Society for the Study of Black Religion

Last updated

The Society for the Study of Black Religion is the oldest scholarly society dedicated to the study of the African-American religious experience. It is dedicated to "scholarly research and discussion about the religious experiences of Blacks." [1]

Contents

History

The SSBR was founded in 1970 to support black religious scholars' critical inquiry into the foundations of black theology. [2] The intellectual ferment which led to the group's founding began with Joseph B. Washington's publication of the seminal Black Religion in 1964, [3] and continued with the publication of James H. Cone's Black Theology and Black Power in 1969. [4]

The group chose the name "religion" rather than "theology" to avoid the constraints imposed by the narrower term. [5] Charles Shelby Rooks, who would later become the first African-American head of a traditionally white-led seminary at the Chicago Theological Seminary, took a leading role in the founding and served as the SSBR's first elected president. [6]

Presidents

Notable members

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African Methodist Episcopal Church</span> Predominantly African American Protestant denomination

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist denomination based in the United States. It adheres to Wesleyan–Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. It cooperates with other Methodist bodies through the World Methodist Council and Wesleyan Holiness Connection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Theological Seminary</span> Christian seminary in New York City

Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a private ecumenical liberal Christian seminary in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, affiliated with Columbia University. Columbia University lists UTS among its affiliate schools, alongside Barnard College and Teachers College. Since 1928, the seminary has served as Columbia's constituent faculty of theology. In 1964, UTS also established an affiliation with the neighboring Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Despite its affiliation with Columbia University, UTS is an independent institution with its own administration and Board of Trustees. UTS confers the following degrees: Master of Divinity (MDiv), Master of Divinity & Social Work dual degree (MDSW), Master of Arts in religion (MAR), Master of Arts in Social Justice (MASJ), Master of Sacred Theology (STM), Doctor of Ministry (DMin), and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Academy of Religion</span> Learned society for scholars in religious studies

The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholars in the field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association, serving as a professional and learned society for scholars involved in the academic study of religion. It has some 10,000 members worldwide, with the largest concentration being in the United States and Canada. AAR members are university and college professors, independent scholars, secondary teachers, clergy, seminarians, students, and interested lay-people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago Theological Seminary</span> Christian ecumenical seminary in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

The Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) is a Christian ecumenical American seminary located in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of several seminaries historically affiliated with the United Church of Christ. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Chicago, originally established in 1855 under the direction of the abolitionist Stephen Peet and the Congregational Church by charter of the Illinois legislature.

Womanist theology is a methodological approach to theology which centers the experience and perspectives of Black women, particularly African-American women. The first generation of womanist theologians and ethicists began writing in the mid to late 1980s, and the field has since expanded significantly. The term has its roots in Alice Walker's writings on womanism. "Womanist theology" was first used in an article in 1987 by Delores S. Williams. Within Christian theological discourse, Womanist theology emerged as a corrective to early feminist theology written by white feminists that did not address the impact of race on women's lives, or take into account the realities faced by Black women within the United States. Similarly, womanist theologians highlighted the ways in which Black theology, written predominantly by male theologians, failed to consider the perspectives and insights of Black women. Scholars who espouse womanist theology are not monolithic nor do they adopt each aspect of Walker's definition. Rather, these scholars often find kinship in their anti-sexist, antiracist and anti-classist commitments to feminist and liberation theologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James H. Cone</span> American theologian (1938–2018)

James Hal Cone was an American Methodist minister and theologian. He is best known for his advocacy of black theology and black liberation theology. His 1969 book Black Theology and Black Power provided a new way to comprehensively define the distinctiveness of theology in the black church. His message was that Black Power, defined as black people asserting the humanity that white supremacy denied, was the gospel in America. Jesus came to liberate the oppressed, advocating the same thing as Black Power. He argued that white American churches preached a gospel based on white supremacy, antithetical to the gospel of Jesus.

Black theology, or black liberation theology, refers to a theological perspective which originated among African-American seminarians and scholars, and in some black churches in the United States and later in other parts of the world. It contextualizes Christianity in an attempt to help those of African descent overcome oppression. It especially focuses on the injustices committed against African Americans and black South Africans during American segregation and apartheid, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black church</span> Christian congregations in the U.S. that minister predominantly to African Americans

The Black church is the faith and body of Christian denominations and congregations in the United States that predominantly minister to, and are also led by African Americans, as well as these churches' collective traditions and members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris Jastrow Jr.</span>

Morris Jastrow Jr. was a Polish-born American orientalist and librarian associated with the University of Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interdenominational Theological Center</span> Theological school in Atlanta, Georgia, US

The Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) is a consortium of five predominantly African-American denominational Christian seminaries in Atlanta, Georgia, operating together as a professional graduate school of theology. It is the largest free-standing African-American theological school in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School</span> American Baptist seminary in New York

Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School is a Baptist seminary in Rochester, New York. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA.

Gayraud Stephen Wilmore Jr. was an American writer, historian, ethicist, educator, and theologian, known for his role in the Civil Rights Movement and his scholarship related to the history of the African-American church and the history of African-American religious experience, as well as his contributions to black theology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katie Cannon</span> American theologian (1950–2018)

Katie Geneva Cannon was an American Christian theologian and ethicist associated with womanist theology and black theology. In 1974 she became the first African-American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (USA).

Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas is an American author and educator. She is associate professor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt Divinity School and the Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Floyd-Thomas is a Womanist Christian social ethicist whose research interests include Womanist thought, Black Church Studies, liberation theology and ethics, critical race theory, critical pedagogy and postcolonial studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacquelyn Grant</span> American theologian (born 1948)

Jacquelyn Grant is an American theologian, a Methodist minister. Alongside Katie Cannon, Delores S. Williams, and Kelly Brown Douglas, Grant is considered one of the four founders of womanist theology. Womanist theology addresses theology from the viewpoint of Black women, reflecting on both their perspectives and experience in regards to faith and moral standards. Grant is currently the Callaway Professor of Systematic Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.

This is a bibliography of works on Black theology.

Emilie Maureen Townes is an American Christian social ethicist and theologian. She was Dean, E. Rhodes, and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Townes was the first African-American woman to be elected president of the American Academy of Religion in 2008. She also served as the president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion from 2012–2016.

The Society of Christian Ethics (SCE) is a non-denominational academic society that promote scholarly work in Christian ethics and the relation of Christian ethics to other ethics traditions. Its members are faculty and students at universities, colleges, and theological schools primarily in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Deotis Roberts</span> American pioneer of black theology (1927–2022)

James Deotis Roberts was an American theologian, and a pioneering figure in the black theology movement.

Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé, formerly known as Elias Farajajé-Jones, was a queer theologian, AIDS activist, scholar, spiritual leader, academic and professor. In 2023 a festschrift entitled Dr. Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé: A Legacy of Afrocentric, Decolonial, In-the-Life Theology and Bisexual Intersexional Philosophical Thought and Practice was published, edited by H. Sharif Williams.

References

  1. "SSBR". Society for the Study of Black Religion. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  2. Paris, Peter J. (1991). "Overcoming Alienation in Theological Education". In Barbara G. Wheeler & Edward Farley (ed.). Shifting Boundaries. p. 183. ISBN   9780664251727.
  3. Rooks, Charles Shelby (1990). Revolution in Zion: Reshaping African American Ministry, 1960-1974 : a Biography in the First Person. Pilgrim Press. p. 134.
  4. Long, Charles H. (2003). "Assessment and New Departures for a Study of Black Religion". In Cornel West; Eddie S. Glaude (eds.). African American Religious Thought: An Anthology. p. 223.
  5. Paris, Peter J. (2014). "The African in African American Theology". The Oxford Handbook of African American Theology. p. 438. ISBN   9780199755653.
  6. Young, Henry J. (1979). Major Black Religious Leaders Since 1940. Vol. 2. p. 107.
  7. Encyclopedia of African American Religions. p. 409.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Society for the Study of Black Religion: 42nd Annual Meeting" (PDF).
  9. "Bio: Emilie M. Townes". Vanderbilt University. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  10. "Dr. Stephen G. Ray, Jr. Named President-Elect of the Society for the Study of Black Religion". Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.