McCormick’s Brad Braxton examines contemporary black preachers in 3rd annual Proctor Lecture

06-08-2010

By Geoff Ashmun

The ACTS Doctor of Ministry in Preaching Program, administered jointly by McCormick Theological Seminary and six other member institutions of the Association of Chicago Theological Schools, welcomes the Reverend Dr. Brad Braxton to the podium for the 3rd Annual Samuel DeWitt Proctor Lecture, at 7 p.m., June 29, in Augustana Chapel at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. The Distinguished Visiting Scholar at McCormick for the 2010-2011 academic year, Braxton will lecture on “Dope Dealers or Pulpit Preachers: A Closer Look at Contemporary Black Preachers.” This event is free and open to the public.

Prior to coming to McCormick, Braxton served in both academic and parish settings. Most recently, he was Senior Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City in 2008 and from 1995 to 2000 was Senior Pastor of Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore, Maryland. During the last several years, he served as Jessie Ball duPont Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Biblical Studies at Wake Forest University Divinity School, and then joined Vanderbilt University Divinity School’s faculty as Associate Professor of Homiletics and New Testament.
He has been invited to lecture at Yale University, Duke University, Princeton University, Morehouse College, and large denominational gatherings. In 2009, Braxton was McCormick’s commencement speaker and was also invited for three consecutive years to be the African American Church Leadership lecturer for McCormick’s Center for African American Ministry and Black Church Studies.

Much of Braxton’s published work has focused on the Pauline Epistles and includes Preaching Paul (Abingdon Press, 2004), No Longer Slaves: Galatians and African American Experience (The Liturgical Press, 2002), and The Tyranny of Resolution: I Corinthians 7:17-24 (Society of Biblical Literature, 2000). He is also a member of a team of scholars that developed the African American Lectionary, the first, online, ecumenical African American preaching and worship lectionary, which is being funded by the Lilly Endowment.

For more information on McCormick’s faculty, visit mccormick.edu/instructors. Details on the ACTS Doctor of Ministry in Preaching Program are available at actsdminpreaching.org or by calling Program Coordinator Marcy Miller at 773.947.6270.