The Administration and Academic Affairs offices of Union Theological Seminary are pleased to announce two new courses in the study of Black Theology that will be offered this academic year by distinguished visiting professors.
This fall, Josef Sorett will teach African American Religious History, a course that explores the complicated, contested and central organizing force of religion in the making of black life in America. Sorett, Visiting Professor of African American Religious History at Union, is an Associate Professor of Religion and African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University.
In the spring semester, The Prophetic Black Church in the 21st Century is offered and will be taught by Obery Hendricks, Visiting Professor of Bible and Ethics. This course focuses on some of the most pressing challenges facing African American churches and explores biblically-based strategies to address them. Hendricks is also a Visiting Scholar in Religion and African Studies at Columbia University.
Also joining Union this year, as a visiting professor, is Andre C. Willis. He is the Willard Prescott and Annie McClelland Smith Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University, where his work focuses on Enlightenment reflections on religion, African American religious thought, critical theory, and democratic citizenship as it relates to hope, recognition, and belonging.
In a preview of the 2020-21 academic year, the offices also announce that scholar, author, columnist and commentator Eddie S. Glaude Jr. will teach a course on James Baldwin in fall 2020. Glaude is chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University and a past president of the American Academy of Religion.