In many communities, both black megachurches and storefront congregations have been infected by a so-called prosperity gospel, far removed from the liberatory gospel that has been a mark of the black church since the earliest incarnation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and most celebrated in the preaching and oratory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This book examines all these strains of African American preaching and points to a theologically and socially responsible renewal of black churches and their pastoral, prophetic, and wisdom functions in their communities.