Grimké on the Christian Life E-Book

Drew Martin

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Serie: Theologians on the Christian Life
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 473

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Francis J. Grimké's Vision of the Christian Life  Francis Grimké's life left a significant mark on American Christianity at the turn of the 20th century. Born enslaved in South Carolina, Grimké dedicated his life to teaching and preaching the gospel and confronting the racism and injustice of his time. For 50 years, he served as a Presbyterian pastor in Washington, DC, emerging as a prominent leader in the early civil rights movement. This book explores Grimké's vision of the Christian life, emphasizing his beliefs on personal piety, family, the mission of the church, and the relationship between faith and politics. His blend of doctrinal integrity and social concern helps readers wisely engage in topics like race, ethnicity, culture, and politics in the church today. As the church continues to navigate these polarized issues, Grimké reminds us that, through Christ, unity is possible. - Part of the Theologians on the Christian Life Series: Provides accessible introductions to some of church history's greatest teachers - Contemporary Application: Helps individuals address issues such as race, ethnicity, culture, and politics within the church today - Academic yet Accessible: For those interested in practical theology and the intersection between Christian faith, race, and politics

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“Francis Grimké has long deserved the kind of well-researched and carefully presented book that Drew Martin has written. Grimké’s half-century career at one of the leading Black churches in Washington, DC, was marked by unusual commitment to the gospel message combined with unusual discernment in addressing the social, domestic, and racial realities faced by his congregation. Martin’s accessible account of Grimké’s ‘holistic, yet differentiated, vision of the Christian life’ also shows that some important historical figures knew how to promote both faith in the private sphere and responsible Christianity in public. For historical and contemporary purposes, this is a timely and important book.”

Mark Noll, author, America’s Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794–1911

“I have long awaited this book—a thorough exploration of Francis Grimké’s theological, ethical, and pastoral commitments. Drew Martin has sifted a range of materials in a compelling fashion to produce a readable, engaging, and thought-provoking treatment of this great Black Presbyterian pastor-theologian. In doing so, he demonstrates that Grimké was thoroughly committed to the whole counsel of God, which was why he preached racial justice. Martin’s book is not just an examination of the past but also a word for the present. Buy a copy for yourself, and a second for your pastor!”

Sean Michael Lucas, Chancellor’s Professor of Church History, Reformed Theological Seminary

“Drew Martin’s Grimké on the Christian Life is a book for all times, but an especially welcome one in ours. Bearing the name of his enslaver-father, the resilient and brilliant Francis Grimké served as a faithful pastor of the Fifteenth Street Church in Washington, DC, cofounded the NAACP, and consistently offered an embodied rebuke of racism in the northern Presbyterian church. All the while, he insisted on the truth of the gospel and its power to transform hearts and society. Martin combines Grimké’s personal story and theological teachings to create a text that’s historically important and devotionally rich. In a time when many see American Christianity as hopelessly compromised and unconstrained, Grimké’s ministry continues to exemplify both bold witness and patient reform work within institutions. This book’s portrayal of his life and thought is a valuable resource to the Presbyterian tradition and the Christian church.”

Ansley L. Quiros, Associate Professor of History, University of North Alabama; author, God with Us: Lived Theology and the Freedom Struggle in Americus, Georgia, 1942–1976

“Francis Grimké is an important figure not only in African American church history and Presbyterian church history but in all of church history. His ministry seems especially relevant in our time. Drew Martin shows us that Grimké’s faith and teaching on the kingdom of God often cut across ‘cultural categories and sensibilities, challenging them all.’ He believed that his vocation was to ‘preach the gospel of grace,’ on the one hand, and to ‘fight race prejudice,’ on the other. Martin’s work is balanced and fair, affirming the many great aspects of Grimké’s life and legacy while also giving helpful critique in the few places where Grimké’s ministry and statements weren’t fully consistent. You will be blessed by this book.”

Thurman Williams, Director and Assistant Professor of Homiletics, Covenant Theological Seminary; Church Planter and Senior Pastor, New City Fellowship Church West End, St. Louis, Missouri

“I’m heartened that evangelicals are rediscovering the life and legacy of Francis Grimké. In this helpful book, Drew Martin shows how Grimké articulated a vision of the Christian life that was theologically conservative, confessionally Reformed, contextually sensitive, and socially progressive in matters of racial equality. Many will find Grimké a wise guide for navigating the theological and ethical tensions of our own culture. Grimké on the Christian Life is a great addition to a stellar series.”

Nathan A. Finn, Professor of Faith and Culture, North Greenville University; Senior Fellow for Religious Liberty, The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

“Drew Martin skillfully and gracefully takes us into the remarkable life and ministry of Francis Grimké, whose witness to peace and hope in a world—and a church—riven with strife and injustice stands as relevant to our time as ever before.”

John Inazu, Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion, Washington University in St. Louis

“Francis Grimké played a significant role not just in southern Presbyterianism but also in African American and United States history. His advocacy for the rights of African Americans, as well as his passion for justice, dovetails with his commitment to biblical fidelity, theological rigor, and pastoral care. This kind of pastoral work is sorely missing from evangelicalism today, and Drew Martin has done an excellent job highlighting why we need to examine the lives and pastorates of men like Grimké more closely. An excellent book for anyone doing ministry in twenty-first-century America.”

Otis W. Pickett, Affiliated Scholar, Clemson University; author, Southern Shepherds, Savage Wolves

Grimké

on the Christian Life

Theologians on the Christian Life

Edited by Justin Taylor and Thomas Kidd

Grimké on the Christian Life:Christian Vitality for the Church and World,Drew Martin

Edited by Stephen J. Nichols and Justin Taylor

Augustine on the Christian Life:Transformed by the Power of God,Gerald Bray

Bavinck on the Christian Life:Following Jesus in Faithful Service,John Bolt

Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life:From the Cross, for the World,Stephen J. Nichols

Calvin on the Christian Life:Glorifying and Enjoying God Forever,Michael Horton

Edwards on the Christian Life:Alive to the Beauty of God,Dane C. Ortlund

Lewis on the Christian Life:Becoming Truly Human in the Presence of God,Joe Rigney

Lloyd-Jones on the Christian Life:Doctrine and Life as Fuel and Fire,Jason Meyer

Luther on the Christian Life:Cross and Freedom,Carl R. Trueman

Newton on the Christian Life:To Live Is Christ,Tony Reinke

Owen on the Christian Life:Living for the Glory of God in Christ,Matthew Barrett and Michael A. G. Haykin

Packer on the Christian Life:Knowing God in Christ, Walking by the Spirit,Sam Storms

Schaeffer on the Christian Life:Countercultural Spirituality,William Edgar

Spurgeon on the Christian Life:Alive in Christ,Michael Reeves

Stott on the Christian Life: Between Two Worlds,Tim Chester

Warfield on the Christian Life:Living in Light of the Gospel,Fred G. Zaspel

Wesley on the Christian Life:The Heart Renewed in Love,Fred Sanders

Grimké

on the Christian Life

Christian Vitality for the Church and World

Drew Martin

Foreword by Irwyn Ince

Grimké on the Christian Life: Christian Vitality for the Church and World

© 2025 by Andrew J. Martin

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Josh Dennis

Cover image: Richard Solomon Artists, Mark Summers

First printing 2025

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible, public domain, or from Francis Grimké’s near quotation of the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-8234-9 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8237-0 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8235-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Martin, Andrew Joseph, author.

Title: Grimké on the Christian life : Christian vitality for the church and world / Andrew J. Martin ; foreword by Irwyn Ince.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, [2025] | Series: Theologians on the Christian life | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2024029759 (print) | LCCN 2024029760 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433582349 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433582356 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433582370 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Christian life. | Church and the world. | Grimké, Francis J. (Francis James), 1850–1937.

Classification: LCC BV4501.3 .M27545 2025 (print) | LCC BV4501.3 (ebook) | DDC 248.4—dc23/eng/20241115

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024029759

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024029760

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2025-02-04 11:29:10 AM

Let us stop worrying about the future of Christianity and get down to the hard work in carrying out the instructions of the Lord.

Francis J. Grimké, “Christ’s Program for the Saving of the World” (1936)

Contents

Series Preface 

Foreword 

Preface 

Volumes in The Works of Francis J. Grimké 

Introductory Chapters

1  Francis J. Grimké’s Life and Legacy 

2  Law, Gospel, and the Whole Counsel of God 

Part 1 The Individual: Christian Character and Piety

3  Personal Identity, Proper Respect, and Righteous Discontent 

4  Personal Sanctification 

Part 2 The Family: Christian Nurture and Hospitality

5  Christian Marriage and the Role of the Family 

6  The Nurture of Children 

Part 3 The Church: Christians Gathered and Scattered

7  The Kingdom of God and the Mission of Christ 

8  The Mission of Christ’s People 

9  The Blessing of the Ordinary Means of Grace 

Part 4 Society: Christians and Social Engagement

10  Principles for Collaborative Activism 

11  Preaching the Gospel and Fighting Race Prejudice 

Conclusion: Reflections on Francis J. Grimké’s Vision of the Christian Life 

General Index 

Scripture Index 

Series Preface

Some might call us spoiled. We live in an era of significant and substantial resources for Christians on living the Christian life. We have ready access to books, videos, online material, seminars—all in the interest of encouraging us in our daily walk with Christ. The laity, the people in the pew, have access to more information than scholars dreamed of having in previous centuries.

Yet, for all our abundance of resources, we also lack something. We tend to lack the perspectives from the past, perspectives from a different time and place than our own. To put the matter differently, we have so many riches in our current horizon that we tend not to look to the horizons of the past.

That is unfortunate, especially when it comes to learning about and practicing discipleship. It’s like owning a mansion and choosing to live in only one room. This series invites you to explore the other rooms.

As we go exploring, we will visit places and times different from our own. We will see different models, approaches, and emphases. This series does not intend for these models to be copied uncritically, and it certainly does not intend to put these figures from the past high upon a pedestal like some race of super-Christians. This series intends, however, to help us in the present listen to the past. We believe there is wisdom in the past twenty centuries of the church, wisdom for living the Christian life.

Justin Taylor and Thomas Kidd

Foreword

On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was mercilessly and tragically beaten by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department. Less than a year later, on April 29, 1992, a jury acquitted all four officers involved in the brutal incident of assault, and three of the four were acquitted of using excessive force. For the next six days the city exploded in riots over the inability of the justice system to convict White officers of police brutality against African Americans. For his part, Rodney King called for an end to the violence on May 1, 1992: “I just want to say—you know—can we, can we all get along? Can we, can we get along?”

“Can we all get along?” is a simple yet telling question on the matter of race in the history of the United States. From one vantage point, the answer is also simple: no. Or not permanently. From another angle, the question is theological. The only reason our getting along matters at all is that humanity is made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27). Thus, Jesus’s church and her ministers in this country have always had something to say on the matter. The work you have in your hands, or are viewing on your screen, or are listening to, Grimké on the Christian Life, details the life, legacy, and teaching of “an unyielding advocate of righteousness.”1

Francis J. Grimké (1850–1937), as Drew Martin reminds us, was one of the most gifted and remarkable preachers of the Christian life in American history. Born enslaved in Charleston, South Carolina, to an enslaver, Henry W. Grimké, and an enslaved woman, Nancy, Francis would know full well the seemingly intractableness of racism. This life experience, and the fact that the intractableness of racism was also present in the church, did not cause Grimké to turn from faith in Jesus Christ. It had the opposite effect. He found that the only solution was in the gospel. Thus, he labored in ministry to keep presenting to people, in word and by example, the Lord Jesus Christ and their need for his saving power.

Dr. Grimké rooted the biblical mandate for reconciliation in creation. He preached that “God hath made of one blood all nations that dwell upon the face of the earth” (see Acts 17:26). He insisted that since all people were made of one blood, they should live as brothers and worship one God together.2 It should be no surprise that he expected this gospel he preached to compel a life commensurate with its teaching. “Dr. Grimké was the eternal enemy of ministers who preached on thing and lived another.”3

Carter G. Woodson notes that one of the White ministers who responded to Dr. Grimké’s teaching on this point claimed that he was being inconsistent, because in the attempt to “uproot the argument in favor of segregation,” he failed to quote all of Acts 17:26. He neglected to include the fact that God “hath appointed to them their metes and bounds.”4

Indeed, some Presbyterian ministers were still making this argument in support of the separation of the races when my denomination was founded in 1973. The White minister argued that “the Negro was created and placed in Africa, the white man in Europe, and the yellow man in Asia. The church, in segregating the Negro, was doing the will of God.”5

What was Dr. Grimké’s response?

If God appointed to each race its metes and bounds, by what right did the white man come from Europe and take possession of the Red Man’s land in America? By what right did the white man compel the Negro to come to America to labor for him on the plantations and in the mines? By what right can the white man go to Africa today and deprive the natives of their most fertile land and corner them on reserves where they have to starve or leave to labor like slaves in the mines and on the plantations?6

I only wish that I had a book like Grimké on the Christian Life when I was a seminary student or early in my pastoral ministry. Throughout my seminary education and the first few years of my pastorate in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), I remained ignorant of the rich history of Black Americans in Presbyterianism. When my denomination formed, we declared ourselves to be “A Continuing Presbyterian Church.” In this proclamation, the founders were declaring a connection to historic Presbyterianism in America and a belief that it was “preserving what was best from the PCUS.”7 This connection and preservation, however, has rarely included any focus on the biblical writings and teachings of Black American men and women within the Presbyterian tradition. The typical experience of students in theologically conservative seminaries often involves learning from authors who also defended American slavery and supported racial and ethnic hierarchies. I, and many others, too infrequently heard from figures like Grimké, who unabashedly preached historic Reformed theology while pushing back against unbiblical positions on race and class.

During one of my seminary courses, the professor posed the question of why we thought there were no Black American Presbyterian denominations. In the history of the United States, you find the formation of other distinctly Black denominations: African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, National Baptist Convention, Progressive National Baptist Convention, Church of God in Christ. No Presbyterians. In my ignorance I believed the answer was found in the racist ideology of southern Presbyterianism. I thought that this was too much for Blacks to bear and made them unwilling to self-identity as Presbyterian. I was sorely mistaken—not about the racist ideology of southern Presbyterianism but about the historic willingness for Blacks to self-identity as Presbyterian.

Black Presbyterians in American history like Francis J. Grimké did not form separate Black Presbyterian denominations because they chose to remain in the majority White Presbyterian denominations, seeking interracial cooperation and integration. In addition, they “fought to hold their White brothers accountable to biblical norms of justice and love in the context of shared mission.”8

In American Presbyterianism today we are still far from reflecting the fullness of the kingdom. Our racialized legacy continues to bear down on our present demographics. What can we learn from Grimké here? He was called to the pastorate of Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, Washington, DC, in 1878 as a young man. Fifteenth Street (founded as First Colored Presbyterian Church in 1841) was a prominent and influential church in the city. It was a remarkable post for a young minister. From this post he would serve Howard University and help found the NAACP. Additionally, he would serve as the first African American moderator of the presbytery at just thirty years old. Remarkably, as you will read in the pages that follow, in 1879 the presbytery had eleven ministerial candidates under care, nine of whom were associated with Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church! We would do well in twenty-first-century Presbyterianism to learn from this father in the faith about raising up and training young men of color for gospel ministry in the Presbyterian church.

We owe Drew Martin a debt of gratitude for writing Grimké on the Christian Life. It is high time that Dr. Grimké’s wisdom, faithfulness, and ministry insight be brought forward to a church that still struggles to proclaim and live out the implications of the gospel along the lines of race, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomics, and politics. The question remains: Can we all get along? Grimké would tell us that in Christ the answer is yes and amen.

Irwyn Ince

Coordinator of Mission to North America

Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Theology

Reformed Theological Seminary

1Carter G. Woodson, introduction to The Works of Francis J. Grimké, vol. 1, Addresses Mainly Personal and Racial, ed. Carter G. Woodson (Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, 1942), xiii.

2Woodson, Works, 1:xvi.

3Woodson, Works, 1:xiii.

4Woodson, Works, 1:xvi.

5Woodson, Works, 1:xvi.

6Woodson, Works, 1:xvi.

7Sean Michael Lucas, For a Continuing Church: The Roots of the Presbyterian Church in America (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2015), 3.

8Sean Michael Lucas, “Lost Legacies: African American Fathers and Brothers in Presbyterian History” (PCA General Assembly Workshop, Greensboro, NC, 2017).

Preface

As a pastor, historian, and theologian, I am grateful for the opportunity to write about Francis Grimké and his view of the Christian life. I have learned so much from studying Grimké and the world in which he lived. He is one of the most underappreciated figures of American religious history, and it gives me great joy to bring his teaching to a broader audience.

Two historical books have been written on his family, two on his famous abolitionist aunts (Sarah and Angelina), and one on his brother Archibald and his role in the early civil rights movement. There is even a famous work of historical fiction that imagines the Grimké family and the shape of their lives (Sue Monk Kidd’s The Invention of Wings). I am glad that now people can hear more about the pastor in the family, Francis (or Frank, as he was more affectionately known).1

My interest in this book originally grew out of my work as a pastor. Before coming to teach at Covenant Theological Seminary, I helped to plant a church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Our mother church (Christ Central Church) is an intercultural Presbyterian congregation on the east side of the city, and the vision for our church was to follow a similar path on the historically Black west side. Our young church had a dedicated and diverse launch team, and we were a diverse, young, energetic, and inexperienced team of pastors. We went looking for theological resources that could help us to think about planting and pastoring an intercultural church in a predominantly African American community in a city with a notoriously difficult history related to race relations. Our search took us to Francis Grimké. I am pleased to say that many aspects of Grimké’s theological vision are alive and well at West Charlotte Church at Freedom today.2

As a historian, the more I read Grimké and the more I learned about his life, the more I realized how much work is still needed to recover the full picture of American religious history. As a student of history, I already knew this, but as I studied Grimké’s life, it truly was shocking to me that he is not better known. It will be obvious from this book that we can hardly understand the history of the early civil rights movement, the history of Christianity in America, the history of the Presbyterian denominations, or even the history of public schooling in the nation’s capital without knowing something about Francis Grimké. My hope is that this book will inspire more historical studies of his life and work.

Reading Grimké also made me very grateful for the historians already working hard to paint a fuller picture of American religious history. They are too many to name, but I have learned particularly from a few whom readers interested in knowing more about Grimké’s context will want to explore as well. Curtis Evans’s The Burden of Black Religion and Barbara Savage’s Your Spirits Walk Beside Us both invite deeper reflection upon, as Evans puts it, the diversity of the “varied religious motives and activities of black religious persons.”3 Additionally, Mary Beth Swetnam Mathews’s Doctrine and Race and Daniel Bare’s Black Fundamentalists both demonstrate that the labels liberal, evangelical, and fundamentalist are less useful than many historians have claimed and most Americans assume.4 These labels also frequently marginalize or mischaracterize minority voices. Here I am thinking not only of racial and ethnic minorities but of theological ones as well. Historic, orthodox Christian theology has not always fared well in America or in histories about American religious life.

Reflection on these themes shaped this book in at least two very practical ways. First, I have included plenty of Grimké’s own words in this book, and I hope readers will appreciate the many quotations. It felt important to allow him to speak for himself as much as possible. Second, it seemed important to point out the various ways in which voices like Grimké’s have been left out or grossly mischaracterized by the dominant narratives of American religious history. Readers interested in those details can find them in the footnotes, but in a few chapters the themes are so unavoidable, they appear in the text itself. I hope that readers appreciate the historical dimensions of this book, as well as the devotional ones. It seemed impossible to write about the latter without including at least some of the former.

In addition to the help Grimké offers to the pastor and the historian, I also have learned a great deal from him as a public theologian. I save those observations for the book’s conclusion, and I pray that readers enjoy the journey in between.

Drew Martin

Covenant Theological Seminary

St. Louis, Missouri

1On his family, see Kerri K. Greenidge, The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family (New York: Liveright, 2022); Mark Perry, Lift Up Thy Voice: The Grimké Family’s Journey from Slaveholders to Civil Rights Leaders (New York: Viking, 2001). On his aunts, see Gerda Lerner, The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Women’s Rights and Abolition (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004); Katharine DuPre Lumpkin, The Emancipation of Angelina Grimké (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1974). On Archibald, see Dickson D. Bruce, Archibald Grimké: Portrait of a Black Independent (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993).

2Readers on a similar journey can find many of Francis Grimké’s writings online. The four-volume collection of his works and the recently published collection of some of his meditations on preaching are full of insights.

3Curtis J. Evans, The Burden of Black Religions (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 279; Barbara Savage, Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2008).

4Daniel R. Bare, Black Fundamentalists: Conservative Christianity and Racial Identity in the Segregation Era (New York: New York University Press, 2021); Mary Beth Swetnam Mathews, African American Evangelicals and Fundamentalism between the Wars (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2017).

Volumes in

The Works of Francis J. Grimké

Sources abbreviated Works, followed by volume and page numbers, are from The Works of Francis J. Grimké, ed. Carter G. Woodson, 4 vols. (Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, 1942). Individual volumes are as follows:

Vol. 1

Addresses Mainly Personal and Racial

Vol. 2

Special Sermons

Vol. 3

Stray Thoughts and Meditations

Vol. 4

Letters

Introductory Chapters

Chapter 1

Francis J. Grimké’s Life and Legacy

One of the most gifted and remarkable preachers of the Christian life in American history grew up enslaved.

Childhood, Slavery, Freedom, and Education

Francis Grimké was born in 1850 on a plantation just outside Charleston, South Carolina. His father was Henry Grimké, the owner of the plantation, and his mother was Nancy Weston, a biracial slave. Henry took Nancy as his mistress after his wife, Selina, died, and they had three sons, including Francis, his older brother, Archibald, and his younger brother, John. Nancy also functioned as the de facto mistress of the plantation.1 Nevertheless, she and the three boys continued to live in a small cabin that served as the slave quarters, and not in the big house. Needless to say, this was a morally complicated relationship.

When Francis was two years old, life became even more complicated when his father, Henry, died of yellow fever. South Carolina law at the time prohibited the manumission of the enslaved upon the death of their owners, so Henry had arranged in his will that ownership of Nancy and the children would be passed on to Montague, his White son by marriage. The plantation was sold, and Nancy was given enough money to purchase a tiny three-room house in Charleston. Technically still enslaved, Nancy and the boys nevertheless lived with a significant degree of freedom for the next eight years. She earned money by laundering clothes, and the boys helped her in the work. South Carolina law prohibited schooling for Black people, so Nancy made major sacrifices in order to provide private tutoring for her children. The family also attended a Presbyterian church with a strong ministry to children. The boys learned the Bible at church, but in Archibald’s memoirs it seems that their mother’s example of devotion left the strongest impression on them. Nancy Weston was a remarkable mother, and her example of prayer stood out to the boys. Francis’s childhood was hard, but the boys had a good home, where they learned the importance of faith in God and hard work.2

That all changed in 1860 when Montague married Julia Hibben, who had grown up on an Alabama plantation and expected her husband to provide her with slaves to attend to her personal needs. Archibald (age eleven) and Francis (age ten) were taken from their mother to serve their half brother’s household. When Nancy objected, Montague had her thrown into a work house for a week, and she became so sick she nearly died. Even at that age, the boys had such a strong sense of justice that they would not submit to such an immoral arrangement. They frequently received merciless beatings for their acts of protest. Archibald quickly escaped and lived in hiding until the end of the Civil War, but it took Francis longer as he was captured after his escape attempts, beaten and whipped, locked in a room, and sent to a notoriously harsh master to be “broken”—without success. Francis Grimké endured this treatment stoically. We can only imagine how those years shaped the young boy.

After the war the boys were emancipated and attended the new schools set up for freed slaves. They were noticed quickly by one of their teachers, who arranged for them to move up north to be mentored and educated. They began at Lincoln University, where Francis became the valedictorian of his class. Archibald went on to attend Harvard Law School, and Francis also studied law at Howard University in Washington, DC, before sensing a call to the ministry and moving to Princeton Theological Seminary to complete his studies. According to James McCosh, president of the College of New Jersey (later named Princeton University), Charles Hodge “reckoned him equal to the ablest of his students.”3Benjamin B. Warfield, another well-known professor at Princeton Seminary, had a “high regard” for Grimké as well.4 The young Francis developed quite a reputation for his theological acumen and remarkable rhetorical gifts.

Early Ministry

Upon graduating from Princeton in 1878, Grimké took a call to Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, in Washington, DC. That same year he married Charlotte Forten of Philadelphia, whose family was well known for their social activism. During his early years of ministry at Fifteenth Street, Grimké became known for his preaching gifts. He also had the opportunity to use his gifts to advance numerous other important institutions and causes. He served as an influential member of the board for Howard University, where he was instrumental in helping the university to develop leadership more reflective of its student body. Alongside his brother Archibald, and in cooperation with other significant leaders like W. E. B. Du Bois, Grimké also helped to found the NAACP. In these and many other ways, he worked closely with key leaders who laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement.

Yet, while his wisdom and success in these endeavors led to numerous offers to teach as a professor and to extend his leadership abilities to a host of other organizations, Francis Grimké’s commitment to the ministry of the gospel and devotion to his congregation set him apart. He refused to let these other undertakings prevent him from performing his vocation as a pastor. As he wrote in his own notebooks, “The Christian ministry is no place for one who does not see that his supreme mission is to call [people] to repentance and faith, and who is not fully determined to make everything else in his life subservient to that end.” Grimké believed it absolutely necessary to make what was most important to God most important to himself. Speaking of the gospel minister, he wrote, “The kingdom of God, in seeking the salvation of [people], must be first with him, and must be kept first, high above every other interest.”5

In light of Grimké’s strong gifts for ministry, it is not surprising that he was called to be the pastor of Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church despite his youth. Alongside churches like Berean Baptist, Lincoln Temple Congregational, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal, 19th Street Baptist, and St. Luke’s Episcopal, Fifteenth Street Presbyterian was home to some of the most prominent Black leaders in Washington at that time. The young Francis Grimké’s ministry to his prominent church members consisted of a focus on active church membership, preaching, church discipline of wayward or noncommittal members, visitation of the sick, and personal growth in biblical holiness. This ministerial emphasis on rigorous accountability indicates that Grimké demonstrated little if any deference to the wealthy and prominent members of his congregation. In fact, it seems that Grimké communicated that a church with many gifts should see itself as having a deep obligation to utilize those gifts sacrificially for the good of the kingdom of God.

The church experienced tremendous growth during these early years and was a model of leadership development. According to one newspaper report, the church witnessed eighty conversions to the faith in 1879 alone. In the same year, according to church records, of eleven ministerial candidates under the care of the Presbytery of Washington City, fully nine were associated with Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church. In 1880, just a few years into his first pastorate, Francis Grimké was elected as the moderator of the presbytery, becoming not only the first African American to serve in that role but also, at the age of just thirty years old, the youngest person ever to hold the position. His early years in the church were exceedingly fruitful.6

Not only did Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church actively develop leaders for Christian ministry, but Grimké’s growing reputation led him to develop relationships with other significant leaders in Washington. Soon after Grimké became a pastor, he developed a close friendship with Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), the famous African American abolitionist and leader. In 1884, two years after the death of his first wife, Anna, Douglass asked Grimké to officiate his wedding to Helen Pitts, who was White. The ceremony took place in the Grimké’s home. Opposition to interracial marriage made the wedding controversial, and Grimké himself was caught up in the storm of opposition. Many years later, as he recounted the privilege of officiating the ceremony, he brushed off critics with his characteristic combination of clarity and nuance. He not only expressed distaste for the criticisms of White racists but also criticized those of his own race who held it against Douglass that he would marry a White woman. According to Grimké the matter was simple, for their “right to marry” was “God-given,” and therefore no one could “rightfully forbid it.”7

The next year, Grimké was involved in a second controversy. Once again, he was called upon to serve as a lonely advocate. In 1875, Howard University had entered a formal partnership with the Presbytery of Washington City in order to provide theological education for ministerial candidates. In 1884, Grimké served not only on the board of trustees at the university but also as the chairman of the presbytery committee designated to oversee the relationship. That year, at the request of the presbytery, Grimké recommended that four young men who were members of his congregation continue to receive financial aid in their further ministerial studies at Howard. However, the dean of the theological department, James Craighead, who was White, recommended that the students lose their financial aid, accusing them of lying. He did so by writing to the financial aid board without informing Grimké, as the board’s rules required.

Grimké became aware of the situation only when the students’ aid did not come as expected, and when he wrote to the financial aid board to discover the reason, they informed him of Craighead’s report. The students ultimately were exculpated of the charges, which raises more than a few questions about Craighead’s motivations. The situation left a bad taste in the mouth of the presbytery, but even more so with Grimké. The next spring Grimké voted with a special committee of the presbytery to end the relationship with the university.8 The decision to sever the relationship weighed deeply on him as a member of the board of trustees at Howard. Just a few months later, citing health concerns and the need for a different climate, Grimké petitioned his presbytery to dissolve his pastoral relationship with the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church so that he could take another pastoral call, in Jacksonville, Florida. Dealing with such controversies in his early years of ministry took quite a toll on the young pastor.

A Developing Voice

Grimké’s stay in Florida proved brief, for he felt rejuvenated enough to return to Fifteenth Street after just four years, but he spent his brief sojourn there gaining valuable experience and developing a twofold approach to culture and race. On the one hand, when it came to speaking to his congregation or others in the African American community, he was not afraid to address matters of moral improvement. One particularly noteworthy example would be his frequent sermons on temperance. Grimké took the abuse of alcohol to be one of the most significant issues confronting his people, contributing to poverty, social degradation, and the mortality rate.9 For Grimké, his people possessed a “sad inheritance” as a result of the injustices of slavery. The abuse of alcohol only compounded the realities Black people faced as a result of their White oppressors. Whatever circumstances led to excessive drinking, it was unhealthy, both physically and economically.10

While Grimké was willing to touch on moral improvement when speaking to members of his own church or race, during this period of his ministry he also began to write and speak out more boldly against the oppressive tendencies of White supremacy present not only within his own tradition but in American Christianity more broadly. When the famous evangelist Dwight L. Moody came to Jacksonville during Grimké’s tenure there, Moody followed the advice of a local committee and held segregated evangelistic meetings. Moody’s willingness to embrace segregation in the work of the gospel infuriated Grimké. Moody’s attitude was “evil,” “wicked,” and “Anti-Christian in character,” and it could find “no sanction in the word of God.” Moody neglected “the duty of all Christians, and especially those who are in high and responsible positions, to bear witness to the truth, and to testify against evil.” John the Baptist, Grimké wryly observed, “might have saved his head,” if “he had been as discreet as Mr. Moody” on the subject. “Perhaps one day,” Grimké concluded, “Mr. Moody may learn that God is no respecter of persons,” and that “Christ died for all alike, and that the soul of the Negro is as precious in his sight as that of the white man.”11 While Grimké wrote vehemently against Moody’s racial cowardice, in his own journals he could also express appreciation for Moody’s work of evangelism, writing that his “tremendous work” and “wonderful success” were the result of his single-minded devotion to that same blood of Christ “that cleanses from all sin.”12

On the issue of racial segregation in the church, Grimké took the same prophetic public approach to matters in his own denomination. At the centennial General Assembly of the (northern) Presbyterian Church of the United States of America (PCUSA) in 1888, the reunification of the northern denomination with its (southern) Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) counterpart was a central concern of debate. The northern Presbyterians in particular were anxious for unity, but the southern church pressed the northern denomination to embrace their practice of segregating churches and presbyteries by race as a condition of the merger. In the months leading up to the assembly, Grimké published a letter in which he did not hold back his criticism of either southerners or northerners who supported the plan. He accused southern segregationist churches of “caste prejudice” and “anti-Christian” views. However, when it came to northerners, Grimké went on to say, “I speak from experience” that “the Southern white man is precisely the same as the Northern white man, with the exception of his prejudices.” And sadly, “in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred even in these the difference is so slight as to be scarcely appreciable.” For Grimké, “organic unity” between the denominations was a good thing, but it was “by no means the most important thing.” In simple terms, “it is better to do right than to be organically united with any branch of the church.”13

Francis Grimké’s brief sojourn in Florida gave him the opportunity to develop a voice that was increasingly clear and gracious, but also increasingly uncompromising. On fundamental matters, he refused to back down or mince words. And yet he also demonstrated a willingness to extend forgiveness and even respect. In spite of Dwight Moody’s racial compromises, Grimké communicated respect for him and even celebrated his evangelistic work. Despite the racist past of the southern church, Grimké communicated a willingness to reunite with southerners if they would embrace Black people as equals moving forward. He chose his words carefully and with precision in order to maximize agreement and constructively clarify areas of disagreement. The need for his prophetic voice only grew in the years ahead. The southern church refused to give up its segregation in 1888, and though the northern church technically welcomed Black pastors and members, its churches remained segregated, to borrow Grimké’s language, in “ninety-nine cases out of a hundred.”

Mature Ministry

When Francis and Charlotte returned to Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in 1889, he was thirty-eight years old and seasoned by his years in ministry. His experience proved crucial. If the post-Reconstruction years of his early ministry had been difficult, the circumstances for Black people in America now arguably were even worse. The hope and idealism of the Reconstruction era lay solidly in the past. Racially motivated violence was commonplace. The race riots in Brownsville, Texas (1906); Atlanta, Georgia (1906); and Springfield, Illinois (1908) drew special attention from Francis Grimké for the racial injustices that sparked them and the danger they posed to Black victims. The 1919 race riot in Washington itself brought those realities even closer to home.14 These post-Reconstruction years also had the greatest numbers of lynchings in American history, and the victims were overwhelmingly Black people. Between 1880 and 1940, White mobs in the South killed at least 3,200 Black men alone.15 Obviously these grievous circumstances weighed on Grimké as he ministered in the nation’s capital.

In addition to the racial violence, racial segregation was not only tolerated but even endorsed by members of Christian groups with significant influence. In 1916 the American Bible Society celebrated its centennial in Washington by hosting a series of events including a pageant entitled “The Bible and Human Life.” According to Grimké, twenty-five Black pastors attended a conference where one of the members of the society suggested that the pageant be segregated.16 The irony of a segregated Bible conference on human life was outrageous, and White members of such societies too often did too little to rectify similar egregious offenses. The Black pastors protested and refused to attend.17

This racial prejudice hurt all the more when it not only was tolerated but even advocated in Grimké’s own denomination. His clarion call against formally segregated churches and presbyteries won the day in 1888 when the northern Presbyterian church refused to concede to the southern church’s demands for a denominational merger. In 1904, however, things did not go so well. That year the General Assembly took up the matter of another merger with the Cumberland Presbyterians. The Cumberland Presbyterians separated from the mainline church in 1810 as a result of theological disagreements, and then in 1869 their new denomination segregated itself by encouraging its Black members to leave to form yet another denomination of their own. Needless to say, Grimké was not impressed by what he took to be the theological fuzziness of his would-be brethren, but in particular he was appalled by the willingness of his own denomination to change church bylaws to allow for segregated presbyteries at their request. With his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, Grimké affirmed that a change to church bylaws was needed indeed, but it was the segregated Cumberland Presbyterians who needed to make the change and not the unsegregated PCUSA.18 In spite of Grimké’s relentless protest, the merger between the denominations passed. Somehow the organic unity of denominations received higher priority than the Christian unity of brothers and sisters in Christ.

Given these circumstances, it is not hard to see why Francis Grimké believed that his vocation was to “preach the gospel of grace,” on the one hand, and to “fight race prejudice,” on the other.19 He believed that the Christian church needed to preach the whole counsel of God in order that people might find eternal hope in Christ. He also believed that the American church’s failure to obey God’s commands regarding human equality not only contributed to the prevalent evils of racial prejudice and violence but also left a hypocritical stain that made it difficult for people to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. To preach the gospel effectively, it was necessary to preach God’s law clearly. God’s moral law enables people to see their sin and need for Christ. It also teaches believers in Christ how to live. The Christian church’s failure to teach and follow God’s moral law regarding the equality of all human beings was the chief hindrance to effective ministry.

If the church’s failure to confront racial prejudice was an affront to gospel ministry, it is obvious why Grimké poured himself into a litany of initiatives and institutions that sought to address and rectify racial inequalities and inequities. In 1893, along with forty-six other ministers in the northern Presbyterian church, he formed the Afro-American Council. The council would offer fellowship and training to ministers who were formally members of the denomination but functionally excluded from the informal networks of collegiality and partnership that White ministers took for granted.20 Grimké also spoke at the first conference at the Hampton Institute in 1897. In the years that followed, he continued to participate in its activities alongside Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, William Tunnell, and a range of other influential African American leaders. Grimké served as the institute’s chair for the Committee on Religion and Ethics from 1898 to 1902.21He also served as the treasurer and was a longtime member of the executive board for the American Negro Academy, founded by Alexander Crummell to advance African American scholarship and promote literature, science, art, and higher education. Grimké, Du Bois and a select group of other significant figures contributed scholarly papers to the academy.22 As a result of his respected service as a longtime member of the Board of Trustees of Howard University, his name was put forward to be the next president, a role Grimké declined in order to focus his energies on his calling as a pastor.23

Perhaps most importantly, Grimké was involved with the Niagara Movement and helped to establish the NAACP. Alongside Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Du Bois, Grimké was one of six African American signers of the call for the Emancipation Conference that led to the formation of the NAACP. As a pastor, Grimké elected not to take on a leadership role in the organization, however, and instead his brother Archibald served on the committee that established the organization and went on to serve as a vice president. Francis also made personal financial contributions to the NAACP and promoted it regularly at Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church.24 Francis Grimké took nearly every opportunity he could to work diligently and advocate prophetically for the just treatment of Black people.

Grimké engaged in these works of social activism in part because he believed that the American church’s racial failures were an affront to the gospel of Jesus Christ and a hindrance to the kingdom of God. Why should anyone believe in a God whose people denied the basic equality of all human beings? Why should anyone believe in a gospel of salvation by grace when its advocates and their leaders mercilessly turned a blind eye to the reality of racial violence? Why would anyone want to associate with a God whose people continued to actively pursue segregation and exclusion, not only in society in general but in their own churches? Francis Grimké refused to separate the Christian faith from the Christian life. Both were necessary and mutually reinforcing. It was impossible to have one without the other.

Life Vision

Grimké finally retired from his pastorate at Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in 1927 after fifty years of faithful ministry. He previously attempted to retire in 1923, but his beloved congregation refused to receive his letter of resignation and begged him to stay on a few more years.25 But finally, at the age of seventy-seven, it was time. His retirement did not stop his pen, though, as he continued to write prolifically until his death in 1937, the day after his eighty-seventh birthday. The prominent historian of African American history Carter Woodson collected Grimké’s works and, in 1942, published four volumes of his writings, a collection that remains valuable to this day.

A sermon that Francis Grimké distributed widely the year before he died is just one of the many writings not included in those volumes. Entitled “Christ’s Program for the Saving of the World,” it served as a fitting summary of his own approach to ministry and the Christian life. In his introduction he explained that the sermon dealt “with a matter that is of vital importance to the progress of the kingdom of God.” It was a sermon on the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18–20 and Mark 16:15.26

Grimké began the sermon by identifying “the great task” for which Christ had come and for which “his kingdom was set up on the earth.” That task was “to redeem the world; to set things right; to bring about changes for the better in all the relations of life.” Grimké pointed out that Jesus too had lived during a difficult time in human history—perhaps, in fact, “the darkest period morally.” Society “in all its branches was rotten to the core” and “steeped in iniquities of every kind.” And yet, Grimké pointed out, Jesus believed that such a world “could be redeemed.” Perhaps even more incredibly, Jesus “committed the execution of His plan” for the world’s redemption to his followers, who had “believed in Him,” who had “accepted Him as the Messiah,” and “who had associated themselves with Him to carry on the glorious undertaking after He was gone.”27

How were Jesus’s followers to execute this program for saving the world? They were to do so by going out into the world and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Specifically, they were to proclaim that human beings are sinners who stand under the judgment of God unless they turn in faith to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for the forgiveness of their sins. Grimké acknowledged that there are “some who still feel that this way of saving the world is foolishness. They have other schemes to suggest which they think are better.” Despite the apparent foolishness of the gospel message, however, Grimké declared that the gospel of Jesus is our only hope.28

Having laid the foundation of the plan, Grimké continued to develop another key aspect. The “next element” in Christ’s program for “saving the world, for bettering conditions,” was teaching. For Grimké the relentless social activist, it “is not secular knowledge” that Jesus is “particularly concerned about, important as that kind of knowledge may be.” Rather, the knowledge Jesus has in mind is “that which is contained in the Old Testament Scriptures,” together with the inspired record of Jesus’s own life and his disciples’ teachings in the New Testament. “In the campaign for saving a lost world, for bettering conditions, the contents of this Book must be carefully studied and taught, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, in season and out of season.” Grimké went on to emphasize that this message of salvation from the Bible should be taken to all peoples, that God promises to be with his people as they carry out the mission, and that the mission cannot fail because it depends on the power of God and not human power.29

Grimké concluded by underlining that “Christ’s program for saving the world, for bringing about changes for the better of individuals and in communities—in the whole structure of human society, in all human relationships”—is carried out by preaching the gospel of salvation. It is not accomplished through “philosophy, or science, or any special department of human knowledge; but teaching what is written in the Scriptures, the Word of God.” For Grimké, the darkness of the world and the failures of God’s people were saddening, but they were not reasons for hopelessness. Christianity could easily withstand “competition with other religions” and any ideology, whether “Communism, Nationalism, Capitalism,” or any other “antagonistic forces.” Therefore, Grimké concluded, “Let us stop worrying about the future of Christianity, and get down to hard work in carrying out the instructions of our Lord.” Francis Grimké devoted his life to following this program.30

Legacy

Francis Grimké’s legacy confounds and confronts overly simplistic visions of the Christian life. How many Christian leaders today would preach such a sermon about Christ’s program for saving the world after devoting their lives to ministry and social activism as Grimké did? Francis Grimké’s voice is needed today as much as ever. This book attempts to listen to his voice and offers a portrait of the Christian life that cuts across today’s debates on Christian living that tend to polarize so-called conservative and progressive Christians.

Along these lines, Grimké’s treatment of the Christian life is essential not so much for its disorienting potential but as a resource for reorientation. Contemporary Christians need to hear the voice of a theologian who was both an adamant advocate for the centrality of the church’s spiritual mission of preaching the gospel of salvation through Christ alone and one of the founders of the NAACP. Francis Grimké was one of the most important and influential pastor-theologians in America a century ago, and the teachings of his life and ministry remain incredibly relevant in our present cultural moment.

The neglect of figures like Grimké calls out to us to recognize just how deficient our telling of history has been. How could one of the most well-known pastors in America be forgotten so soon? Grimké was the pastor of Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, for nearly fifty years. When his works were collected and published by Carter Woodson in 1942, the volumes contained only a fraction of his writings. Grimké’s essays and articles were published widely and regularly commented on by notable figures. He corresponded with Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. He was a close personal friend of Frederick Douglass and officiated his wedding. Grimké was intimately connected with some of the most important social activists of the early twentieth century, including both Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois, as well as abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison. He was a longtime trustee of Howard University. He was looked to as the de facto leader of African American Presbyterians, and he regularly was invited to speak at a host of institutions. The historical neglect of such an influential and significant pastor and theologian tells us more than a little about how church history in America has been recorded.

But while it is important for history’s sake to remember Grimké properly, it is important for our sake to pay attention to his voice because he both taught and embodied truths that are both crucial to the ministry of the gospel and relevant to our own cultural moment. Grimké captured these truths well in a letter he wrote to the alumni of Princeton Theological Seminary toward the end of his ministry in 1918:

During these forty years two things I have tried to do with all my might: (1) To preach the gospel of the grace of God, to get men to see their need of a savior, and to accept of Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, the life. If I had to live my life over again I would still choose the ministry, I could not be satisfied in any other calling. (2) I have sought with all my might to fight race prejudice, because I believe it is utterly un-Christian, and that it is doing almost more than anything else to curse our own land and country and the world at large. Christianity, in its teachings, and in the spirit of its founder, stands for the brotherhood of man, calls us to do by others as we would be done by, to love our neighbor as ourselves.31

With characteristic passion and clarity, this letter points to perhaps one of the most significant aspects of Grimké’s approach to the Christian life. He made careful distinctions, but he did not divide the Christian life. He distinguished between preaching the gospel and fighting race prejudice, but he did not separate the two.