Churches, Blackness, and Contested Multiculturalism

Christianity's numerical, cultural, and political predominance within Europe, North America, and the former colonial capitals of Africa has been challenged in recent decades by reconfigured social dynamics and demographics within these contexts. As large numbers of persons from Africa, Asia, and Latin America have migrated to Europe and North America, these contexts once deeply rooted in white Christian identity are being racially and religiously transformed, with embodiments and articulations of increased social difference viewed as an indicator of either healthy diversities or harmful divisions - depending upon the vantage point. Churches, Blackness, and Contested Multiculturalism assesses contemporary church responses to multicultural diversity and resisted categories of social difference, with a central focus on whether or how racial, ethnic, religious, sexual, and gender differences are validated by churches (and especially black churches) torn between competing inclusive and exclusive tendencies.