This collection of essays, edited by professors Russell Hawkins and Phillip Sinitiere, continues the conversation started by Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (2001). The contributors are scholars from a variety of disciplines. Some of them affirm Divided by Race; others challenge the findings. Christians and the Color Line has two parts: history and future. The historical review covers eighty years. One chapter focuses on a Mennonite congregation. One “future” chapter focuses on Asian Americans. The provocative “Afterword” challenges and encourages readers by its “Call to Blackness in American Christianity.” Christianity is the context of this work, but the ideas, questions, and responses are illuminating for anyone who desires to better understand the history of race relations in the United States, the role that religion has played in mending or straining those relations, and how religious institutions can effectively move forward in an increasingly multi-cultural America.

Reviewed by Janet Hoover