The Power of the Spiritual

Speaking of Faith has done it again. Last week's show was another deep and spiritually enriching one. Joe Carter and the Legacy of the African-American Spiritual gave a good look at the history and meaning of those powerfully moving songs forged in the days of slavery and oppression. The website says:

It is the source from which gospel, jazz, blues, and hip-hop evolved. It was born in the American South, created by slaves, bards whose names history never recorded. The organizing concept of this music is not the melody of Europe, but the rhythm of Africa. And the theology conveyed in these songs is a potent mix of African spirituality, Hebrew narrative, Christian doctrine, and an extreme experience of human suffering.

Carter talked about how spirituals are different from the other music out of the African-American tradition:

they were the expression of the great pain and the sorrow. But at the same time, they were always looking upward. They were always reaching. There was always some level of hope, as opposed to the concept of the blues. The blues was just singing about your troubles, and there was no hope. But there's always the glory hallelujah someplace saying, "Oh, and on that glory hallelujah, then we fly."... So in the midst of the night, we can fly away to freedom while we're singing these, these songs.

He then goes on to talk about the transcendence of the people who invented these songs, how they lacked any sort of mean spirit of revenge or hatred. They were, in reality the outgrowth of a truly deep felt spirituality that combined African roots with what may be a primitive, hopeful side of Christianity that we don't often see in our own lives.

Mr. Carter: They're the most noble sentiments. Now, you — find a song like this: "It's me. It's me. It's me, oh, Lord, standing in the need of prayer." (singing) "It's me. It's me. It's me, oh, Lord, standing in the need of prayer, not my brother, not my sister."

Ms. Tippett: Yeah.

Mr. Carter: Not the preacher, not the deacon, not the doctor, not the lawyer. Not the master? Wait a minute. These are people who were victims. They were in the midst of the most horrible situation but they said, "I'm taking responsibility for who I am today, and it's me standing in the need. I'm the one that has the proud heart today. Come and fix me."

Ms. Tippett: This is not only sound theology and psychology, it's extremely mature spirituality, right?

Mr. Carter: Yeah.

Ms. Tippett: What was it that, that came together in the lives and the spiritual sensibility of those slaves that, that connected them so powerfully to — really those are the best attributes of Christianity that you're talking about.

Great stuff.

--Link to Website (with Carter singing a number of spirituals.
--Link to transcript