Religion 32
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• W W W. N Y U P R E S S . O R G
NETWORKING THE BLACK CHURCH Digital Black Christians and Hip Hop ERIKA D. GAULT Provides a timely portrait of young Black Christians and how digital technology is transforming the Black Church
January 2022 336 pages • 6 x 9 17 black & white illustrations Paper • $35.00S(£26.99) 9781479805822 Cloth • $99.00X(£79.00) 9781479805815 In Religion and Social Transformation Religion
Networking the Black Church explores how deeply embedded digital technology is in the lives of young Black Christians, offering a first-of-its-kind digital-hip hop ethnography. The volume examines the ways in which Christian hip hop artists who have adopted Blackpreaching-inspired spoken word performances create alternate kinds of Christian communities both inside and outside the walls of traditional Black churches. In the process, these digital Black Christians are changing Black churches as institutions, transforming modes of religious activism, inventing new communication practices around evangelism and Christian identity, and streamlining the accessibility of Black Church cultural practices in popular culture. Erika D. Gault is Assistant Professor in the Africana Studies Program at the University of Arizona.
SMART SUITS, TATTERED BOOTS
Black Ministers Mobilizing the Black Church in the Twenty-First Century KORIE LITTLE EDWARDS and MICHELLE OYAKAWA Explores the complex role that Black religious leaders play—or don’t play—in twenty-first-century racial justice efforts
February 2022 208 pages • 6 x 9 Paper • $27.00S(£20.99) 9781479812530 Cloth • $89.00X(£71.00) 9781479808922 Religion
Why don’t we see more Black religious leadership in today’s civil rights movements, such as Black Lives Matter? Drawing on fifty-four in-depth interviews with Black religious leaders and civic leaders in Ohio, Korie Litte Edwards and Michelle Oyakawa uncover several reasons, including religious leaders’ nostalgia for and personal links to the legacy of the civil rights movement, the challenges of organizing around race-based oppression in an allegedly post-racial world, and the hierarchical structure of the Black religious leadership network, which may impede ministers’ work towards collective activism. Black clergy continue to care deeply about social justice and racial oppression. This book offers important insights into how they approach these issues today, illuminating the social processes that impact when, how, and why they participate in civic action. Korie Little Edwards is Associate Professor of Sociology at The Ohio State University. Michelle Oyakawa is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Muskingum University.
