Thomas Dorsey is considered the "Father of gospel music." He certainly was instrumental in bringing early gospel music to national attention. Before he wrote such classic gospel songs as Precious Lord Take My Hand, he went by the name of Georgia Tom, and recorded acoustic, finger-picked blues... some of it quite bawdy. As to which came first, that's more of an academic (though entertaining) excercise. Many blues guitarist also did gospel. My friend Frankie makes the distinction. Saturday night at the juke joint, they played blues and you shook your hips to the rhythm. Sunday morning they sang gospel and you jumped up and down.

It's all in the hips.

Jerry