Christians and the Color Line: Race and Religion after Divided by Faith

I'd like to announce another book of mine that's coming out this fall, co-edited with Indiana Wesleyan University history professor Rusty Hawkins.  Published by Oxford University Press, it is titled Christians and the Color Line: Race and Religion after Divided by Faith.

Rusty and I co-edited essays that came out of the 2010 anniversary conference Rusty organized at Indiana Wesleyan on Michael Emerson and Christian Smith's book Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (Oxford University Press, 2000). Read my posts about the conference here and here. Rusty is also part of the Indiana Wesleyan University President's Author Series this fall where he'll discuss the book.

Here's a description of the volume from the book page at Oxford University Press:

Christians and the Color Line analyzes the complex entanglement of race and religion in the United States. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples of racialized religion, the essays in this volume consider the problem of race both in Christian congregations and in American society as a whole. 

Belying the notion that a post-racial America has arrived, congregations in the US are showing an unprecedented degree of interest in overcoming the deep racial divisions that exist within American Protestantism.  In one recent poll, for instance, nearly 70% of church leaders expressed a strong desire for their congregations to become racially and culturally diverse.  To date, reality has eluded this professed desire as fewer than 10% of American Protestant churches have actually achieved multiracial status. 

Employing innovative research from sociology, history, philosophy, and religious studies, the contributors to this volume use Michael Emerson and Christian Smith’s groundbreaking study Divided by Faith (Oxford, 2000) as their starting point to acknowledge important historical, sociological, and theological causations for racial divisions in Christian communities. Collectively, however, these scholars also offer constructive steps that Christians of all races might take to overcome the color line and usher in a new era of cross-racial engagement. 

Rusty and I collaborated across disciplinary lines with wonderful scholars and some great people. We are grateful to Michael Emerson for writing the Foreword and to Darryl Scriven for composing an insightful Theological Afterword for the volume.

Here's the Table of Contents:

Foreword
Michael O. Emerson

Introduction
J. Russell Hawkins & Phillip Luke Sinitiere

Chapter One
"Neoevangelicalism and the Problem of Race in Postwar America"
Miles S. Mullin, II

Chapter Two
"Healing the Mystical Body: Catholic Attempts to Overcome the Racial Divide in Chicago, 1930-1948"
Karen Joy Johnson

Chapter Three
"'Glimmers of Hope': Progressive Evangelicals and Racism, 1965-2000"
Brantley W. Gasaway

Chapter Four
"'Buttcheek to Buttcheek in the Pew': Interracial Relationalism in a Mennonite Congregation, 1957-2010"
Tobin Miller Shearer

Chapter Five
"Still Divided by Faith? Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America, 1977-2010"
Ryon J. Cobb

Chapter Six
"Worshipping to Stay the Same: Avoiding the Local to Maintain Solidarity"
Mark T. Mulder

Chapter Seven
"Beyond Body Counts: Sex, Individualism, and the Segregated Shape of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism"
Edward J. Blum

Chapter Eight
"Color-Conscious Structure-Blind Assimilation: How Asian American Christians Can Unintentionally Maintain the Racial Divide"
Jerry Z. Park

Chapter Nine
"Knotted Together: Identity and Community in a Multiracial Church"
Erica Ryu Wong

Chapter Ten
"Much Ado About Nothing? Rethinking the Efficacy of Multiracial Churches for Racial Reconciliation"
Korie L. Edwards

Theological Afterword
"The Call to Blackness in American Christianity"
Darryl Scriven

++++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks for reading!  Place your orders here and here.