THE INTERDENOMINATIONAL THEOLOGICAL CENTER

BOOK REVIEW: EVANS E. CRAWFORD WITH THOMAS H. TROEGER

THE HUM: CALL AND RESPONSE IN AFRICAN AMERICAN PREACHING
NASHVILLE: ABINGDON PRESS, 1995, $16

SUBMITTED TO DR. MARK A. LOMAX

IN PARTIAL COMPLETION OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
CAM 846: INTERMEDIATE PREACHING

BY

ANTHONY D. CLINKSCALES

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

OCTOBER 22, 2009

Evans Crawford acknowledges that folk preaching is a charismatic phenomenon where the
preacher, congregation, and the Holy Spirit are making equal contributions that characterize the authentic
response of the human heart, and the effectiveness of the contemporary proclamation of the gospel.
Crawford has sought to highlight the oral event including the importance, necessity, and relevance of
African American tradition of homiletical musicality, that is, the way the preacher uses timing, pauses,
inflection, and pace, and the other musical qualities of speech to engage all that the listener is in the act of
proclamation. This book systematically takes the reader on a journey, high-lighting the call/response
tension in black preaching that drives the musicality of speech in black churches. Essentially, the goal of
the preacher utilizing this rarely taught idiom is to move through five levels of interaction with the
congregation and God. The most drastic move is transitioning from the search for connections with a
congregation to the point of a congregation responding to the preaching event with the loudest praise,
highest joy, and praise to God. Where traditional homiletical studies have focused on the organization of
content that make a sermon, Crawford emphasizes the organization of sound in time. Emphasis is placed
on preaching as an oral event, holiness in timing.
Crawford begins his discussion with explaining the borrowed phrase from Jon Spenser,
homiletical musicality, which he uses to analyze black preaching as a legacy of West African
sensibilities that continues on in some black pulpits and pews today. He affirms that black preaching can
be categorized in terms of truth through particularity, marginality, secularity, antiphonality, and ethno or
theomusicality, and finally spirituality. Moreover, the sources influencing the sound from the pulpit and
the sound of the congregations response are varied and complex. Crawford presents a non-conclusive
list of five responses that move from the lowest point to the highest point, with regard to desired
participation: 1. Help em Lord! 2. Well? 3. Thats all right! 4. Amen! 5. Glory Hallelujah! These are
the prayers of the human heart for help, guidance, and praise , enacted in the environment of worship and
proclamation, but representing the larger, continuous process of biformation in which the congregation
and its members are involved throughout their days. Biformation, reminiscent of Dubois dialectical
double-consciousness, characterizes a shaping of identity, perspective, and expression that flows from
being both African and American. Crawford suggests that the complex nature of the spiritual and
prophetic insights of African Americans have sounded in the musicality of black preaching. For instance,
we have the sermon pause, a silence shared, which is discussed in detail. Crawford helps one to be
intentional about evoking the Amens from the congregation. The importance of talking-back, and
preaching-back is discussed. Crawford argues that the responses are essential from the congregation
because they are priesthood themselves. Furthermore, Crawford contends that the communal character of
their responses leads to the rediscovery of the communal character of our knowledge of Christ as alive
and present among us. Crawford discusses the tonality of preaching as it compares to the tone of any
musical instrument. Importance of finding a pitch that is comfortable for the congregation is discussed.
For Crawford, Black preaching is functional, festive, communal, radical, and climactic. Crawford uses
the term riff to describe variations in response-evoking tonality and delivery. Crawford concludes his
discussion by repeating his position in the onset of his discussion: where the academic setting has kept
values of written communication and scholarly discourse, he has sought to juxtapose oral and print
cultures. For Crawford, this was very practical because of the demand of the black communities.
Overall, I think Crawford was successful in achieving his goal in this book. His organization was
clear and his discussion was lucid. Crawford cleverly validated his work by citing the commentary of
scholars past and present in the field of homiletics. Also, I think Crawford has included a number of
notable writers that should be included in the libraries of students of homiletics. Seemingly, Crawford
gives his readers more credit than he should. I happen to be a musician with an ecumenical background,
but I know several African American preachers who have not been exposed to this genre in the 21 st
century. He assumes readers can make the connection by merely reading. It is not enough to simply
write about an oral and aural event. I think recorded sermons should have been compiled on an attached
CD, or students should have access to a website to access sermon files that would provide examples of
Crawfords descriptions in this discussion. Snippets highlighting the breakdown and points emphasized
in this discussion would have made this a force to be reckoned with among the literature of its genre.