Beyond Belief: Black Religious Experience in Sociological Perspective

This special issue of Sociological Focus examines religion among Black Americans as a central arena of Black social, political, and institutional life. Building on a sociological lineage that extends from W. E. B. Du Bois and E. Franklin Frazier to C. Eric Lincoln, Lawrence H. Mamiya, Linda Chatters, and Robert Joseph Taylor, the introduction situates Black religion as both an interpretive resource and a structurally embedded social institution. The 10 articles collected here demonstrate that religious life is not reducible to belief or attendance, but is enacted through institutions, relationships, practices, and meanings that shape health, family life, coping, aging, social connection, and political identity. Organized into three thematic clusters—Religion, Health, and Well-Being; Religious Coping and Resilience; and Patterns and Contexts of Religious Participation—the issue highlights the multidimensional character of Black religious life and the importance of within-group analysis. Collectively, these articles show how religious involvement is shaped by racialized social conditions while also serving as a resource for meaning making, relational support, and collective life. The introduction concludes by describing several avenues of future research.