Title
Divine Callings : Understanding the Call to Ministry in Black Pentecostalism / Richard N. Pitt.
ISBN
9780814768259
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2012]
Copyright
©2012
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Item Number
10.18574/nyu/9780814768235.001.0001 doi
Call Number
BX7056.Z5 P58 2012
Dewey Decimal Classification
262.14973
Summary
One of the unique aspects of the religious profession is the high percentage of those who claim to be "called by God" to do their work. This call is particularly important within African American Christian traditions. Divine Callings offers a rare sociological examination of this markedly understudied phenomenon within black ministry. Richard N. Pitt draws on over 100 in-depth interviews with Black Pentecostal ministers in the Church of God in Christ-both those ordained and licensed and those aspiring-to examine how these men and women experience and pursue "the call." Viewing divine calling as much as a social process as it is a spiritual one, Pitt delves into the personal stories of these individuals to explore their work as active agents in the process of fulfilling their calling. In some cases, those called cannot find pastoral work due to gender discrimination, lack of clergy positions, and educational deficiencies. Pitt looks specifically at how those who have not obtained clergy positions understand their call, exploring the influences of psychological experience, the congregational acceptance of their call, and their response to the training process. He emphasizes how those called reconceptualize clericalism in terms of who can be called, how that call has to be certified, and what those called are meant to do, offering insight into how social actors adjust to structural constraints.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Available in Other Form
print 9780814768235
Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
PART I. INTRODUCTION
Introduction
1 The Church of God in Christ
PART II. BECOMING THE CALLED
2 "Heard a Voice from Heaven Say"
3 "All the World's a Stage"
PART III. BEING THE CALLED
4 "A Stutter And A Stick"
5 "Don't Quit Your Day Job"
6 "Chew the Meat and Spit Out the Bones"
PART IV. Conclusion
7 Legitimating New Understandings of Ministry and the Clergy
Appendix
Notes
References
Index
About the Author