Blacks and Whites in Christian America

2012 Winner of the C. Calvin Smith Award presented by the Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc. 2014 Honorable Mention for the Distinguished Book Award presented by the American Sociological Association's Sociology of Religion Section Conventional wisdom holds that Christians, as members of a“universal” religion, all believe more or less the same thingswhen it comes to their faith. Yet black and white Christiansdiffer in significant ways, from their frequency of praying orattending services to whether they regularly read the Bible orbelieve in Heaven or Hell. In this engaging and accessible sociological study of whiteand black Christian beliefs, Jason E. Shelton and Michael O.Emerson push beyond establishing that there are racial differencesin belief and practice among members of AmericanProtestantism to explore why those differences exist. Drawingon the most comprehensive and systematic empiricalanalysis of African American religious actions and beliefsto date, they delineate five building blocks of black Protestantfaith which have emerged from the particular dynamicsof American race relations. Shelton and Emerson find thatAmerica’s history of racial oppression has had a deep andfundamental effect on the religious beliefs and practices ofblacks and whites across America.