Is the Black Church Dead?: Religious Resilience and the Contemporary Functions of Black Christianity

Recent sociological literature draws attention to the changes in religious affiliation and expression among younger generations. More specifically, extant research suggests that increase “nones” (those who no longer identify with a religion) “dones” affiliate congregation) substantiates secularization thesis which contends religion is becoming increasingly insignificant modern society. However, when these trends are disaggregated across racial lines, remains high Black Millennials. The present study explores this anomaly further, drawing on data from in-depth interviews 65 Christian Millennials assess how, if at all, historic functions of Church still prevalent Christians today. Findings suggest while some have remained constant generations (i.e., social–cultural), others evolved socio-political socio-educational) or become defunct socio-economic) new emerged socio-emotional). As such, I introduce concept resilience as framework for understanding how why religion’s “afterlife” sustained despite macro-level processes might undermine its prominence. Altogether, has implications we conceptualize racialized measure, operationalize, understand social locations.