Happy New Year to you all! The AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library is pleased to announce the availability of additional audio material from The Society for the Study of Black Religion collection. This organization was founded in 1970 with the goal of promoting the scholarly teaching of the African American religious experience, and we are happy to make these recordings available as a part of the Spreading the Word project!

In these newly released materials, listeners will hear Dr. Cain H. Felder (noted Professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Biblical Criticism at Howard University Divinity School), deliver a lecture on the Bible and its use in the African American church, highlighting the role of the Negro spirituals. Professor James S. Tinney, (Journalism Professor at Howard University and a leading authority on the Black press and Black Pentecostalism, and founder of Faith Temple Church), is recorded delivering a lecture on ecumenism, and inclusivity within the Black church.  Dr. Lawrence E. Carter, Dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College is also a part of these new recordings. He is recorded delivering a lecture on the cross and non-violence at the Interdenominational Theological Center- another collection including audio  and photographs, which is another part of the Spreading the World Project!

Several other notable scholars can also be heard, including Charles Shelby Rooks (the Society’s first president), Lawrence Jones (former Dean of Howard Divinity School), C. Eric Lincoln (Black Church scholar, author, and poet), Noel Erskine (Black theology and ethics author and Professor), Boykin Sanders, Cornel West, Charles Long and James Cone. These scholars discuss a myriad of theological issues related to the spiritual and social life of the African American church and community. We are again pleased to have the collection as a part of the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library’s Spreading the Word project. We hope you will visit the collection soon!