Establishing an Endowed Chair in Honor of Dr. Frank Thomas
Establishing the Frank A. & Joyce S. Thomas Endowed Chair in African American Preaching & Sacred Rhetoric Rev. Dr.…
PhD
The Mission of the PhD Program
The PhD program in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric aims to develop scholars with a critical awareness of the history of African American preaching and other forms of sacred rhetoric in the United States. PhD candidates study the theologies informing this history and practice, as well as the signature skills involved in the practice of African American preaching and sacred rhetoric. Though shaped by African American cultural values, the program works in concert with patterns of scholarship that bring African American traditions into dialogue with European American and other approaches.
Values
Core Values of the PhD Program
- Highest levels of academic rigor
- Working to the glory of God
- Scholarship to meet the needs of the community
- Innovative study in African American preaching
- Avoidance of life-altering debt
Philosophy
The Key Concept: The Practitioner-Scholar
The concept of the “practitioner-scholar” is key to the PhD program in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric. That is, this program is not geared exclusively or even primarily toward producing tenure-track, full-time professors. Rather, it is geared toward producing practitioner-scholars deeply connected to the church and also to the academy. Practitioner-scholars engage in scholarship from the perspective of their location in ministry. For them, practice often suggests issues and possibilities that deserve PhD-level research and analysis.
"For years and years African American preaching was stereotypically considered ignorance, buffoonery, and emotionalism. I believe the history, beauty, depth, power, and sheer genius of black preaching can generate a preaching renaissance to revive American Christianity in the 21st century."
- Rev. Dr. Frank A. Thomas
PhD Teaching Faculty
Indiana Christian Church Associate Professor of New Testament, Director of the Master of Divinity Program
Assistant Professor of Homiletics, Director of the PhD in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric Program
Visiting Professor, University of Memphis
Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible, Director of the Master of Theological Studies Program
Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Worship, Assistant Director of the Ph.D. in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric Program
Assistant Professor of Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Director of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program
Nettie Sweeney and Hugh Th. Miller Professor of Homiletics, Director of the Compelling Preaching Initiative
Compelling Preaching Initiative
Christian Theological Seminary’s Compelling Preaching Initiative is an 18-month certificate program for Exemplar preachers to engage in a cohort model as they learn about the theology and pedagogy of teaching and preaching while further developing their own preaching method. The certificate program includes a mentorship component in which the Exemplars will mentor and coach aspiring preachers called Apprentices.
PhD Students
2024 Graduate
2024 Graduate
2024 Graduate
2024 Graduate
Mixed Methods Preaching Conference
The annual Mixed Methods Preaching Conference helps preachers love and improve their preaching. We offer sermons, lectures, education, homiletical instruction, and preaching labs where participants are taught method by our PhD students, write and preach a sermon in front of fellow participants and instructors trained in homiletics, and then receive immediate feedback and critique. We have found the preaching and critiquing of the sermons, after instruction on the homiletical method, to be the most meaningful way to improve preaching.
Transformative Grant 2021
CTS has been selected as a Transformation Grant recipient in a new phase of funding from the Gilead COMPASS Initiative®. The $100,000 grant will support the Mixed Methods Preaching Conference, presented by the Seminary’s PhD in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric program. Planned for Spring 2022, the conference will address how densely-layered topics, such as HIV-AIDS, can be understood through preaching and scholarship integrating narrative, traditions of hospitality and community connectivity.
