Duke University’s Office of Black Church Studies announced a $5 million gift from the Duke Endowment on Oct. 3 to recruit and support a senior faculty member in the university’s Divinity School.
According to the Duke Chronicle, the gift establishes the Joseph B. Bethea Professorship. It will support the faculty members the university hires as they do research and theological fieldwork.
According to the press release, Edgardo Colon-Emeric, the Dean of Duke Divinity School, believes the gift will allow the school to continue to lead in Black theological studies.
“The Black church knows social justice; it knows music; it knows preaching,” Colon-Emeric said.
“This award from The Duke Endowment will allow the Office of Black Church Studies to elevate its nationally prominent role as a leader in the study of Black church theological and spiritual study.”Duke University’s President Vincent E. Price echoed Colon-Emeric’s sentiments in his statement.
“The Office of Black Church studies has played a significant role in Duke’s proud history of nurturing spiritual leaders,” Price said. “This award from The Duke Endowment is an affirmation of the importance of scholarship and other academic engagement related to the Black church and will further solidify Duke Divinity School’s leadership in the field of Black church studies.”
According to Quentin Dixie, the associate research professor of the history of Christianity in the United States, the move benefits the university’s students.
“Whenever Duke has an opportunity to attract someone at a senior level who has established themselves, I think it has a tremendous impact on the student population because now it’s another person of a high caliber to whom the students are exposed,” Dixie told the Duke Chronicle. “Having someone of note also helps attract top graduate students who come to work with these individuals.”
Indeed, students like Justice Hill, a third-year master in divinity student, and Madison Daniel III, a fourth-year student in the dual master of divinity and master of public policy programs, echoed the comments from faculty and administration.
“Black theology is something that should be studied and should be celebrated,” Hill told the outlet. “…And this grant, I think, is just kind of a growing seed from that momentum that we had coming out of the 50th-year celebration of the Office of Black Church Studies.”
Hill added that the program offers remarkable flexibility for its students, making sure they “essentially get the best of both worlds” because “[students] are molded as pastors and preachers, but … also formed as scholars and theologians.”
Daniel III, meanwhile, emphasized his happiness that Duke was looking to invest in the Black church.
“Duke Endowment sees the need to reimagine and invest in a revamping and recommitment to the Black church,” Daniel III noted.
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