Brad R. Braxton

Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics

Education

Ph.D., Emory University, 1999; M.Phil., University of Oxford, 1993; B.A., University of Virginia, 1991

Teaching Specialties

Preaching; New Testament studies (especially the Pauline letters); cultural hermeneutics; postcolonial studies; African American Christianity; preaching’s role in pastoral care and social justice.

Research Interests

Preaching from the Pauline letters; cultural readings of the Pauline letters; the Bible’s role in social transformation; African American preaching and worship; progressive Christianity; interfaith collaboration.

Selected Publications

:: “Every Time I Feel the Spirit: African American Christology for a Pluralistic World.” Radical Christian Voices and Practice: Essays in Honor of Christopher Rowland, ed. Zoe Bennett and David Gowler (Oxford University Press, 2012).
:: “Preaching, Politics, and Paul in Contemporary African-American Christianity.” The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible, ed. Michael Lieb, Emma Mason, Jonathan Roberts, and Christopher Rowland (Oxford University Press, 2011).
:: “Sanctification and Proclamation: Walking with God.” A Spiritual Life: Perspectives from Poets, Prophets, and Preachers, ed. Allan Hugh Cole, Jr. (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011).
:: “What Happened to Sacred Eloquence? (Celebrating the Ministry of Gardner C. Taylor)” [co-authored with Martha Simmons]. Our Sufficiency Is of God: Essays on Preaching in Honor of Gardner C. Taylor, ed. Timothy George, James Earl Massey, and Robert Smith, Jr. (Mercer University Press, 2010).
:: “Paul and Racial Reconciliation: A Postcolonial Approach to 2 Corinthians 3:12-18.” Scripture and Traditions: Essays on Early Judaism and Christianity in Honor of Carl R. Holladay, ed. Gail O’Day and Patrick Gray (Leiden, 2008).
:: Preaching Paul (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2004).
:: No Longer Slaves: Galatians and African American Experience (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2002).
:: The Tyranny of Resolution: I Corinthians 7:17-24 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000).

Professional Distinctions

Ordained Baptist Minister; Rhodes Scholar; first African American to come to SMU with an endowed faculty chair; preached at Westminster Abbey in London, England in 2007 as part of the bicentennial commemoration of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade; delivered the distinguished Bray Lectures on religion and social justice in Ghana and England in 2006/2007; inaugural team member of The African American Lectionary, the first online, preaching and teaching lectionary for African American churches (www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org).

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