Church culture as a strategy of action in the black community

Culture consists of rhetorical, interactional, and material tools that are organized into strategies of action. Social movement theory is beginning to recognize the role of culture in facilitating or frustrating collective or ganizing. I use social constructionism as an analytical approach to bridge social movement and cultural theory Social constructionists ask how social action is constructed, rather than what issues or ideas are being construct ed. Using data from more than three years of ethnographic research in Grove land, an African American neighborhood in Chicago, I find that the black ch urch provides. a cultural blueprint for civic life in the neighborhood. Pra yer call-and response interaction, and Christian imagery are important part s of the cultural "tool kit" of Groveland's black residents, and these cult ural practices invigorate activism. Particular theological foundations of b lack Christianity-especially its collective ethos and the nation. of God as active in earthly affairs-support the content of secular activism. Black c hurch culture constitutes the taken-for-granted practices that put civic ef forts into action.