This book combines social theory and ‘black theology’ to examine the importance of ‘African American civil religion’ and its role in public discourse, African American religious life and civic engagement. Beginning with the failure in Weber’s work to take Black Protestants into account, the author examines the engagement - or lack of engagement - with African American civil religion in social scientific research. With attention to the various eschatological trajectories in African American civil religion, the author sheds light on the enduring belief in a ‘Promised Land’, in spite of the disappointment occasioned by unfulfilled hopes.