“The American Christ” (November 1988) is a timely and welcome study of a native religious phenomenon. I commend Patrick Allitt for combining thorough research with clear exposition.

Though his assertion may be accurate that there has yet to be an American black Jesus movie, I think there should be a passing nod to the film version of Marc Connelly’s 1930 dramatic success, The Green Pastures . A black Jesus may not have been on screen, but his father, “de Lawd,” and the rest of the angelic panoply were much in evidence.