Engaging The City: Urban Theology After #Ferguson

R3 editor, Dr. Andre E. Johnson, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Religion and African American Studies at Memphis Theological Seminary will offer a one week intensive immersion class for the January term titled, Engaging the City: Urban Theology After Ferguson: The Ferguson Fiasco. Dr. Johnson will offer the class on the campus of Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, January 12-16, 2015.

Classes in urban theology explore and focus on the current dynamics found in urban society that call and challenge the church to re-examine ways of ministry. In addition, it allows students to examine their own theological positions as they specifically relate to urban situations of poverty, addiction, racism, sexism, violence, unemployment, environmental toxicity, prison, and inadequate education. The course description and required texts for the class are below. For more information, please email Dr. Johnson at ajohnson@memphisseminary.edu

Course Description:
This reading and practical application course will explore and focus on the current dynamics found in urban society that call and challenge the church to re-examine ways of ministry. Drawing from their particular ministry location and realizing that any authentic theology

must be contextual, I further expect students to examine their own theological positions through the contextual lens of what I call the Ferguson Fiasco. In this class, among other things, we will examine how an urban theology would speak to the events and happenings in Ferguson. In addition, we will also examine how people construct the sacred in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death. Classes will consist of class lectures and fieldwork in Ferguson, Missouri.

Required Texts:

Cone, James. The Cross and Lynching Tree. Orbis Books, 2011

Harvey, Jennifer. Dear White Christians (Prophetic Christianity), Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014

Peters, Ronald. Urban Ministry: An Introduction. Abingdon Press. 2007