In Darkness With God: The Life of Joseph Gomez, a Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church [Hardcover]

Annetta Louise Gomez-Jefferson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1998

Joseph Gomez (1890-1979) was a charismatic minister who rose through the ranks of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to be ordained a bishop in 1948. He was also a teacher, civil right pioneer, scholar, writer, and humanitarian. His daughter, Annetta L. Gomez-Jefferson, has drawn on letters, journals, and church records to write his biography and a history of the age in which he lived.

Gomez-Jefferson captures the growing concern of the Black middle-class with civil rights and its persistent attempts to confront problems with tactics less confrontational than those of the sixties and seventies.

More than a biography, In Darkness with God is a history of Black life during the early part of the century and a chronicle of the political and religious struggles of the first autonomous Black church in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In great detail, Gomez-Jefferson, one of Bishop Joseph Gomez's two daughters, takes readers from her father's birth on Antigua in 1890 to his death and burial in Detroit in 1979. Gomez came to the U.S. when he was 18, and, after graduating from Wilberforce College in Ohio, he began his years of active ministry in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. By 1948, he was ordained an A.M.E. bishop. While active as a minister, he was also a scholar and a humanitarian, speaking out fervently for civil rights. Gomez-Jefferson reveals the trials the bishop faced as he walked through the darkness of racism from the 1920s through the 1960s. The son of an African mother and Portuguese father, Gomez was vehemently opposed by the Ku Klux Klan in his early ministry, and he was outspoken in his protest against the enlistment of black servicemen to fight both at home and abroad. Gomez-Jefferson's account of her father's public life is interspersed with engaging tales of Gomez as a private man with a touching sense of humor and a lifelong love of poetry. This valuable book offers a look at a man committed to ministering to people on social, economic, political and spiritual levels.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Annetta Gomez Jefferson is professor emeritus of theatre at the College of Wooster (Ohio).

Annetta L. Gomez-Jefferson is professor emeritus of theatre at the College of Wooster. She is the editor of Through Love to Light: The Sermons, Addresses, and Prayers of Bishop Joseph Gomez; and the author of Mazes (poetry).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 439 pages
• Publisher: Kent State Univ Pr; 1st ed edition (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873386078
• ISBN-13: 978-0873386074
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #796,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stuggles of a Spanish-Black bishop in AME church; Excellent, November 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: In Darkness With God: The Life of Joseph Gomez, a Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Hardcover)

Bishop Gomez built the AME church in Cleveland, Ohio. He rewrote church doctrine in the 1970s for the first time since written by Richard Allen. The book also depicted his struggles and lonely walk with God as he lead a Black congregation and was faced with issues during the Civil Rights movement. The book was easy to read, inspiring, and you didn't want to put it down until finished!

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read on the African-American experience., October 11, 1999

By 

Bervin D. Elliott (Falls Church, Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Darkness With God: The Life of Joseph Gomez, a Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Hardcover)

An absorbing biography of an Afircan-American's rise to the highest position of the AME church as a Bishop, and his challenges to build and maintain the church. It also explains his challenges and struggles in America as a African-American and the love of God, his family, friends an associates . It was hard to put down. At times I was with him in the struggles. It provides another format to look at the African-American history in America, and the impact on a cutlture and people. His daughter has done an excellent job at collecting and recording this history. I only hope others will follow in her footsteps. The book was rather pricey but well done with adequate references.

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring, January 3, 2006

By 

Robert W. Kellemen "Doc. K." (Crown Point, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In Darkness With God: The Life of Joseph Gomez, a Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Hardcover)

Joseph Gomez (1890-1979) was an AME minister, and was ordained a Bishop in 1948. He was also a teacher, civil rights pioneer, scholar, writer, and humanitarian. He was born on the island of Antigua and came to the US in 1908. He served several congregations but was most closely associated with Ohio, particularly Cleveland and also Wilberforce college, from which he graduated.

His biography tells the inspiring story of his life, family, ministry, struggles, and victories.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction." He has also authored "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and the forthcoming "Sacred Friendships: Listening to the Voices of Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors."