Lincoln coin the term "Black Muslim"?

His 1961 book The Black Muslims in America made the term standard. Leaders of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X among them, objected to it and preferred to be called simply Muslims.

Charles Eric Lincoln (23 June 1924 to 14 May 2000) was an American sociologist of religion, an ordained Methodist minister, and one of the principal scholarly interpreters of Black religious life in the United States in the late twentieth century. Three books carry his reputation: The Black Muslims in America (1961), the first major study of the Nation of Islam; The Black Church Since Frazier, his answer to E. Franklin Frazier, published with Frazier's book in 1974; and The Black Church in the African American Experience (1990), written with Lawrence H. Mamiya. For the codex he is the scholar who carried the study of the Black church from Frazier's era into the civil rights era and beyond.

Life and career

Lincoln was born in Athens, Alabama, and died in Durham, North Carolina. Wikipedia's account of his education lists a B.A. in sociology and philosophy from LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis (1947), an M.A. from Fisk University (1954), a Bachelor of Divinity from the University of Chicago (1956) and a Ph.D. in social ethics from Boston University (1960). He was ordained a Methodist minister in 1957. He taught at Clark Atlanta University (1962 to 1972), at Fisk as professor of religion and sociology (1973 to 1976), and at Duke University in religion and culture (1976 to 1993), with visiting posts that included Union Theological Seminary and the University of Ghana.

He was also a writer of fiction. Penguin Random House's author note records that his novel The Avenue, Clayton City won the Lillian Smith Book Award for Best Southern Fiction in 1988, that he was founding president of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters, that he was friends with Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Alex Haley, and that in 1990 he "was cited by Pope John Paul II for 'scholarly service to the church.'"

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The Black Muslims in America (1961)

His 1961 book was a pioneering study of the Nation of Islam. A Columbia University note on the book says it "helped establish Lincoln as a pioneer in the sociological study of religion," and that one of its lasting effects was to popularize "the term 'Black Muslim' itself," a label the Nation's own leaders, Malcolm X among them, objected to as limiting.

The Black Church Since Frazier (1974)

Lincoln's essay began as the James Gray lectures at Duke University in 1970 and was published by Schocken in 1974 in a single volume with Frazier's The Negro Church in America. The publisher summarizes it as "an essay by Lincoln arguing that the civil rights movement saw the splintering of the traditional black church and the creation of new roles for religion." Frazier had described a church of accommodation and refuge; Lincoln, writing after the civil rights movement, described a church that had taken on new public roles and had begun to split.

The Black Church in the African American Experience (1990)

Written with Lawrence H. Mamiya and published by Duke University Press in November 1990 (536 pages), the book opens its own description with the judgment that "Black churches in America have long been recognized as the most independent, stable, and dominant institutions in black communities." It is widely used as a reference on the institutional life of the historically Black denominations.

Apologetic relevance

Against "Christianity is the white man's religion." Lincoln's lifetime of work describes the Black church as the most independent institution Black Americans built. That is the opposite of a church held on loan from slaveholders. See Christianity Is the White Mans Religion Objection Defeater and Black Christian Agency.

On the Nation of Islam. Lincoln was the first major scholar of the Nation of Islam and treated it seriously as a religious movement. His study is a useful reminder that the Nation's appeal arose from real grievances against American racism, which an honest Christian answer should grant before it answers the Nation's claims about history and theology.

On the "stripped of religion" objection. Lincoln's work begins where Frazier's leaves off, with a church that the formerly enslaved and their descendants built and ran themselves. Frazier's "invisible institution" became, in Lincoln's account, the visible and independent Black church. See Hush Harbors and Christianity Spread Only by the Sword Objection Defeater.

Common questions this page answers

Q: Who was C. Eric Lincoln?

An American sociologist of religion and ordained Methodist minister (1924 to 2000) who taught at Clark Atlanta, Fisk and Duke. He wrote the first major study of the Nation of Islam and, with Lawrence H. Mamiya, a major study of the Black church.

Q: What is The Black Church Since Frazier?

Lincoln's essay, first given as the James Gray lectures at Duke University in 1970 and published in 1974 in one volume with E. Franklin Frazier's The Negro Church in America. It argues that the civil rights movement split the traditional Black church and created new roles for religion.

Q: When was The Black Church in the African American Experience published?

Duke University Press published it in November 1990. Lincoln wrote it with Lawrence H. Mamiya, and it is a broad study of the historically Black denominations and their place in Black community life.

Q: Did C. Eric Lincoln coin the term "Black Muslim"?

His 1961 book The Black Muslims in America made the term standard. Leaders of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X among them, objected to it and preferred to be called simply Muslims.