Smith, Archie, Jr.  The Relational Self:  Ethics and Therapy from a Black Church Perspective. Nashville, TN:  Abingdon, 1982.

Abstract

From a black church perspective comes this important book on psychotherapy and social ethics. In it, Archie Smith, Jr., shows how combining these two disciplines contributes to personal and social transformation. At the same time, he manages to bridge the gulf between pastoral care and social ethics. "My hope," writes Dr. Smith, "is that this book will help stimulate discussion and critical reflection upon bourgeois society, and help focus attention on the need for transformation and for a liberating ministry in church and society." Smith begins by describing his concept of relationality. He does this by first delving into his own biography and ministry as an example of the successful mating of theology, psychology, and sociology. Here he makes effective use of George Herbert Mead's work in order to illustrate the relational character of the self. Smith's approach to relationality is developed and expanded in the book's middle chapters and culminates in its application to a case study of a well-known event - the Peoples' Temple tragedy in "Jonestown," Guyana. This book is not only for black church people but also for everyone who is concerned with the oppressed. Smith's critical reflection upon the historical mission of the black church should, in his words, illuminate "the church's sense of faithfulness to the One who continues to call it, in the name of a new creation, to reconstitute itself in a new, alternative future - the kingdom of God."