Larry G. Murphy is a professor of the history of Christianity at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill. He wrote African-American Faith in America (Facts on File, 2002) and edited Down by the Riverside: Readings in African American Religion (New York University Press, 2000).

The Rev. Peter Paris, an ordained Baptist minister, is Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor of Christian Social Ethics and Liaison with the Princeton University African American Studies Program at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Tamelyn Tucker-Worgs, associate professor of political science and African-American studies at Hood College in Frederick, Md., teaches African-American religions, the politics of the black church and black liberation theology.

Judith Weisenfeld is a professor of religion at Princeton University, where she specializes in American religion, with an emphasis on the 20th century and African American religion. She is the author of Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929-1949 and Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake.

The Program of Black Church Studies at Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. educates men and women on the “origins, development, and contemporary diversity of the black church tradition.” The program includes the exploration of other religious traditions. Contact Dr. Andrea C. White.

Rabbi Marc Schneier is founder and president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and a leading figure in building up relationships between the Jewish community and African-Americans, Latinos, Christians and Muslims. He wrote Shared Dreams: Martin Luther King Jr. & the Jewish Community.

Fumitaka Matsuoka is Robert Gordon Sproul Professor of Theology of Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, Calif., where he is executive director of the Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion. He is an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren. He co-edited Realizing the America of Our Hearts: Theological Voices of […]

Ed Gilbreath, who lives in the Chicago area, is editor of Today’s Christian magazine and editor at large for Christianity Today. He wrote Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity and Gospel Trailblazer: An African-American Preacher’s Historic Journey Across Racial Lines.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen wrote Love in Black and White: A Memoir of Race, Religion and Romance with his wife, Janet Langhart. Cohen is white and the son of a Jewish father and a Protestant Irish mother, while Langhart is African-American and the daughter of a Southern Baptist mother, a single parent. Contact […]