The predominately African American congregation fills three services at the East Bay Church of Religious Science (EBCRS) on Sunday mornings. Members and visitors come regularly to this church in downtown Oakland, California, that is known throughout the community for its lively, uplifting environment, accomplished gospel choir, and empowering sermons that teach a philosophy called Religious Science. The East Bay Church of Religious Science sustains a community that successfully embodies an African American worship environment while simultaneously modeling the tenets of a historically White New Thought religion. To date there is not much known about those African Americans who take part...

In this book, the East Bay Church of Religious Science (EBCRS) is the touchstone by which to observe the practical applications of Religious Science. We will see how this group of African Americans has adapted a religion typically thought of as a religion for Whites to fit their needs and circumstances. While almost all African Americans were outside the cultural and social nineteenth-century New England milieu from which New Thought developed, the people of EBCRS represent a substantial number of African Americans who now claim New Thought or Religious Science specifically as their religion.

The minister of the church, the...

While New Thought had its origins in the New England milieu of Mind Science, Spiritualism, Unitarianism, Transcendentalism, and various other types of liberal religious ideas, African Americans were largely located in the South, living on plantations. Before the Second Great Awakening (1790–1830), the religious practices of most African Americans had been limited to their experiences on the plantation under the category of “slave religion.” If the slave owner was permissive, the slaves could be baptized as Christians and have their own meetings. In that context, African Americans were far removed from the New England intellectualism that spawned New Thought....

California has been a very active center for New Thought religions. Like the Gold Rush before it, a health rush brought many people to California, who perceived the region as a healthier and less congested environment. The initial emphasis of New Thought was on physical healing. But as medical advances continued, New Thought groups began to shift the focus of their teachings to positive thinking that could be practically applied to all areas of life. By the 1920s California could easily be labeled “the metaphysical capital of the world,” surpassing the number of followers in the East where the movement...

The East Bay Church of Religious Science (EBCRS) offers many things to many people. It is a worship and meeting space where religious identities become transformed by the intermingling of religious sensibilities. Traditional aspects of African American worship are present, including rhythmic music, a Pentecostal-influenced sermon style, and an active call and response relationship between minister and congregation. However, these elements are brought together to support a kind of message that is different from what one might expect to find. Although there are familiar scriptures from the Bible, the Qur’an, and sometimes even the Bhagavad Gita, it soon becomes evident...

Following the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the Reverend Elouise Oliver admonished the mournful and weeping congregation of the East Bay Church of Religious Science not to divide up humanity into victims and terrorists. She reminded the group that this event could not have happened unless thoughts of hate and violence existed within us all. At the beginning of that service on September 16, 2001, she invited a Muslim to offer the traditional Islamic call to prayer in Arabic. Directed by the scripture Matthew 5:44 to pray for one’s enemies, she led a prayer for...

One of the goals of this book has been to acknowledge and illuminate the multiplicities of African American religious expressions. In doing so, I have presented the experiences of a particular Religious Science community to demonstrate how its members are helped by what they have found there. This final chapter will discuss some of the social and scholarly implications of the growth of African American membership in these types of churches. In addition, I present some of the developments which seem to be on the horizon for New Thought, and I take a final look at the East Bay Church...