Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2017 -

Since Barack Obama's election in 2008, Americans have witnessed increasing claims that the US is postracial, that racism and bigotry are essentially relics of the nation's past. This is the context in which Fluker (Boston Univ. School of Theology) examines the historical meaning and future work of African American churches. In beautiful, exacting prose, the author explains the national ground shift that has relegated antiracist struggle to a less prominent place in the life of 21st-century black churches. As Fluker acknowledges, claims of postracialism may not be factual, but they certainly function as if they are. Taking up the larger discussion of whether "the black church is dead" (in chapter 2, Fluker cites Eddie Glaude's 2010 essay by that title, published in the Huffington Post), the author argues that African American churches, although yet living, must reexamine their identity and mission by moving beyond the inherited symbols and languages of their origin to address contemporary challenges that define the social reality of African Americans. Fluker foregrounds classic themes such as exodus, diaspora, and exile to assess the social and theological quandaries that have shaped the past of African American Christianity and will inform its future. This is an important and perceptive contribution to the literature on religion and race.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.