Session 6
Transforming Power:
Biblical Strategies to Move out of White Supremacy and into Shalom Community
America in Crisis
Rev. Dr. Angela Cowser joins us as our lecturer for the last session. Angela is the Associate Dean for Black Church Studies and Doctor of Ministry programs at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Angela is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the PCUSA, and a retired community organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation.
Session Video Lecture
Suggested Resources
Please give attention to the suggested material:
Historical Background of the Black Manifesto
For Further Reading:
Website: Industrial Areas Foundation
Robert Linthecum, Transforming Power: Biblical Strategies for Making a Difference in Your Community
Essay: Robert Linthecum, “What is Power, and How Can It Be Used for the Common Good?”
Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, 40th Anniversary edition
Podcast: Walter Brueggemann interview with Krista Tippet, On Being
Video List: More Brueggemann Lectures and Sermons
Music: Golden Gospel Singers, Oh Freedom!
Case Study: Redlining Louisville: Racial Capitalism and Real Estate
Dr. Laura Levens
Assistant Professor of Christian Mission
Dr. Levens oversees course development and teaching for the department of Christian Mission. She teaches a Foundations of Christian Mission Course, exploring biblical, theological, and historical aspects of mission practice. She also teaches several mission elective courses based on student interest in topics like Social Justice, Global Christianity, Women’s Experience, Leadership and Wisdom, and Biblical Interpretation.
Her scholarly interests include Christian missions history, women in Christian history, biblical interpretation, justice and transformation, and theology and practice of mission. She is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Missiology, the Conference on Faith and History, American Baptist Historical Society, and the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion.
Dr. Levens is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and is ordained through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. She has served in various Kentucky, Texas, and North Carolina congregations and para-church ministries as associate minister, youth work, camp and retreat staff, preacher, teacher, and advocate for the rural homeless. She currently serves as the volunteer Children’s Sunday school coordinator for Central Baptist Church in Lexington, KY.
Dr. Lewis Brogdon
Research Professor of Black Church Studies and Preaching
Dr. Lewis Brogdon has served in numerous positions in undergraduate and graduate institutions as a professor – Assistant Professor of New Testament and Black Church Studies at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary and Religion and Biblical Studies at Claflin University, and an Associate Professor of Christian Studies at Bluefield College. He also served those institutions as an administrator – the founding director of Louisville Presbyterian Seminary’s Black Church Studies Program, Provost at Simmons College of Kentucky and Dean of Institutional Effectiveness and Research at Bluefield College. Brogdon is the author of several books including A Companion to Philemon (Cascade 2018), The Spirituality of Black Preaching (Seymour Press 2016) and others.
Dr. Brogdon is also a popular preacher, lecturer, and panelist. He has lectured at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, the Interdenominational Theological Center, the University of Chicago Divinity School, Claflin University, and Radford University on nihilism in black America. He was the keynote speaker at a city wide Martin Luther King dinner in Dayton OH, and received an invitation to the White House in 2014. Brogdon is an ordained minister of twenty six years and has pastored churches in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.
flourish courses
Flourish courses offer great learning opportunities around key topics designed to help equip church leaders for vibrant ministry. These short-term courses are offered online and are affordable.
upcoming courses
Additional Flourish Courses are coming! Please return to see the new courses as we develop them.