According to C. Eric Lincoln, the turbulent decade of the Sixties witnessed the death of the Negro Church. In its place, the offspring of the conflict between "conscienceless power" and "powerless conscience," is the Black Church. No longer the dependent bastion of Black prudence, Black institutional religion -- whether traditional, pentecostal, or Muslim -- has assumed a new role of leadership in its centuries-old quest for social and spiritual justice in America. C. Eric Lincoln is presently Chairman of the Department of Religious and Philosophical Studies at Fisk University and is the founding President of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters Book jacket.