BUIES CREEK, North Carolina – The Rev. Dr. Willie J. Jennings will deliver the Campbell University Divinity School’s Reavis Lecture Sept. 29 in Butler Chapel.
An associate professor of theology and black church studies at Duke University Divinity School, Jennings will deliver the lecture over two sessions — the first beginning at 10:40 a.m. and the second at 1:45 p.m. The second session will be followed by a period of questions and answers.
A Grand Rapids, Michigan, native, Jennings received a bachelor’s in religion and theological studies from Calvin College, a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Duke.
Today at Duke, he is a systematic theologian who teaches in the areas of theology, black church and cultural studies, and post-colonial and race theory. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including “The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins Race,” which won the 2011 American Academy of Religion Award for best book in constructive-reflective studies. He is also the recipient of the 2014 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his groundbreaking work on race and Christianity.
In addition to his scholarly work, he is a consultant for the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion and for the Association of Theological Schools.
An ordained minister, he serves alongside his wife, the Rev. Joanne L. Browne Jennings, as associate minister at the Mount Level Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina. He and his wife have two daughters: Njeri and Safiya.
L.B. and Mabel Reavis established the L.B. and Mabel Reavis Professorship and Scholarship Program at Campbell Divinity in 1991 to promote ministries of evangelism and church growth. Funding for the program is used to invite distinguished scholars to Campbell to teach and lecture in the field of evangelism and church growth.