Using ethnographic research, Willful Ignorance: Overcoming the Limitations of (Christian) Love for Refugees Seeking Asylum examines the attitudes of clergy and lay leaders regarding their (in)attention to racism as it intersects with the harsh reality of U.S. immigration policies and practices. This multi-faceted work begins with a reality check on the scope of forced migration and its intersection with the historical legacy of racism in America, including testimonies from displaced migrants and immigration advocates who help to alleviate state-inflicted suffering at the U.S.-Mexico border. Helen T. Boursier examines the rationales Christian leaders use to justify the local church’s nominal response, including the discursive buffers and stall tactics they use to deflect their lack of preaching, teaching, leadership and/or ministry with displaced migrants who are their near neighbors. The Christian church’s firm foundation to embody love as social justice provides a historical rebuttal, while case studies of congregations that offer displaced migrants compassionate hospitality model exemplary contemporary response. Closing with practical suggestions for how to begin building bridges with migrants, Boursier argues for a philosophy of religion that embraces resistance to racism and exclusion from asylum, through a missiology of compassion that exemplifies an ecclesiology of love.

What do African American men have to do with gender? In this collection of riveting and wide-ranging essays, Dwight N. Hopkins draws on over thirty-five years of wrestling with these questions. Too often gender is seen as a "woman's only" discussion. But in reality, men have a gender too. Some say it is biological; others claim it has to do with socialization. Hopkins's career has focused on defining what a black American man is, and how he builds bridges of support and engagement with women. Hopkins's research as a theologian, and his experiences, substantiate that the importance of religious viewpoints, principled values, and future hope remain key to any successful creation of a new African American male and new healthy male-female interactions.

In African Theology as Liberating Wisdom; Celebrating Life and Harmony in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Botswana, Mari-Anna Pöntinen analyses contextual interpretations of the Christian faith in this church. These interpretations draw from the Tswana tradition and liberation in Christ.

Using an evidenced-based, social-scientific approach to religion, Kenneth D. Wald and Allison Calhoun-Brown challenge the perception that religious influence in American politics is a problem to be solved. Instead, they contend that religion is a form of social identification that not only shapes our ideas about politics, but it also shapes the behavior of political elites and ordinary citizens, the interpretation of public laws, and the development of government programs. Ultimately, the authors show how religion plays a fascinating and crucial role in our nation’s political process and in our culture at large. The eighth edition of Religion and Politics in the United States has been fully updated to include the latest scholarship and coverage of the 2016 presidential election. It also features a new discussion of the religious right, center, and left, as well as the impact of religion on the fight for equality based on gender and sexual orientation. Additional student resources include all new discussion questions and further readings at the end of each chapter, as well as a companion website featuring self-quizzes.

Each new edition of this respected resource is a comprehensive recording the scope of African American achievement. Who's Who Among African Americans provides biographical and career details on more than 20,000 notable African American individuals, including leaders from sports, the arts, business, religion and more. Includes geographic and occupational indexes as well as an obituary section updating entries for listees who have died since the previous edition.

The Spirituals, born in the early history of the United States, still anchor the soul and awaken the history of much of the African-American community today. Writing from a womanist perspective, theologian Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan probes what the Spirituals say about the action of God in the face of racial injustice and oppression.