When I first heard about the conference that spawned this volume, I leapt – or rather at my age limped – at the chance to participate. Not to put too fine a point on the matter, I invited myself. Some 50 years ago, I was embarked on a dissertation and then a book entitled Social Class in American Protestantism (1965). This seemed a rare opportunity to revisit the topic and see how the field has developed since. Authors are rarely afforded the chance to rethink their work, except for those who make a risky practice of repeating it.

My research involved a secondary analysis of data collected by my University of California–Berkeley mentor and continuing friend, Charles Glock. He had administered a questionnaire survey in congregations representing five Protestant denominations: Baptist (the northern or “American” wing as opposed to the larger and more conservative “Southern” variety), Congregationalist (now mostly identified as the United Church of Christ after its merger with the smaller Evangelical and Reformed Church), Evangelical Lutheran Church (as distinct from the more conservative “Missouri” and “Wisconsin” Lutheran synods), and the Presbyterian Church of the USA (not to be confused with the smaller and mostly southern Presbyterian offshoots dating principally from the Civil War). I was interested in the effects of socioeconomic inequalities within these congregations.