Black Church and African Diaspora Studies Specialization

This specialization prepares students to lead within black church traditions. Students will study how to integrate classical and practical theological disciplines from the vantage point of black church traditions. This specialization also equips students with a greater understanding of the diverse experiences and heritages of peoples of African descent. Students will increase their appreciation of the work of justice and understanding across differences, and the contributions of heritages stemming from Africa to the church.

Requirements

An integrative project or paper (normally completed in conjunction with the final course for the specialization) is required. No specialization-specific field education is required. This specialization requires the completion of CH-630: Introduction to Black Church and African Diaspora Studies plus three pertinent courses from the list below, selected in consultation with a specialization coordinator and your faculty advisor.

• CE-645: Feminist and Womanist Ethics
• CE-710A: Great Ethicists: Martin Luther King Jr.
• CH-634: African-American Religious History
• CH-636: American Christianity in Black and White
• CH-644 Race, Religion and Nation: From Black Power to Black Lives Matter
• ED-525: Christian Education in the Urban Church
• HB-781: Gender, Race, and Ecology in the Hebrew Bible
• HB/NT/HM-735: The Bible and Preaching in the African-American Traditions
• LS/CE-735: Women & the Ethics of Leadership
• PC-660: African-American Pastoral Care
• PT-540: Doing Our Own Work
• PT/CH-755: Howard Thurman
• SR-652: Christian-Muslim Relations
• WO-575: African-American Christian Worship

Coordinators

Valerie Bridgeman and Tejai Beulah