The Lived Theology and Race Workgroup

Purpose

This workgroup asked the general question how theological commitments and convictions shape the understanding of race and interracialism, especially in communities engaged in the practices of racial healing and reconciliation. The ever-enlarging bibliography on religion and race includes virtually no material on the theological sources of racial healing and reconciliation. In the case of intentionally interracial Christian communities, of which there has been a dramatic increase in the past two decades, a host of questions follow.

The members of the Workgroup on Lived Theology and Race represent a theological and cultural cross-section of American Christianity and bring to the collaborative work considerable personal and pastoral experience in areas of race relations and racial reconciliation.

Participants

• Victor Anderson - Associate Professor of Christian Ethics (Vanderbilt University); Ph.D. Religious Ethics (Princeton University)
  
• Ellen Armour - Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies (Rhodes College); Ph.D. Religion (Vanderbilt University)
  
• Michael Cartwright - Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion and Director of Lantz Center for Christian Vocations (University of Indianapolis); Ph.D. (Duke University)
  
• Susan Glisson - Assistant Professor in Southern Studies and Director of the Institute on Racial Reconciliation (University of Mississippi); Ph.D. American Studies (College of William and Mary)
  
• Barbara Holmes - Associate Professor of Ethics and African American Religious Studies (Memphis Theological Seminary). Ph.D. Religion and Ethics (Vanderbilt University).
  
• Luis Pedraja - Professor of Theology and Academic Dean (Memphis Theological Seminary); Ph.D. Philosophical Theology, (University of Virginia)
  
• Stephen G. Ray Jr. - Assistant Professor of Theology and Philosophy (Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary). Ph.D. Theology and African-American Studies (Yale University).
  
• Chris Rice - M.Div. Candidate (Duke Divinity School); B.A. (Middlebury College and Belhaven College).
  
• Timothy Tseng - Associate Professor of American Religious History (American Baptist Seminary of the West); Ph.D. (Union Theological Seminary, NY)
  

Consultants

• J. Kameron Carter, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Duke Divinity School and recent Ph.D. graduate of the University of Virginia, dissertation title: Race: A Theological Account.
  
• Grace Elizabeth Hale, Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia and the author of Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation, 1890-1940.
  
• Dr. Herbert Lester, Pastor, Centenary United Methodist Church, Memphis, TN
  
• Rev. Blanca Simpson, Pastor, Casa de Oración Church, Memphis, TN
  
• Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, Pastor, Liberation Community Church, Memphis, TN
  
• Dolphus Weary, Director, Mission Mississippi, a church-based racial reconciliation organization in Jackson, MS
  
• John M. Perkins, President, Voice of Calvary Ministries, Jackson, MS
  
• Rev. Don Ng, Senior Pastor, First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco, CA
  
• Rev. Dorsey Blake, Pastor, Church of All Nations, San Francisco, CA
  
• Russell Jeung, Professor of Sociology at Foothill College, member of New Hope Covenant Church and resident of Oak Park Apartments, Oakland, CA
• Barbara Williams Skinner, President, Skinner Leadership Institute, Washington, DC

Meeting Highlights

1. First Meeting
   Charlottesville, VA – December 1-3, 2000
2. Second Meeting
   Memphis, TN and Oxford, MS – February 23-25, 2001
3. Third Meeting
   San Francisco, CA – August 3-5, 2001
4. Fourth Meeting
   Charlottesville, VA – October 26-28, 2001