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moreteamorecats's review against another edition
4.0
Walton has written a terrific introduction to some of the most influential figures in Black preaching today. Any general reader interested in how the cultural icons of the civil rights era gave way to the spectacles we see now on television will find here an accessible and perceptive guide. Walton writes better than most academics and gives plenty of space to his subjects' own eloquence. Politically-minded readers will find the book especially helpful, if often disquieting from a liberal perspective.
As scholarship, now: The great strength of Walton's work is how he balances a thick, nuanced understanding of Black televangelists with sociological and theological critique. This is what African-American religious studies is capable of today. Its best practitioners show how scholars can, in fact, learn from each other across lines of discipline and methodology, in order to produce a broader understanding. Walton is a model for us all.
As scholarship, now: The great strength of Walton's work is how he balances a thick, nuanced understanding of Black televangelists with sociological and theological critique. This is what African-American religious studies is capable of today. Its best practitioners show how scholars can, in fact, learn from each other across lines of discipline and methodology, in order to produce a broader understanding. Walton is a model for us all.
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