Hurricanes Roar Poetry: Willie James Jennings course
Celebrating Black Poetry in Western Spirituality
The great Barbadian poet Edward Kamau Brathwaite famously described the difference between the music of Caribbean poetry and the pedestrian rhythms of Standard English through a reference to the power of island weather: ‘the hurricane does not roar in pentameters’. This series of online events organised with the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture listens to the sound of the hurricane in contemporary culture by shining a light on the integral role that Black poetic voices have played in the development of western, particularly Anglo-American spirituality.
The third and final speaker in this series is The Reverend Dr. Willie James Jennings, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale University Divinity School. He will reflect on his theological and poetic work and on the art that has inspired him through a mixture of readings, interview and Question +Answer session.
Dr. Jennings is a systematic theologian teaching in the areas of theology, black church and Africana studies, as well as post-colonial and race theory.
His books include:
The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race published by Yale University Press. It is one of the most important books in theology written in the last 25 years and is now a standard text read in colleges, seminaries, and universities.
After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, which is the inaugural book in the much anticipated book series, Theological Education between the Times,
Dr. Jennings currently is working on a book on the doctrine of creation, tentatively entitled Reframing the World.
© Photo of Dr Jennings by Mara Lavitt
Other dates in the series:
23 Oct: Emilie Townes
30 Oct: Beth Dodd and Jarel Robinson-Brown
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