The Rev. Maria Erling is a Lutheran pastor and an associate professor of the history of Christianity and global missions at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pa. She contributed a chapter on mainline Protestants in New England to Religion and Public Life in New England: Steady Habits Changing Slowly.

Daniel Terris is director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. He contributed a chapter on Jews and African-Americans in the New England states to Religion and Public Life in New England: Steady Habits Changing Slowly.

David Hackett is an associate professor of religion at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He is an expert on American religious history and the sociology of religion.  

The Rev. Paul Barton teaches Hispanic church studies at Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. His expertise includes U.S. Hispanic Christianity, especially U.S. Hispanic Protestantism. His books include Hispanic Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists in Texas (2006).

Christopher Bader is a professor of sociology at Chapman University. He serves as associate director of the Association of Religion Data Archives and was principal investigator of the first two waves of the Baylor Religion Survey.

William Lindsey is an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. While a professor at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., he co-edited Religion and Public Life in the Southern Crossroads: Showdown States.

Darby Kathleen Ray is an associate professor of religious studies and director of the Millsaps Faith and Work Initiative at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. She is the editor of Theology That Matters: Ecology, Economy and God (2006).

Kevin J. Christiano is an associate professor of sociology who specializes in religion at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. He is the author of Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments and has written and taught extensively on the sociology of religion.

Walter Sundberg teaches church history at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and has written about religion, politics and trends in American religion.